Judge OKs step toward payments for Las Vegas shooting victims
A judge on Friday signed off on a step toward paying victims of the Route 91 Harvest festival massacre.
The move came about four months after MGM Resorts International and lawyers representing thousands of victims of the Oct. 1, 2017, mass shooting on the Las Vegas Strip reached a settlement of between $735 million and $800 million.
In signing court documents on Friday, Chief District Judge Linda Bell designated retired Clark County District Judge Jennifer Togliatti and retired California judge Louis Meisinger to oversee the allocation of the settlement money.
Robert Eglet, lead counsel for the law firm Eglet Adams of Las Vegas, which represents nearly 2,500 of the 4,400 plaintiffs involved in the litigation, has said shooting victims likely won’t receive any funds until the end of 2020.
Most of the money for the settlement is expected to come from MGM’s $751 million in insurance coverage.
Victims sought compensation for a range of physical and psychological injuries after a shooter rained gunfire from a Mandalay Bay suite into an open-air concert crowd, killing 58 people and injuring more than 800.
MGM pointed to Las Vegas police findings that the gunman, Stephen Paddock, acted alone and spent several days amassing an arsenal of assault-style weapons and ammunition in a two-room suite at the high-rise resort.
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