{"id":84325,"date":"2018-07-20T07:31:38","date_gmt":"2018-07-20T14:31:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=84325"},"modified":"2018-07-20T09:23:37","modified_gmt":"2018-07-20T16:23:37","slug":"mgm-vegas-shooting-victim-lawsuits-leave-lawyers-incredulous","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/mgm-vegas-shooting-victim-lawsuits-leave-lawyers-incredulous\/","title":{"rendered":"MGM Las Vegas Shooting Victim Lawsuits Leave Legal Community Incredulous"},"content":{"rendered":"

MGM Resorts International\u2019s decision to file lawsuits against the victims<\/a> of last year\u2019s Las Vegas shooting is without legal precedent and could be on shaky ground, according to several attorneys quizzed by the Law.com website this week.<\/p>\n

\"MGM
MGM Resort\u2019s bid to avoid liability for the Las Vegas shooting has caused a furor on social media this week, with calls to boycott its properties, but there could be holes in its legal argument, lawyers have said. (Image: YouTube)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MGM is not seeking money from the victims but is looking to absolve itself from liability by moving litigation from local to federal courts and claiming an obscure federal terrorism law protects it against claims for damages.<\/p>\n

The casino and entertainment giant owns the Mandalay Bay — from which shooter Stephen Paddock fired indiscriminately on a crowd at a country music festival below — and the site where the country music event was held. Fifty-eight people were killed and more than 800 injured in the worst mass shooting in recent US history.<\/p>\n

The Las Vegas Review-Journal<\/em>\u00a0reported on Tuesday that MGM had sued \u201cover 1,000\u201d people who were injured or who had lost loved ones in the massacre. But according to Law.com, the actual figure is closer to 2,500, with lawsuits filed in federal courts in Nevada, California, Alaska, Arizona, Florida, Nevada, New York, Texas, and Utah.<\/p>\n

Lawyers Stunned <\/strong><\/h2>\n

Social media has been having its say<\/a> on the lawsuits, and the hashtag #boycottMGM has been trending on Twitter, but on Thursday, it was the legal community\u2019s turn to react.<\/p>\n

Law.com reports that many lawyers were \u201cstunned\u201d by the situation. \u201cThey\u2019re trying to create a federal case where there\u2019s no federal case,\u201d said one. Breaking with longstanding legal tradition, some even brought up the ethical dimension.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Dismas Locaria, a partner at Venable in Washington, D.C., noted that MGM’s defense and its citation of the Safety Act was unprecedented.<\/p>\n

As far as I know, this is the very first time the Safety Act has been tested,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s definitely gotten a lot of people\u2019s attention in my industry. We\u2019re actively watching what happens here. But it\u2019s all new ground, candidly.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Safety Act is a post 9\/11 law that offers liability protection to a company that uses anti-terrorism services or technology to \u201chelp prevent and respond to mass violence.\u201d The security firm MGM hired for the country music festival was approved by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).<\/p>\n

No Terror Designation <\/strong><\/h2>\n

But to Robert Eglet, who is representing some of the victims, MGM is abusing the spirit of the law.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe act was a response to the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001, to encourage companies to get into the business of developing anti-terrorism technology,\u201d he wrote in response to MGM\u2019s motion to dismiss his clients’ case in Nevada. \u201cIt was not designed to limit the liability of a hotel that, despite prior incidents, affirmatively assisted a gunman to shoot out of its window at people below.\u201d<\/p>\n

Locaria believes that for MGM\u2019s defense to succeed the Las Vegas shooting would have to be designated an act of terrorism by the DHS — and it hasn\u2019t been.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not certain how they\u2019re going to get over that hurdle,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m a little confused by that myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MGM Resorts International\u2019s decision to file lawsuits against the victims of last year\u2019s Las Vegas shooting is without legal precedent and could be on shaky ground, according to several attorneys quizzed by the Law.com website this week. MGM is not seeking money from the victims but is looking to absolve itself from liability by moving […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":84328,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,60,18],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMGM Vegas Shooting Victim Lawsuits Leave Lawyers Incredulous<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"MGM Resort\u2019s Las Vegas shooting lawsuits have left lawyers stunned this week. They called it unprecedented and pointed out a potentially huge flaw in its legal argument.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"MGM Vegas Shooting Victim Lawsuits Leave Lawyers Incredulous\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"MGM Resort\u2019s Las Vegas shooting lawsuits have left lawyers stunned this week. They called it unprecedented and pointed out a potentially huge flaw in its legal argument.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/mgm-vegas-shooting-victim-lawsuits-leave-lawyers-incredulous\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-07-20T14:31:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-07-20T16:23:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/mgm-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/mgm-vegas-shooting-victim-lawsuits-leave-lawyers-incredulous\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/mgm-vegas-shooting-victim-lawsuits-leave-lawyers-incredulous\/\",\"name\":\"MGM Vegas Shooting Victim Lawsuits Leave Lawyers Incredulous\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/mgm-vegas-shooting-victim-lawsuits-leave-lawyers-incredulous\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/mgm-vegas-shooting-victim-lawsuits-leave-lawyers-incredulous\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/mgm-1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-07-20T14:31:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-07-20T16:23:37+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"MGM Resort\u2019s Las Vegas shooting lawsuits have left lawyers stunned this week. 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