Wes Skiles' Widow Looking For 25 Million from Lamartek

[Rhone Man]

No matter which side loses, the lawyers always seem to win.

Most common advice I give to clients: Don't sue. You'll lose more than you gain, and you'll end up hating me.

 

[DiveGearExpress]

How long until this appeal gets a verdict?

Diving fatality of Mr Wesley Skiles occurred July 21st, 2010.
Complaint filed against Dive Rite, et. al. (including us) in July 2012.
Mark Derrick, Dive Gear Express released with prejudice in June 2013.
Unanimous verdict in favor of defendant returned by jury trial in May 2016.
Process of appeals of verdict by plaintiff completed March 1st, 2018.

 

[Patoux01]

I do hope it's the lawyers that have to pay that money...

 

[mderrick]

My personal out of pocket was about $20,000, plus my defense was a full time job for 11 months. Plus attorney fees and expenses were about $70,000 at a minimum, covered by my insurance. (We agreed to waive any rights to recover those costs as part of our dismissal from the case.) Plus the extreme disruption at Dive Gear Express that had measurable negative impact on every one of our employees for a year, so much so that their jobs were in placed in jeopardy. Plus the ongoing negative publicity and inaccuracy that we occasionally still have to address even today because the internet has a very long memory.

If the total costs for all the various defendants could be quantified, it would have to be many millions of dollars and man years of effort. I can't find anyone other than some attorneys and their firms who received any benefit, but the damage to the legacy of Mr Wesley Skiles was perhaps the highest cost and yet the most needless.

 

[The Chairman]

Plus the ongoing negative publicity and inaccuracy that we occasionally still have to address even today because the internet is forever.

Don't blame the internet. It's the peeps spreading gossip by the caves and on the boats that stay away from the truth on the Internet. When someone posts crap here, they get corrected PDQ. When they tell their dive buddy it's accepted as truth and keeps on going.

 

[boulderjohn]

I do hope it's the lawyers that have to pay that money...

I wish I knew how that worked. It sure seemed to me, as I am sure it seemed to almost everyone else, that this was not a winnable case. Many years ago my family were considering filing a suit, and we talked to two different lawyers who told us that as badly as we had gotten screwed (and we had gotten screwed), the circumstances made winning highly unlikely. They would not take the case, and we dropped the matter. That was good advice that the widow Skiles could have used here.

 

[mderrick]

Don't blame the internet. It's the peeps spreading gossip by the caves and on the boats that stay away from the truth on the Internet. When someone posts crap here, they get corrected PDQ. When they tell their dive buddy it's accepted as truth and keeps on going.

That's true, but don't take this personally. I'm referring to the internet in general.... Google Search turns up hostile blogs, court documents, inaccurate news articles, that all have no follow up context. How many people would bother to read through all 17 pages of this discussion?

 

[The Chairman]

How many people would bother to read through all 17 pages of this discussion?

Most that don't have the time will jump to the last page. It's why it's so important for people who do know the inside scoop to share it HERE ASAP. You can't during the proceedings, but you can once it's over. You can also feed info to a friend or ally for them to post here before the proceedings are done.

 

[kelemvor]

Good news from a court of law? I'm writing the date down right now.

 

[Dr Simon Mitchell]

I do hope it's the lawyers that have to pay that money...

Perhaps also an expert witness who fed the case with nonsense.

Simon M