Three weeks after 10 people died and hundreds of others were injured at the Astroworld Festival tragedy, the number of lawsuits, plaintiffs and named defendants continues to mount. The Houston Chronicle reports the claims for damages now top $3 billion and the lawyer headcount exceeds six dozen, including some of the most prominent law firms in Texas.
Meanwhile, the attorneys representing the victims have told their clients to reject the offer by rapper Travis Scott, whose legal name is Jacques Bermon Webster II, to pay for funeral costs and medical expenses.
Lawyers also say they are eager to learn just how much Scott, the concert promoter Live Nation, the operators of the NRG Stadium property and other named defendants have in insurance coverage. Some lawyers, though, worry that recent lawsuits seeking incredibly high damage awards — up to $2 billion — could drive some corporate defendants into bankruptcy, which would mean significantly less money for victims.
The newest attorneys to the litigation are prominent Houston trial lawyer Richard Mithoff, who filed a complaint late Wednesday on behalf of a 14-year-old who died at the concert, and the high-powered Houston law firm Susman Godfrey, which was hired this week by Live Nation to represent the concert promoter in the 150 or so lawsuits pending against it.
“Susman Godfrey is one of the best trial law firms in the U.S., with incredibly smart and talented lawyers,” said Chad Pinkerton, a Houston lawyer who represents about 75 victims in the Astroworld cases. “For Live Nation to hire the Susman firm shows that the company knows it is in deep trouble and is preparing for a bet-the-company litigation fight.”
Susman Godfrey has about 120 lawyers who specialize in high-stakes, bet-the-company litigation. Its law partners represent large corporate clients such as CenterPoint Energy and Walmart and charge hourly rates of $1,300 or more — though the firm is usually paid through alternative fee arrangements contingent on success.
ASM Global, which manages NRG Stadium for the Harris County Sports and Convention Corp., has hired Norton Rose Fulbright as its defense counsel in the Astroworld litigation.
While Live Nation and Scott have received nearly all the attention, the 150 lawsuits name another 15 businesses and individuals as defendants, including Texas-based concert promoters, public relations firms that worked on the Astroworld Festival, and companies hired to provide private security and first aid. The most recent lawsuits have included Apple, which streamed the concert around the world.
“The defenses that these companies will employ are very predictable,” Mithoff said Thursday. “They will claim that the tragedy was not foreseeable, that they hired experts to tell them the number of people who should be allowed to attend and the number of security guards who should be hired and none of those experts gave them a warning that this could happen.”
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