Replies

Keep in mind that Edwards kept over 30% of this settlement. Here is case he mentioned in the debate.

The Accident

Here are the basic facts: On June 24, 1993, Valerie Lakey was playing in a wading pool at the Medfield Area Recreation Club in Wake County, NC (a few miles down the road from where I live in Raleigh). The drain cover on the only suction outlet in the pool had been removed sometime previously, probably by other children earlier that day. When Valerie approached the uncovered outlet, the suction was strong enough to pull her down and suck 80% of her small intestine and 50-70% of her large intestine out through her anus. Four adults could not free her until the pool's pumps had been turned off. It sounds like some kind of urban legend but it's not. It's happened multiple times, actually.

Valerie survived, but has to spend 12 -14 hours (often 7pm to 7am) being fed by a tube in her chest dripping nutrients into her body. The expensive procedure will probably be required for the rest of her life, among other medical treatment. Her parents sued the club, the county, the maker of the pool's circulation pump and Sta-Rite, the manufacturer of the missing drain cover, with the help of John Edwards and his partner David Kirby. The first three defendants settled before trial for a total of $5.9 million. Sta-Rite, a subsidiary of the Wisconsin Energy Corporation, offered $100,000. The Lakeys declined and the case went to a jury. Here's how the Washington Monthly described what happened next:

...[Edwards] discovered that 12 other children had suffered similar injuries from Sta-Rite drains. The company raised its offer to $1.25 million. Two weeks into the trial, they upped the figure to $8.5 million. Edwards declined the offer and asked for their insurance policy limit of $22.5 million. The day before the trial resumed from Christmas break, Sta-Rite countered with $17.5 million. Again, Edwards said no...the jury found Sta-Rite guilty and liable for $25 million in economic damages (by state law, punitive damages could have tripled that amount). The company immediately settled for $25 million, the largest verdict in state history.

The Lakeys accepted the settlement in January 1997, giving up the potentially massive punitive damages the jury could have awarded in exchange for Sta-Rite's waiving of appeals that could have gone on for years. The jury award thus wouldn't have been affected by punitive damage caps, even as the settlement broke records and made Edwards a fortune - an interesting twist to the trial lawyer discussion. Most of the judgment was paid by Zurich, Sta-Rite's insurance company, but not before Zurich's failure to honor Edwards' request for the $22.5 million policy limit resulted in Sta-rite filing its own lawsuit.