hundreds of victims of Vegas shooting suing Live Nation & MGM Resorts

Hundreds of victims of the deadly mass shooting at Las Vegas music festival Route 91 Harvest Music Fest are suing the festival’s promoter, Live Nation, as well as MGM Resorts, who own the festival’s venue and the Mandalay Bay resort that the shooter fired his shots from. Billboard reports:

[Houston-based lawyer Chad] Pinkerton said the intent was to get the cases before a jury less likely to be influenced by the size and clout of a casino company that is both an active political contributor in Nevada and the largest employer in the state.

“Los Angeles is a better venue for fairness for our clients,” Pinkerton said in a telephone interview ahead of a news conference announcing the filing of two wrongful death lawsuits, a third case stemming from a woman’s head wound and a fourth on behalf of 450 people claiming injuries in the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

“There would be certain advantages for MGM to defend its case in Nevada,” Pinkerton said, adding that a jury in MGM Resorts’ hometown might include people with direct or indirect ties to the company and its more than 70,000 employees.

The company has said through representatives it won’t litigate shooting lawsuits in the media. In statements, it has blamed the massacre on the gunman, Stephen Paddock.

Defendants in the new lawsuits also include Live Nation Entertainment, the concert promoter. In a statement, the Beverly Hills, California-based company expressed sorrow for “countless people forever impacted by this senseless act of violence” and said it was cooperating with an active FBI investigation. It declined to comment about the lawsuits.

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