A federal judge in Florida sanctioned an attorney known for filing hundreds of food and beverage labeling lawsuits this week. The judge stated that the lawyer “engaged in a concerted effort to defraud this court and likely many, many others.”
U.S. District Judge Gregory Presnell ruled on Wednesday that Spencer Sheehan must pay a still-to-be-determined amount to cover attorney fees and costs incurred by retailer Big Lots. Sheehan and his client had accused Big Lots of selling coffee with a misleading label.
Previously, other judges had threatened Sheehan with sanctions for filing frivolous, non-viable, or bad-faith lawsuits against companies such as Walmart and Starbucks. Sheehan, based in Great Neck, New York, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. He has defended his lawsuits as reasonable and stated in a court filing last year that he had never been formally sanctioned.
In a separate court filing last year, Sheehan disclosed that he had filed more than 500 lawsuits between January 2020 and April 2023. In September, Sheehan and his co-counsel, William Wright of West Palm Beach, Florida, sued Big Lots, alleging that the retailer’s dark coffee tins did not contain 210 servings of coffee as suggested on the label, but only 152 servings.
Big Lots denied the claims, calling them frivolous, noting that Sheehan had filed an almost-identical lawsuit against the retailer in New York federal court in 2021, which was thrown out. Presnell dismissed the Florida case in March and stated on Wednesday that Sheehan “flagrantly disregarded” the court’s rules by actively participating in the case without seeking permission as an out-of-state lawyer.
The judge mentioned that Sheehan had been ordered in 24 other cases in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida to seek permission to appear, but he complied in only two of them. “Sheehan has undeniably acted in bad faith throughout this case — in addition to perpetrating a fraud on this court,” Presnell said.
Presnell also ordered Wright to show cause as to why he shouldn’t face sanctions for being “knowingly and willingly complicit in this abuse.” Wright did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Spokespersons and attorneys for Big Lots did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
