- Two retired judges have been given the gut-wrenching task of divvying up a roughly $800 million settlement among thousands of people who were injured or lost loved ones in the 2017 Las Vegas massacre, USA Today reported Friday.
- Last month, MGM Resorts International, which owned the Mandalay Bay hotel where the shooting occurred, agreed to pay a settlement of up to $800 million to compensate victims and their families.
- But now, the dilemma boils down to how the judges will assign a dollar value to each person's injuries or trauma. One attorney said they'll likely create a "sliding scale" weighing in favor of people with the most severe injuries.
- Though $800 million seems like an enormous settlement, some 4,500 people joined the lawsuit against MGM and some will need far more money than others.
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Just over two years ago, the deadliest mass shooting in US history left 58 people dead after a gunman sprayed bullets into a music festival crowd as he stood on the 32nd floor of a Las Vegas hotel.
Beyond the astonishing death toll, those 10 minutes of gunfire left thousands more injured, traumatized, or grieving their loved ones. Last month, MGM Resorts International, which owns the Mandalay Bay hotel where the shooting occurred, agreed to pay a settlement of up to $800 million to compensate those people.
USA Today reported Friday that two retired judges have now been given the gut-wrenching task of determining how much to grant each victim — in essence, assigning a value to each person's injuries and trauma.
The former judges — one from Las Vegas and one from California — both work in mediation and were chosen by the victims' attorneys, according to USA Today.
Though $800 million seems like an enormous settlement, some 4,500 people joined the lawsuit against MGM, and some will need far more money than others to cover extensive medical bills or compensate the family of someone who was killed.
The judges will most likely solve that dilemma by assigning some type of measurement system that assigns the highest values to people with the most severe, debilitating injuries, one of the attorneys representing the victims told USA Today.
"[I]t's a sliding scale, people with more significant injuries, people who were shot or trampled, people who spent time in a hospital or maybe have ongoing care at home now," Craig Eiland told USA Today. "Once these broad categories are set, my responsibility is to make sure we have all the information possible so the judges can make a financial judgment on each case based on things such as lost wages, medical bills, and summaries of care."
With roughly 4,500 people vying for a limited pool of money, it's unlikely that most will walk away satisfied. But another attorney representing other victims told the newspaper that the important thing was that MGM "stepped up" and settled, allowing victims to begin recovering.
"Some people will wish they got more, we always wish we were getting more," Robert Eglet, a Las Vegas attorney, told USA Today.
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