Sigma Nu chapter at Alabama sued over knife injuries..

[Tom Earp]

Most of the problem today is everyone is sue happy!

Sue everyone and let it fall where it may fall.

If a few haze in a Chapter, then it concerns every member even though those who may have not known anything!

[Kevin]

Tom, I don't think so. The lawyers are going to go anywhere they plausibly think they have a shot where it comes to getting money for their clients. The clients are going to do what the lawyers advise (generally). If the lawyer doesn't sue someone without getting permission not to sue from the client, or at least limiting the scope of their services, that lawyer might be liable to the client in malpractice.

To say everyone is "sue happy" is simply an uninformed position to take in this case.

[PsychTau2]

I've only read the article in the Chattanooga newspaper, but in there it said that the victim originally filed the lawsuit against the Fraternity in Alabama, "But the Federal Court there dismissed the fraternity on grounds that both it and Mr. Wilder were Tennessee residents. " (quoted from the newspaper).

Sigma Nu Fraternity isn't a resident of Tennessee. They are HQ in Lexington, VA. So if the Fraternity got dismissed from the lawsuit because they weren't "residents" of Alabama, then wouldn't they get dismissed from the lawsuit in Tennessee for the same reason?

PsychTau

[Kevin]

Diversity can be tricky. I'm really not sure what the basis for dismissal on diversity was. I found where the case was brought in the Northern District of Alabama Federal Court. I could research the issue, but there are some far better civ pro experts than I on this board.

[UGAalum94]

Kevin,

I feel different than you do about Medicaid. As a program I see it as kind of like Social Security for retirement. You pay in and you are entitled to take out, but it's still not a good idea to set yourself up to be dependent only on it if you have other options. And many of us have a chance to purchase insurance that would provide a different and I think better level of care if it turns out we need it.

I don't look down on people who have to use it as their only source of health care and income; I just don't think most of us want to be among them.

I understand the difference between liability insurance and disability insurance, but because individuals can't usually get liability insurance to pay ourselves when we get hurt doing stupid things we elected to do, at least as far as I know; medical insurance and disability insurance combined are probably the next best thing.

And it might be worthwhile for groups to try to offer it. (Although the more I think about it, the more I'm not sure an exclusively college guy pool is probably that a good risk group.) Here's why:

I think sometimes people ARE capable of recognizing if they can take care of themselves, that some bad things happen, and no one is particularly at fault or should pay.

Think about car wrecks. How many people do you know who after having a wreck for which they were partially responsible would insist on suing the other driver if their own insurance company paid for their expenses related to the wreck (and their own insurance company didn't insist on suing to recover some damages)? Sure there'd be some jackasses that would want to sue just to see what they could get, but there's still a number of people who don't operate that way; they think, "my hospital bill is paid and my car is fixed. It's over."

And although I'm not that optimistic about human nature generally, I think the number of people who would try to sue the party with deep pockets who really has very little/no true liability for the bad outcome in other cases might go down if fewer people didn't actually need the money to continue life with a better standard of living than Medicare can provide.*

As I said before, I don't think the family in this case can really expect to collect from the fraternity, nor do I really think they should be able to if things are in fact as the fraternity claims. (I'm interested to know how much not having the required security guards matters if part of the problem was a lack of security. Would the victim even have interacted with the attacker had there been paid security guards? Does violating a university rule actual make them somehow legally liable?)

It's a shame that this guy might be out of luck with the quality of care he receives, but I don't think it makes Sigma Nu obligated to pay for it.

I was thinking more about the former member status too. If he wants to sue the group like this, can he do it as a member of the group? Could he have resigned membership because of the suit?

*I'm not sure about this, but isn't this some of the logic of requiring kids to have health insurance to play school sports? Even though we can make your mom sign waivers of liability to play, we also know that she's going to be less likely to sue if someone else is going to pay to have your broken leg fixed?

[UGAalum94]

Sorry for the double post especially after the length of that one.

Here's the thing: I don't know if the family would being suing Sigma Nu if the victim had died.

They might be the kind of folks who'd be so deranged by grief that they go back over every aspect of what happened looking for things that could have gone differently and trying to punish people for them.

On the other hand, they might recognize that their son was stabbed by a particular person in a fight when he tried of his own free will to get that person to leave a party. I think in that case, they would have pushed the criminal prosecution of the attacker and left it at that.

But because the son instead survived with brain damage and they know he will need care for the rest of his life, they have a much bigger reason to think suing the group is what they need to do.

[Kevin]

Like I said, it's probably the lawyer's advice they're acting on as far as suing the fraternity. Most PI lawyers are in it for the quick settlement with the deepest pockets so that the can collect their contingency fee and get out. In this case, it appears that the fraternity's insurance company is not going to settle the case.

The current status of the case is that the plaintiff sued in Federal Court in the Northern District of Alabama. The suit was dismissed for lack of diversity. The claim is now pending in Tennessee state court.

As for insurance and fraternities, like I said, if the guy had disability insurance, in all likelihood, if the disability insurance company thought they had a meritorious claim, they'd sue the fraternity anyhow.

As far as your beliefs on Medicaid, it's a subject we could discuss in the news an politics forum. As I've explained, had this kid been covered by disability insurance, there's a strong likelihood that the disability insurer would be bringing suit anyhow.

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by Kevin

Like I said, it's probably the lawyer's advice they're acting on as far as suing the fraternity. Most PI lawyers are in it for the quick settlement with the deepest pockets so that the can collect their contingency fee and get out. In this case, it appears that the fraternity's insurance company is not going to settle the case.

The current status of the case is that the plaintiff sued in Federal Court in the Northern District of Alabama. The suit was dismissed for lack of diversity. The claim is now pending in Tennessee state court.

As for insurance and fraternities, like I said, if the guy had disability insurance, in all likelihood, if the disability insurance company thought they had a meritorious claim, they'd sue the fraternity anyhow.

As far as your beliefs on Medicaid, it's a subject we could discuss in the news an politics forum. As I've explained, had this kid been covered by disability insurance, there's a strong likelihood that the disability insurer would be bringing suit anyhow.

I think that insurance companies are less likely to file weak cases than PI attorneys are, but maybe I'm wrong. And although I don't really have any more to say about it, if the point I'm trying to make is that offering disability insurance would decrease risk, this seems like as good a place as any. You're actually the one who brought up Medicaid.