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The lawyer said there was "proof" that the national fraternity knew that the chapter was serving alcohol to minors as far back as years before.. my question is, how does he prove that?
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TexasPrincess, there are lots of ways of proving that, but the classic way would be a "smoking gun" internal memo. Let's say that in summer 2000, the regional SPE chairman for Mississippi wrote an e-mail to the nationals VP and mentioned that he enjoyed a beer with a great group of guys that year and MSU summer rush is going great. The e-mail would be produced during the discovery phase of litigation, and it proves beyond a doubt that people at nationals knew what was going on.
FYI for the non-lawyers: Mississippi has become almost a running joke among litigators because it is known for having the most plaintiff-friendly jurors in the world. If you want to slip and fall, do it in Mississippi. Juries there will hand over millions like they're passing out candy at Halloween. If this case were being litigated in New York, I'd laugh and say the corporate death penalty is just a bargaining chip that would never, ever be used. (It's designed for much worse situations, like where a company's whole board of directors agreed to start dumping cyanide into a city's water supply.) But in Mississippi? I can't laugh at that. Maybe they're actually serious.
Ivy, J.D.