Remington Arms’ insurer is seeking an out of court settlement from nine of the affected families.
Two insurance companies for the Remington Arms firearm company currently undergoing bankruptcy have offered nine families affected by the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings millions of dollars to settle their lawsuit.
The families have reached a critical time in the suit in which they will need to make important decisions.
“The plaintiffs, the Sandy Hook families, have to make a decision now and that is whether to accept the offer and drop the case against Remington or to keep the case going,” said William Dunlap, a law professor from Quinnipiac University. Dunlap was referring to the $33 million settlement the insurance companies have made to the families. This represents the first time a settlement offer has been made to the families since they first filed their lawsuit against Remington Arms seven years ago.
“And their incentive to keep the case going is actually quite strong because they have been saying from the very beginning that the primary purpose of this lawsuit was to get information from Remington about the way they and by implication other gun manufacturers market their guns,” added Dunlap in a recent NBC Connecticut report.
The insurance companies are now awaiting the families’ decision regarding the settlement offer.
The families’ attorney, Josh Koskoff, declined the opportunity to speak on camera, but released a press statement on behalf of his clients.
“Since this case was filed in 2014, the families’ focus has been on preventing the next Sandy Hook. An important part of that goal has been showing banks and insurers that companies that sell assault weapons to civilians are fraught with financial risk,” read part of the statement.
The families were permitted the pursuit of the lawsuit in 2017, when the Connecticut Supreme Court decided that they could proceed with the case against the marketing techniques used by Remington Arms to sell the AR-15 style firearm the shooter used at the school. The firearms company had argued that the 2005 Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act gave it immunity from the suit.
If the families accept the settlement from the insurance companies, their attorneys will no longer be permitted to seek information regarding the way the firearms were marketed.
