That didn’t take long. It looks like the Region’s Ken Allen is first out of the gate with a Fairground lawsuit.
This does not give me confidence that I was wrong when I offered predictions about how this was going to shake out.
“This was a terrible tragedy that could and should have been prevented,” Valparaiso attorney Kenneth J. Allen said in a news release. “The responsible parties must be held to account.”
Translation: Your Client Is Evil. Pay Me.
Pretty sure that Sugarland was at fault. I’d sue them.
I can understand the sentiment. However, these are people who lost loved ones, many of them breadwinners in the family. Why should their loved ones forego that lifetime income that they’re entitled to receive in the case of wrongful death?
Let’s say the man dies and it’s a stay at home mom who now has no income to suppor their children. So we’re supposed to say “too bad” and give her no remedy whatsoever? Make not only her but her children struggle financially because of what happened.
If there is no negligence, there is no negligence. But the notion that people should ignore negligence and just suck it up, well that’s not at all fair.
Paul, it’s the rhetoric that bugs me more than the lawsuit itself. The truth is that responsible parties who are poor will not be held to account, and their culpability will be steadfastly ignored by plaintiffs’ counsel.
The only inflammatory rhetoric above is in your paraphrase, Doug. I don’t see it in the statement at all. I can’t believe I’m defending Ken Allen, but:
“This was a terrible tragedy…” Obviously everyone believes that.
“…that could and should have been prevented.” Well, isn’t that inherent in the filing of a negligence lawsuit?
“The responsible parties must be held to account.” Again, that strikes me as a fairly benign description of our tort system.
I don’t doubt that we will see some over-the-top rhetoric before this is over, but I am not seeing it in this article. Also, it seems worth noting that one of the reasons for filing early is to seek an injunction preserving the scene, which strikes me as a pretty smart move and a reasonable justification for filing suit so early.
I don’t dabble in personal injury litigation, Doug, but it does strike me that although plaintiffs’ counsel may ignore the role of non-parties in this tragedy, defense counsel will not.