[Kevin]

Originally Posted by AlphaGamUGAAlum

Several of the articles say he was a member, but you'd know more than I since its your group.

I haven't done anything to check on this kid's membership status and I don't imagine I will. As a "former member," I imagine that either the newspaper writer didn't understand the fact that an alumnus is a current member.. even a dead person is a current member, so if the newspaper got the kid's status right, he's either a pledge who didn't make it or someone who was booted for disciplinary reasons.

The family has to have the money for a trust to set one up. Maybe they do; I don't know.

Me neither. I hope their PI lawyer is doing double duty setting up a guardianship or whatever needs to be done. I seriously have to question their lawyer's competence since he first brought suit in federal court based on diversity without complete diversity of the parties... that's 1st semester civil procedure.

But I know I'd sure want my family better taken care of than by what Medicaid would cover, and I think it's silly to think that for most college graduates that Medicaid/social security is going to come close to paying you what you are used to living on.

So would I.. it's just that people who aren't legally at fault ought not be accountable for this. Sometimes bad things happen to good people.

If you are fully disabled, by the very definition, you can't work anymore. The medical bills are only part of the financial problem.

Not if you're a ward of the state. I imagine the victim here is going to be fully disabled. I know disabled children of families with SERIOUS money who are living off of Medicaid/state benefits because those kids themselves are fully disabled.

It also surprised me based on your previous posts that you support relying on the state rather than accepting personal responsibility for buying disability insurance as the way to go.

You haven't read my previous posts then. The state, in my opinion, has a duty to provide for those who are physically or mentally unable to provide for themselves. That makes pretty good sense.. In effect, the Medicaid tax taken out of our paychecks is disability insurance.

ETA: my suggestion about the GLO offering disability insurance was not so they could profit from it simply by selling it. But if all members of the group had it, there'd be a whole lot less reason to sue the group if you were injured at a group event. And again, some stories are saying he was a member.

Of course there'd be. Disability insurance is not liability insurance. In fact, if a person were covered by such insurance, the insurance company would probably bring suit against the fraternity if there were any hope of getting some money for the fraternity's liability.

All the stories note that they are suing for punitive damages as well.

Maybe against the attacker. Against the fraternity? That's a laugh. I don't know much about Alabama law, but when liability is itself in question, any basis for punitive damages is going to probably be pretty specious. Most states have statutes which limit the heck out of liability damages -- especially in the south. It's very early in this suit. Based on what I've read so far, the part of the suit pertaining to the fraternity ought to be tossed out. As I've said before, if that was not the case, there'd probably already be a settlement.