On the 20 March 1997, the Wall Street Journal was ordered by a federal jury to pay $222.7million (£139million) to a Houston brokerage firm who claimed an article the paper ran in October 1993 contained false information and helped put it out of business.

In May 1997 Judge Ewing Werlein threw out the $200 million punitive damage award against the Wall Street Journal but, in Nov 1997, he let stand the $22.7 million award in compensatory damages.