Should the case be settled?

[VolsRule]

UT has millions in cash to quickly settle this case and keep these chicks quiet. Just pay them a few hundred thousand each and the whole thing will go away quickly and quietly as they say in DC!!

 

[UT-Rex]

Let me ask one of the lawyers this question, say UT waits and AJ/Williams are found not guilty, then UT can offer a substantially lower settlement, and put in place guidelines to make sure a "culture" of rape is no longer available on campus, will that prevent any further lawsuits against the school?

According to the recent open mic with Kamara, Dobbs and Mabin, I'd say -- for those willing to follow the rules -- this UT program under Butch Jones has a culture of "rapport." Let's get this straight.

 

[butchna]

I keep seeing 'sexual assault' but Paulk and (Alexis)Johnson didnt commit that

In Johnson's case there were allegations of grabbing breasts and attempts of kissing.

 

[NashLawVol]

I am going to go back to lurking the site and stop posting because...well I enjoy lurking much better. Been doing it since 2009. Before I go though I want to share some things Vol fans should be looking for as this case progresses.

1. The Answer to the Amended Complaint. It will be filed within the next month and It will answer every allegation in the complaint. Some Vol fans will point to it and shout "see this proves UT is right in all this". Just remember it is one side to the story. The Plaintiffs had their say, when UT files the answer that will be their say.

2. Motion for Summary Judgment. I saw on here someone say there is no way UT can win in this. I disagree. If UT prevails through MSJ that most definitely is a win because the judge would look at all the filings and determine that there is no question of fact to send to a jury. Only a question of law and UT complied with the law. The bar is very high to have a MSJ granted so if it is granted that is a slam dunk win. In 2014 Northwestern won a Title IX matter just this way. You probably didn't hear about it though because Peyton Manning wasn't mentioned in it.

3. Settlement. This case may very well settle. In fact I expect it to. There are many reasons why a case settles. Attorney fees and budgets rarely are the reason. One or both sides may not want the scrutiny of discovery. The insurance company (if one is involved) may force it. The risk of a maximum judgment from a jury is to great. The plaintiff may just want to move on. A settlement doesn't necessarily mean the defendant is liable. I know of a case that settled with both sides splitting court costs. I doubt the defendant felt like they had lost that case.

4. Attorneys. Both sides have good attorneys. I really admire Mr. Ramsey who represents UT. Mr. Smith for the plaintiffs is a very good attorney but he has lost jury trials and is not unbeatable.

UT took a hit in the public perception no question. There will be some out there that no matter how this ends will always point to it and say it happened. That is the society we live in. This is not the first Title IX lawsuit and it won't be the last. All rival fans that are laughing at UT will have their day also.

GBO

 

[vol66]

I am going to go back to lurking the site and stop posting because...well I enjoy lurking much better. Been doing it since 2009. Before I go though I want to share some things Vol fans should be looking for as this case progresses.

1. The Answer to the Amended Complaint. It will be filed within the next month and It will answer every allegation in the complaint. Some Vol fans will point to it and shout "see this proves UT is right in all this". Just remember it is one side to the story. The Plaintiffs had their say, when UT files the answer that will be their say.

2. Motion for Summary Judgment. I saw on here someone say there is no way UT can win in this. I disagree. If UT prevails through MSJ that most definitely is a win because the judge would look at all the filings and determine that there is no question of fact to send to a jury. Only a question of law and UT complied with the law. The bar is very high to have a MSJ granted so if it is granted that is a slam dunk win. In 2014 Northwestern won a Title IX matter just this way. You probably didn't hear about it though because Peyton Manning wasn't mentioned in it.

3. Settlement. This case may very well settle. In fact I expect it to. There are many reasons why a case settles. Attorney fees and budgets rarely are the reason. One or both sides may not want the scrutiny of discovery. The insurance company (if one is involved) may force it. The risk of a maximum judgment from a jury is to great. The plaintiff may just want to move on. A settlement doesn't necessarily mean the defendant is liable. I know of a case that settled with both sides splitting court costs. I doubt the defendant felt like they had lost that case.

4. Attorneys. Both sides have good attorneys. I really admire Mr. Ramsey who represents UT. Mr. Smith for the plaintiffs is a very good attorney but he has lost jury trials and is not unbeatable.

UT took a hit in the public perception no question. There will be some out there that no matter how this ends will always point to it and say it happened. That is the society we live in.

GBO

2. Is that the one regarding the professor on campus allegedly sexual assaulting a student? That was indeed a weird one...in that one the school was found to have done everything correctly...the school won, then the professor filed his own title ix suit, don't recall what happened with that but he eventually resigned...it was a mess but not of this proportion.

