It is so sad to read that Virginia Tech is paying out $11 million following the terrorist attack. The college did nothing wrong and yet here came relatives of those who were shot, looking for financial handouts. Their shakedown attorneys knew that they could get fat settlements. Such cases seldom go to trial because of the expense and the possibility that they might get a confused judge or an addled jury.
State and Federal legislators across the nation have let us down by allowing unjust shakedown lawsuits. Killers can be drunk, on drugs and suicidal and yet cities, counties, states, schools and other entities are subject to shakedown predators.
Jerry Hurley
Redding, Calif.
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You should know. You're from the most litigation liberal state in the Union, and leading in confused judges and addled juries. (see, for example, Judge Ito and the OJ jury). Did you even read the settlement terms? Your letter is dismissed as a typical lawyer-hating, knee-jerk reaction. I don't know what happened to you in the past to create that attitude, but I can bet that whatever it was, it happened because you didn't have a good lawyer.
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I certainly agree with Jerry Hurley. How much money does the average family get when a loved one is killed somewhere inthe United States? Yet when 9/11 happens or 4/16 folks get hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars. If terrorists step up their efforts I challenge you to find ways to pay for this sort of thing. This country is already broke, and outsiders will be being it out from under us from now on. So lets put common sense aside and continue to "ban" guns on campus, take away all personal responsibility for safety, then when something bad happens we will rely on the gov to help financially when a family member is killed. Yes, this a great direction in which we are moving as a society.
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oops....."outsiders will be buying it out from under us"...
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That settlement was peanuts compared to this taxpayer ripoff (cost more than that per hour): http://www.nationalpriorities.org/costofwar_home
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Sad as it may be, Virginia Tech wouldn't have settled if they/their attorneys didn't believe that the victims had a case should it go to court.
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Karen, you are 100% correct.
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