I have a legal question for those legally-educated.
Dolan is a personal-injury attorney. He's the guy with the biggest ad on the back page of the phone book. Usually, these guys are pretty penny-ante. They thrive on out-of-court settlements with insurance companies for fairly modest amounts for all sorts of injuries claimed and perceived by the plaintiff. It's a stupid game and everyone knows what goes on.
This case seems to be way out of his league. He may be in it for the massive publicity, which will guarantee a very nice living in the future with many more of the penny-ante personal injury lawsuits. He is also likely in it to further fund lobbying for reversal of the $250K malpractice cap.
Various legal sources have been mentioned here that seem to think his Violation of Privacy / Religous Rights etc will not prevail.
1. I believe that suit was already filed and was at least part of what went on with the Federal Court magistrate on Jan 3. Am I correct in this?
2. As this would seem to be premature to me, as the death certificate has not been filed, nor has any investigation revealed the exact method and means of death. - can he file amendements to that suit already recorded?
3. He said he would not pursue malpractice (because it's "chump change" according to Uncle), so I assume he will go for wrongful death-type suit. My guess is that if he does this, there will be a "settlement of undisclosed terms" and that the family will receive far, far less than the $30 million floated out there.
4. In a settlement, the money is awarded to plaintiffs. I assume that would be the mother, and possibly grandmother, and/ or father. Do the plaintiffs need to be specifically identified, or can a "family" be the plaintiff. I'm wondering how much legal standing Uncle Omari even has in this. Any info?
Just my :twocents: as a layperson, fwiw, since I'm not sure any of the lawyers are following or commenting on this thread:
1. I think what was filed in Federal Court was another Petition for TRO. If you have access to that pleading, you can easily tell by reading the title of the document. If its just says Complaint, then it's a complaint. A petition for a TRO would be called that, or similar, and it would seek emergency relief and would be worded that way. The Federal Court case, as I understand it, has nothing to do with the malpractice aspect. It's strictly about the constitutional issues -- such as they are. I know Dolan said he felt that the hearing today might go forward on those issues still. But I think I read the hearing was cancelled.
2. imo, the death certificate isn't necessary to the constitutional issues suit since the question is who gets to decide to stop the vent and, presumably, whether the statute saying she's dead due to brain death is constitutional.
3. I didn't hear him say he wouldn't pursue the medmal case, I just heard that he wouldn't personally handle it. That doesn't mean he won't refer it out and get a part of the recovery, imo. You can file a med mal suit and convert it to a wrongful death suit once the person dies (to his satisfaction in this case). That said, the family has a while to file such a suit and they will likely negotiate in the meantime. If they can settle w/o a lawsuit, they will, imo, since the med mal suit (unlike the Fed Ct. case) won't be setting any precedent.
4. The family cannot generically be the plaintiff. Each party is named individually, even if they are represented by a guardian (her sibs, for example). Afaik, the uncle has no direct interest in the recovery. That should only be immediate family members. I've personally never seen a non-immediate family member claim loss of consortium damages. To be honest, though, I couldn't swear it's not possible w/o asking someone who knows better or looking it up. If I have a chance to do that today, I will.
all jmo