UPDATE: I wrote this but then it disappeared and I just recovered it. AS I predicted, they have settled out of court for an undisclosed amount.
Original blog post:
The Erin Andrews trial in Nashville just concluded and a jury determined her damages were $55,000,000. All because a pervert secretly recorded her in the nude. Now I am not saying she shouldn't get anything, but let us put this into perspective. In January of this year, 10 family members of sailors killed in a hurricane aboard the El Faro cargo ship settled with the owners of the ship for $500,000 each. This is the ship that last year lost power in the path of a hurricane after departing from Jacksonville, FL and sank as a result of a direct hit by the hurricane, killing all aboard.
So, in my humble opinion, I think those 10 sailer's lives were worth much more than a celebrity being embarrassed by naked videos of themselves. Now I didn't watch this trial and there may be a whole lot more to the story than I know.
What a lot of people don't know is about half of that judgment was against the broke guy who did the video. I doubt very seriously that guy has much of a pot to pee in let alone any money that will ever be recovered. That leaves the good folks at Marriott Hotels to come up with the money to pay the remainder of the verdict. What will happen?
Let me tell you what will happen. Their attorneys are going to file a motion for remitter, which is a request of the court to reduce the judgment based on it being excessive. I would not be surprised one bit that the motion is granted and the judgment is substantially reduced. Then there are the appeals the defense will file that will drag it on even longer. Can you say agreed settlement at some point?
So before you get your hopes up that you are going to get some huge verdict on your case, ground yourself. Tennessee juries tend to be cheap.