Fox News ran an article recently, quoting a person who’d received the largest lawsuit payout ever. The amount, it was calculated, was more than nine billion dollars. The person who’d won the case, former commercial diver Nick Vuijcic, was quoted as saying that he’d been “blown away” by how much money Yahoo had paid out for his accident. He’d expected about one or two billion, he said, but the actual figure was much higher.
The reason for the huge payout wasn’t immediately clear, although it seems to have had some bearing on the figures. The case involved one individual who’d been responsible for the death of a young boy, Calvin Spencer, while swimming in a Florida resort. His lawyers had alleged that the boy had fallen into a deep hole and had since died. The problem with this explanation, however, was that no body was found in the hole, nor was there any sign of drowning. Another lawsuit involved foster kids who’d been abused by a member of the facility.
The crux of the story, however, was that none of these explanations could be substantiated by any evidence. It soon became clear that the biggest payout wasn’t going to be coming from the insurance company of the individual who’d caused the accident. Instead, the payout was going to come from the Florida foster care system. Simultaneously, the story continued to develop: An official had found fault on the part of one of the foster care facilities, claiming that they had improperly sent the child to a facility with a dangerous reputation.
That’s when the real story started to emerge. First, it was revealed that the attorney handling the lawsuit had actually seen the video of the incident. That video appeared to show that the child in question had fallen into the hole. However, the attorney also saw another angle of the accident, one that would have led any reasonable person to conclude that the boy had been sliding into the hole. That’s when the attorney realized that the accident wasn’t about a slip-and-fall but about negligence on the part of the Florida foster children’s home.
Next, the story continued to evolve. One of the attorneys representing the Florida foster children’s home suddenly had other clients call her in an effort to corroborate the account of what had happened. The attorney suddenly had more clients demanding monetary damages based on the injuries sustained as a result of being neglected by the Florida foster homes. Finally, a position paper was drawn up by two more attorneys, which ultimately led to the largest payout in history.
If you’re a parent whose foster child fell through the hole, you may feel as though you’ve just been awarded a case of beer after having your wages cut. Now, the financial burden will have to be shared by the child’s family, the Florida foster care homes and, possibly, even the insurance provider. You can get a case number from a local law firm, or visit their website to see if they’ve ever had an accident like this. Even if you didn’t fall through the hole, you might want to think about hiring a personal injury attorney to represent you.