Legal Commentary

Why Ward Churchill Only Got $1.00 in Damages

By Jeralyn

The Denver Post reports on why jurors only awarded Ward Churchill $1.00 in damages for his wrongful termination by the University of Colorado: One juror insisted on it, and the other five, fearful of a hung jury, went along. The others thought he should get his legal fees in addition to $110,000, a year's salary. According to one of the jurors who would have awarded Churchill money,

"She [the lone juror] was like, she couldn't even stand to give him a dollar. We saw where she was coming from. She felt that he ruined his own reputation and that when you put something out there, even though it is protected speech, there are consequences."

With the lone holdout refusing to come around and the possibility of a hung jury looming, the others eventually agreed to the notion of a symbolic award of $1.00.

Churchill still stands to make some money if the Judge doesn't give him his job back: [More...]

[Judge]Naves has the option of ordering CU to reinstate Churchill or to shell out "front pay" instead, in which case [Churchill attorney David]Lane said he'd seek "five to 10 years at $110,000 a year (Churchill's salary before he was fired) plus interest."

The Judge will order CU to pay Churchill's legal fees, which could be up to $1 million. CU will also be out its own legal fees which it says exceed $500,000.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on April 04, 2009 (boomark / email).