Director James Toback ordered to pay $1.68 BILLION to 40 women in landmark sexual assault case

Disgraced Hollywood director James Toback has been ordered to pay a staggering $1.68 billion in damages to 40 women who accused him of sexual assault and abuse, marking one of the most significant verdicts in a post-#MeToo era trial.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, a New York jury awarded $280 million in compensatory damages and an additional $1.4 billion in punitive damages to penalise Toback for what the court described as "malicious conduct." The ruling came after the director failed to appear in court or mount any legal defence, prompting a default judgment in January.
Filed in 2022 under New York’s Adult Survivors Act, the lawsuit alleged that Toback exploited his influence in the film industry and took advantage of young aspiring actresses during private meetings, under the guise of discussing film roles. According to court filings, the director would also resort to performing sexual acts on the women, including directing them to strip while assuring them that it was “part of the job.”
The lawsuit also claimed Toback used intimidation of his alleged 'mob ties' to destroy their film careers if they spoke up about the sexual assault.
The incidents reportedly spanned more than three decades, from 1979 to 2014.
Brad Beckworth, the attorney representing the plaintiffs, hailed the verdict as a milestone, saying, “This is about justice and reclaiming power from abusers.”
“The MeToo movement began with the hope that we were turning a corner. But this verdict shows us that we still have much work to do. Power continues to be abused, and far too often, it is ignored or enabled.”
Toback’s case joins a growing list of legal actions against prominent industry figures under the Adult Survivors Act, including Sean “Diddy” Combs, Bill Cosby, and Jimmy Iovine.
Toback, who also earned an Oscar nomination for co-writing Bugsy (1991), was one of the earliest high-profile names to be accused during the #MeToo movement. At the time, he denied the accusations, claiming he had never met most of the women and asserting that his health conditions made the alleged actions “biologically impossible.”