Juice WRLD and the members of Yellowcard, who have accused the late rapper of copyright infringement.
Due to the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis, Yellowcard’s copyright-infringement lawsuit against the late Juice WRLD has been delayed until July.
Digital Music News obtained an exclusive copy of the corresponding court filing, which emphasized that Juice WRLD’s family must “appoint a personal representative to act on its behalf in this lawsuit.” The search for said representative is being delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the document indicated, as are all “non-emergency” legal matters in the locked-down Miami-Dade County.
Besides these local lockdown measures, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis instituted a statewide stay-at-home order last Wednesday, April 1st.
And because the “defendants do not expect this situation [coronavirus-related lockdowns] will change in the near future,” they and their legal team requested a temporary delay. Now, the defendants will issue “a further status update to the Court by no later than July 1, 2020.”
Juice WRLD passed away in the early hours of the morning on December 8th, 2019. Federal agents raided his private plane shortly after it landed in Chicago, and Juice WRLD suffered an overdose while they were conducting their search. Despite receiving on-site treatment (an injection of opioid-overdose medication Naloxone) and being rushed to a local hospital, Juice WRLD perished.
In January, Juice WRLD’s family stated that they intend to release a posthumous album on their loved one’s behalf. Juice reportedly recorded 2,000 unreleased songs, though it’s unclear how many of these works will be officially made available. Eminem’s “Godzilla” marked Juice WRLD’s first musical appearance following his passing.
During the last couple of weeks, the coronavirus crisis has also prompted the delay of Yeasayer’s Black Panther copyright infringement lawsuit against The Weeknd, as well as Cardi B’s long-running “tattoo” case.
At the time of this writing, medical professionals had diagnosed approximately 1.42 million worldwide novel coronavirus cases, nearly 400,000 of which have derived from the United States. Doctors are currently weighing the prospect of implementing widespread plasma treatments, which have helped some critically ill patients to recover.