The National Association of Realtors has plans to call nine witnesses to testify in court if an antitrust lawsuit filed by the U.S. Justice Department proceeds to trial, and may call upon an additional list of 14 witnesses.
A preliminary live trial witness list, produced by the National Association of Realtors in a Feb. 14 court document, includes a list of "will call" witnesses and a separate category of "may call" witnesses.
The trial is expected to begin in June or July, NAR has reported, unless the case settles before trial. Justice Department officials have charged in the lawsuit that policies approved by the National Association of Realtors placed illegal restrictions on the dissemination and sharing of online property listings.
NAR officials have argued that its policies are not anticompetitive and that the association has withdrawn some of the policies in question.
The trade group’s preliminary "will call" list of witnesses includes: Ann Bailey, co-founder of real estate consulting company Pranix; Patricia Bybee, president and CEO at Metrolist Inc., a Colorado multiple listing service; Carl DeMusz, CEO for the Northern Ohio Regional MLS; Frederick Flyer, an economics expert; and Robert "Bob" Hale, president and CEO for the Houston Association of Realtors.
Other listed "will call" witnesses include: Laurie Janik, general counsel for NAR; Mark Lesswing, NAR chief technology officer; Robert Most, vice chairman of the Metrolist MLS board of directors; and Ron Phipps, who served as chairman of NAR’s President’s Advisory Group for the Virtual Office Web sites work group and chairman of the NAR MLS Policies Committee.
And among the list of potential witnesses: Dave Liniger, co-founder of the RE/MAX international franchise network; Richard Smith, president and CEO for brokerage and franchise company Realogy; Alex Perriello, president and CEO for the Realogy Franchise Group; Point2’s marketing director Carey Tufts; Stephen H. Murray, editor for research and publishing company Real Trends; and Ralph Holmen, associate general counsel for the National Association of Realtors.
That list also includes Gar Anderson, NAR vice president of association executive and leadership development; and Steve Byrd, Chris Eigel, Harold Fogel, Clifford Niersbach, Brad Tertell and John Veneris.
The Justice Department earlier disclosed some of the potential witnesses that it planned to call as trial witnesses, including: Gary Beasley, former ZipRealty president; Russell Capper, former president and CEO of eRealty; Steve Polston, CEO for Home Buyers Marketing II, and NAR’s Janik.
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