Lawyers in Harris County, TX on Monday filed claims on behalf of over 4,900 attendees injured during the fatal crowd surge at Astroworld Festival last November. These new filings come as the judge in the class-action suit made up of nearly 400 individual cases attempts to further streamline the legal process for the unprecedented case.
According to the filing obtained by Rolling Stone, attorneys Jason Itkin, Richard Mithoff, and Sean Roberts, who are acting as the plaintiff’s liaison for this new class-action case, divided the complaints into four categories: the number of deaths, the number of injuries that required “more extensive” treatment, the number of injuries that required “less extensive” treatment, and the number of unspecified injuries where the severity is yet to be determined.
In addition to the ten deaths, the lawyers are reporting 732 injuries requiring “more extensive” treatment, 1,649 injuries requiring “less extensive” treatment, and 2,540 injuries where the level of treatment required is still to be determined. This brings together a total of 4,921 injured attendees starting the process of a new case.
Eleventh District Court Judge Kristen Hawkins has employed a similar tactic in her courtroom, where 400 individual lawsuits were combined into one massive case. In a hearing earlier this month, Judge Hawkins asked that the parties be categorized into those who were killed, those who suffered traumatic brain injury, bodily injury, or PTSD.
Dozens of law firms represent the over 400 cases brought against more than 50 defendants, among them Live Nation, rapper Travis Scott, Contemporary Services Corporation (the same security company that worked the Hollywood Bowl last week when Dave Chappelle was attacked onstage), and more. Judge Hawkins will select one law firm to head the case, with only a handful of attorneys handling litigation.
Last Tuesday marked the first of many proceedings for the behemoth of a case. Judge Hawkins previously issued a gag order for the case so it can “be tried in the courtroom and not on social media or press releases to the media.”
Rapper Travis Scott, meanwhile, recently staged his first public performance since the tragedy with a club show at a festival in Miami, FL. Back in March, he also detailed the multi-million dollar Project HEAL initiative. The multi-faceted program will combine an investment in education in his native Houston and beyond as well as funding for event safety research and more. He is also due to appear at the upcoming Billboard Music Awards on Sunday, May 15th.