Sorry if I'm thinking of the wrong case.

 

[NashLawVol]

2. Is that the one regarding the professor on campus allegedly sexual assaulting a student? That was indeed a weird one...in that one the school was found to have done everything correctly...the school won, then the professor filed his own title ix suit, don't recall what happened with that but he eventually resigned...it was a mess but not of this proportion.

Sorry if I'm thinking of the wrong case.

Yes that is the case

 

[vol66]

Yes that is the case

Thanks...I think they've had a couple of these...I've been trying to find one that resembles our situation...the only luck I've really had is the Colorado case, but that one didn't have this many plaintiffs.

 

[Daddy Gee]

I am going to go back to lurking the site and stop posting because...well I enjoy lurking much better. Been doing it since 2009. Before I go though I want to share some things Vol fans should be looking for as this case progresses.

lurk less, and post more! tia

 

[Slydell]

I don't see UT being able to settle this one. It's too far reaching. If they were thinking about settling, they would have stuck with their in house attorneys. I will be very disappointed if they do settle down the road.

 

[LargeOrange1]

Does anyone know who is financing this lawsuit for the plaintiffs? Who is paying for their legal team?

My guess the case was taking on a contingency basis by some sleazeball attorneys hoping to score a big quick payday....and attorneys wonder why people hate them!!

GO VOLS. GO BUTCH. :dance2::dance2::dance2:

 

[I40flyer]

Not sure that this lawsuit's alleged victims are saying that the UT football players are the only athletes involved. I think the suit is aiming more toward an entire university policy on sexual assault investigations and actions by UT administration.

CBJ took immediate action in several cases during his three years at UT...dismissed Paulk for striking his girlfriend even though she didn't want to press charges; suspended AJ Johnson and Michael Williams immediately after receiving the police report of the alleged rape; suspended Von Pearson until his sexual assault charges were dismissed; suspended Alexis Johnson until his assault and battery charges are final; dismissed Pig Howard for drugs. This in my mind is affirmative action by the head football coach. Unlike what happened at Penn State and FSU, in the Jameis Winston alleged rape investigation. As you know in the FSU case a similar Title IX lawsuit was filed by the alleged victim and the university settled out of court for a tidy sum of money.

I don' know how others feel about his, however; I am 100% against suspending CBJ from any further coaching until this situation is resolved. Just as I am 100% against CBJ suspending players based on allegations. It appears we are having it both ways. A man is innocent until proven guilty, unless he is a UT football player. We need to be more consistent-otherwise what we say is not driven by a desire for justice, but rather some kind of fan boy crap. We need to take this to court-prove once and for all time, all the claims are 100% false.

 

[chargervol]

UT is not going to "win" either way.

That's true.
But for me, we've already lost public opinion and it's costing us money either way.
So really the only question is, how much is dignity worth?

If UT knows that they followed protocol and aren't responsible for any suffering, I'm with them as far as they want to take this.

 

[508mikey]

I don' know how others feel about his, however; I am 100% against suspending CBJ from any further coaching until this situation is resolved. Just as I am 100% against CBJ suspending players based on allegations. It appears we are having it both ways. A man is innocent until proven guilty, unless he is a UT football player. We need to be more consistent-otherwise what we say is not driven by a desire for justice, but rather some kind of fan boy crap. We need to take this to court-prove once and for all time, all the claims are 100% false.

Jim Rome is that you ?

 

[ReaderVol]

That's true.
But for me, we've already lost public opinion and it's costing us money either way.
So really the only question is, how much is dignity worth?

If UT knows that they followed protocol and aren't responsible for any suffering, I'm with them as far as they want to take this.

This post here... has some wisdom in it.

 

[wildorange]

As time goes on public perception changes like the wind, the plantiffs lawyers through all these hype twisted claims out there to stir the media into a typical feeding frenzy. As things get closer and trails get underway opinions will change, many of their stories has changed and as people learn what this is really about perceptions will change. Also if Johnson and Williams cases find them innocent, their civil suit loses a good bit of punch. I am fully behind the school here, it's obvious they are doing the right things. This is about MONEY.

 

[sechamp2012]

One thing to consider is the number of plaintiffs; that makes potential awards so much more substantial.

It also tends to make these claims of money-grabbing less likely. 1 girl being immoral and bold enough to take on a major state university and its legal team by running a long con like this, complete with dates and times that can't be disproved? Okay, maybe.

