Legal News

Virginia Tech Reaches Settlement with Shooting Victims? Families

By Ashby Jones

Nearly a year after a lone gunman killed 32 people and wounded 12 others at Virginia Tech University, most families of the victims have agreed to a roughly $11 million settlement with the state. Here’s the report, from the AP.

Peter Grenier and Douglas Fierberg, lawyers for 21 families, said the settlement was worth more than $11 million, but neither they nor governor Tim Kaine would discuss its terms until final papers are drawn in a few days.

Grenier and Fierberg said seriously injured victims “will be well compensated and have their health care needs taken care of forever,” and that families who lost loved ones would be “similarly compensated and cared for.”

The settlement also would give the injured and victims’ families a chance to meet with the governor and university officials several times to discuss the mass shootings and changes on campus since then.

According to the story, family members not agreeing to the settlement have until April 16 to file suit. Suits filed against the university might not be too easy to win, for a host of reasons. Among them: that the university, a state entity, enjoys the protection of sovereign immunity.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on April 10, 2008 (boomark / email).