A Houston attorney has filed more than 1,500 cases on behalf of victims of the Astroworld Festival tragedy, bringing the total number of plaintiffs in relation to the 10 deaths and 300 injuries at the event to nearly 2,800.
Brent Coon of Brent Coon & Associates announced the filings on Monday, with a $10 billion dollar demand for resolution for all of the 1,547 festival attendees his firm represents. He filed the request with the Harris County District Court, and has previously worked for plaintiffs of the BP Texas City explosion in 2007 as well as the TPC refinery explosion and ITC terminal fires.
While Coon did not say who the lawsuits are filed against, many suits in relation to the event have been brought against Travis Scott, Live Nation, Drake, NRG Energy, the Harris County Sports Authority, and Scott’s companies Jack Enterprises and Cactus Jack.
“In addition to litigating high profile mass tragedies all over the county the last 35 years, I also have run a concert promotion company for over 20 years and am very familiar with how you are supposed to plan these events,” Coon said in a release. “What happened at Astroworld was an unconscionable tragedy and it is important that justice is served for all those impacted. I believe our firm is best suited to help lead this case, not only because of the number of victims who have selected our firm to represent them in this action, but due the fact that we possess the extensive legal experience as demonstrated by our lead counsel work on many plant explosions, product recalls and other mass tort actions.”
Coon’s firm is also requesting that moves be made on a legislative level, including crowd-control certifications for future events, event preparation training, and criminal liability being held. Dr. G. Keith Still, a crowd surge expert, will serve as part of the legal team and provide advice to public officials to prevent further tragedies.
“Anyone involved can at least temporarily stop an event when safety becomes a serious issue,” Coon said. “The fact that not a single company or individual involved in this incident EVER made an effort to do so here, when it was readily apparent things were out of hand, is shameful. Trying to publicly dodge culpability is irresponsible and inconsistent with what really goes on behind the scenes in these events.”
In November, Texas attorney Thomas J. Henry filed a $2 billion lawsuit against Scott, Apple Music, Live Nation, NRG Stadium, and Drake on behalf of 282 clients. Now, Coon says he reps “more [people] than any other firm involved,” a statement that may be important to note as previous lawsuits were consolidated into a single case and as leadership for the large case is narrowed down, perBillboard.
Earlier this week, it was revealed that Scott requested one of the claims against him, Jack Enterprises, and Cactus Jack be dismissed.