3 or 4 girls with similar stories, also with the nerve to do it, and also with dates and times that align with their version of events? Getting in more rarefied air here; it only takes 1 instance of a plaintiff's story being impossible because there's a record of the accused being elsewhere when she claims the incident took place to disqualify her as a client or witness. And you can bet their legal teams' investigators are checking out every minute detail of their stories, because no attorney likes surprises.

6 to 8 girls willing to go through all this; all of them vetted and the veracity of their stories scrutinized by the lawyers and their investigators? Doesn't seem likely that they could all be hustling and have unimpeachable accounts.

Perhaps that's why there's been no settlement talk yet; the school is probably doing their own investigation to try and determine how strong each plaintiff's case is, and which, if any, can be disproved before even discussing settlements or trials.

Are you joking look how many nut jobs have came out in the Bill Cosby case when they heard money could be made. Its getting into the Wilt the stilt numbers

 

[VolsRule]

for enough money these chicks will drop the charges and keep quiet---UT needs to find that number.

 

[volfanhill]

lurk less, and post more! tia

Agreed

 

[montanatenn]

I say offer em a penny and tell em to go to hell.

 

[Iam4utalways]

I'm gonna hafta to say no.

This is an issue of how Title IX has Universities investigate rape. That's pitiful.

To settle and pay every accuser 1 million dollars and each lawyer 1 million dollars would not solve the Title IX issue.

If tape was te culture of UT football there would be many more convicted rapist than the zero today.

If they accused UT of making it hard to prove sexual assault similar to that of a criminal case then I would agree to that and not even try to deny it.

The problem with settling is that's the easy way out. Talk about sweeping the issue under the rug, pay and move on. UT owes it to the women that have been allegedly raped to take this to court so all can hear the details of what happen and learn what rape is. I think that for some of these ladies they had to be told they were raped, the ole "you don't know how bad you have it, until someone tells you".

To see this to thru a trial, the details need to be left for the trial, but opinions of any player, of coach, or part of the student body should be given freely.

Rape is no joke and if by bringing this to trial and having open discussions about what happened and who did what and who said what keeps one person from being raped then it will be worth it to that one person.

I don't know if anyone got raped or called a traitor, but to say there is a culture of rape in the football program is just silly, and to say that UT is allowing rape to occur that is preposterous.

Sorry for the ramble, two kids showed me a drawing and the third kid said it looked like me. I think it was actually a drawing of Smokey.

Hang in there Vol fans, there is no rape culture at UT.

 

[VolnJC]

A little off topic but do you ever wonder how many poor SOBs are getting billed 300 dollars per hour for LG's "research" which of course means posting polls about UT football

 

[illinoisvolfan1]

for enough money these chicks will drop the charges and keep quiet---UT needs to find that number.

Bingo. 100% agree. We are way better off getting this to just go away than fight. Everyone's first reaction is to fight back but testosterone does not win these fights. We can't afford a protracted process for the health of the program.

 

[MajorJohnny]

Bingo. 100% agree. We are way better off getting this to just go away than fight. Everyone's first reaction is to fight back but testosterone does not win these fights. We can't afford a protracted process for the health of the program.

I still think you need to disprove the Bowles comments if you can. That will be something you never get out from under without some sort of a fight back. It will be mentioned in every breath, every game, by every announcer. Gotta kill it if you can

 

[Remy]

I don't practice in that area of the law, but my suspicion is that there is an attorneys fee provision in the federal statute at issue (there usually is) that the plaintiffs' attorneys, if they prevail, are also awarded their fees and costs on top of any verdict for the plaintiffs.

I truly detest your school, everything about it, if a comet hits it during your spring game not one tear would be shed by me to give you perspective where I'm coming from in the rest of this. I do appreciate your perspective as a professional if you actually are, it's the a representing attorney would give, it is solid advice. I often have counseled people through the years to hire the best professionals you can and then take their advice. I suspect UT has insurance and at some point the professionals there will require settlement, I get it, that's what you chaps do on the regular and is standard process. However, if UT does not plan on turning this over as an insurance claim, I prefer scorched earth take no prisoners prevail in court and drag this out bankrupting the accusers and law firms devoting time to this matter. If it two decades so be it.

 

[illinoisvolfan1]

I still think you need to disprove the Bowles comments if you can. That will be something you never get out from under without some sort of a fight back. It will be mentioned in every breath, every game, by every announcer. Gotta kill it if you can

Don't disagree with you but I've been in a couple of civil suits at work (not about sexual assault) and if you don't settle it keeps going on forever and costs millions more than you think it will.