Unjustified: The Aurora Theater Shooting Lawsuit

The LA Times did some great reporting on the mass shooting which took place in Aurora, Colorado in a movie theater in July 2012 which was one of the deadliest mass shootings in American history. I will include the link to the piece, which details the decision on the subsequent law suit by the victims’ families and the survivors: http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-batman-shooting-lawsuit-20160822-snap-story.html

The plaintiffs, in this case that would be the victims and their families, were essentially given a low-ball settlement offer from Cinemark, the operator of the movie theater where the shooting took place. Cinemark hired a high priced legal defense attorney from New York to work this trial which took place in the state level court system in Colorado.

Most of the plaintiffs, there were 41 in total, agreed that they would give the lion’s share of the settlement to the three people who were most severely impacted. The remaining plaintiffs would then split the remaining money which was around $50,000 total to split by 38 people. They agreed to do this only because they had few options so they were willing to settle the case.

However, the three people who were most severely impacted by this tragic event would not agree to the settlement offer and they wanted to press the court for a verdict. The other plaintiffs dropped the suit, leaving the three people remaining to move forward with the process, despite their lawyers pressing for a settlement.

It is at this point that you might be asking: why would they want to take such a terrible settlement offer? It is because the court decided the next day at the hearing that the circumstances for Cinemark were unforeseen, that they had no way of knowing about the attack and therefore were not liable. The three plaintiffs remaining lost the case.

Furthermore, due to Colorado state law, the plaintiffs (the three victims) are now responsible to pay for the entire bill of the legal defense for Cinemark which costs $700,000 and that is why the plaintiffs’ lawyers wanted a settlement. It is also why the others dropped out of the suit entirely.

That is a huge flaw and a complete injustice in our legal system that those three victims should be on the hook for the legal bills for a giant corporation. One of the three victims lost someone in the attack, she herself was shot, and she was pregnant at the time and lost the baby. Her choices were take a terrible settlement or push to go to trial with the risk that they would be left holding the bag on the legal bills.

When I read the article I attached above from the LA Times it greatly upset me to the point I felt I should raise awareness of this whole topic because I know of too many situations where big corporations strong arm people in lawsuits. It also made me want to boycott Cinemark movie theaters, which is the local theater in my community. I think Cinemark should pay the $700,000, if they let the victims pay it, that would be horrible and also not a very good move from a public image standpoint.

On the other hand, this story is not garnering the national media attention I thought it would especially in the Northeast and the East Coast. This is a terrible injustice of our legal system, and those who lost so much on that tragic day should never have been put in this position. Those who opted to drop the suit spent four years of their lives fighting this battle after having their lives turned upside down, and in the end, they got nothing. I still find it just so hard to believe.

The theater company promised to implement security measures in all of their locations and to push for new security protocols for theaters across the country. It was promised to the victims and their families, and it never happened. That is also a horribly sad outcome to this matter is that even that part of the scenario, the security aspect to prevent this from happening again, went out the window.

These large corporations, insurance companies, and large financial institutions have too much influence on the legal system. It has gone to being completely out of balance where the judicial system was supposed to be fair and impartial, it seems like it is anything but that in recent years. This case is just a microcosm of a much larger issue that needs to be addressed and reformed. I cannot believe a judge would hand down a decision that would put the victims in that type of situation.

In the end analysis nothing is going to change unless we take action peacefully and diplomatically by appealing to our elected officials on both the state and federal level that this type of injustice in the legal system has to change. I know that this profoundly upset me, if it did the same for you, I hope you will share this piece with those you know. It is through strength in numbers, through unity behind this cause that we can achieve substantive change.

I will continue to pray for the victims of the Aurora shooting tragedy and continue to process how I and my other fellow Americans may help them in this hour of need after such a blatant act of injustice took place.