Fitz Suing NU Trial

[HailToPurple]

Does anyone know if a firm date has been set for the trial. Last word was that it would be this April.

Judge allows former coach Pat Fitzgerald's lawsuit against Northwestern to continue

A judge has denied Northwestern’s motion to dismiss former coach Pat Fitzgerald’s $130 million lawsuit against the school claiming he was wrongly fired in the wake of a hazing scandal.

apnews.com

Hopefully Fitz gets some justice and compensation for Schill's unfortunate knee-jerk action.

 

[its_the_sauce]

Asking seriously. Why would you WANT Fitz to get compensation? Don't get me wrong, I'm sure he'll end up with a nice payday, probably around the leftover value of his contract but why would you want him to win. Any money he takes away from NU is money we can't spend on our programs & athletes.

 

[FeralFelidae]

Asking seriously. Why would you WANT Fitz to get compensation? Don't get me wrong, I'm sure he'll end up with a nice payday, probably around the leftover value of his contract but why would you want him to win. Any money he takes away from NU is money we can't spend on our programs & athletes.

NU dishonorably broke his contract. NU should fire Schill and apologize to Fitz, then maybe he'd settle for something less.

 

[No Chores]

Asking seriously. Why would you WANT Fitz to get compensation? Don't get me wrong, I'm sure he'll end up with a nice payday, probably around the leftover value of his contract but why would you want him to win. Any money he takes away from NU is money we can't spend on our programs & athletes.

Because it's probably the right thing to do, if you believe as I do, that Fitz was wrongfully terminated. Of course, there is also the possibility that NU will win the case based on evidence that no one on this Board is aware of.

 

[No Chores]

Someone on this Board indicated that depositions were ongoing and offered to check the docket to determine who has been deposed to date. This is of considerable interest to me because I have always felt that NU's counsel would not offer up Schill for a deposition, and would settle the case prior to such a deposition. Of course, I could be wrong about this, because, like everyone else here I have no idea what the evidence consists of.

 

[HailToPurple]

Asking seriously. Why would you WANT Fitz to get compensation? Don't get me wrong, I'm sure he'll end up with a nice payday, probably around the leftover value of his contract but why would you want him to win. Any money he takes away from NU is money we can't spend on our programs & athletes.

I don't see it that way. If Fitz wins and is awarded the whole amount he is asking for it would represent only 2.5% of the school's annual budget. I'm confident that they could find that amount of money laying around somewhere and don't see why it would have to impact any specific programs or athletics. I would bet that there is a slush fund somewhere just for this type of contingency.

 

[corbi296]

Asking seriously. Why would you WANT Fitz to get compensation? Don't get me wrong, I'm sure he'll end up with a nice payday, probably around the leftover value of his contract but why would you want him to win. Any money he takes away from NU is money we can't spend on our programs & athletes.

Because NU was wrong to fire him. Schill caved and railroaded Fitz. Regardless of my allegiance to NU, wrong is wrong.

 

[corbi296]

I don't see it that way. If Fitz wins and is awarded the whole amount he is asking for it would represent only 2.5% of the school's annual budget. I'm confident that they could find that amount of money laying around somewhere and don't see why it would have to impact any specific programs or athletics. I would bet that there is a slush fund somewhere just for this type of contingency.

Probably most of the settlement/payout will be covered by Insurance.

 

[Ilvolino]

Someone on this Board indicated that depositions were ongoing and offered to check the docket to determine who has been deposed to date. This is of considerable interest to me because I have always felt that NU's counsel would not offer up Schill for a deposition, and would settle the case prior to such a deposition. Of course, I could be wrong about this, because, like everyone else here I have no idea what the evidence consists of.

Depositions will include players who made allegations about the hazing and Fitz himself. Should be very interesting

 

[JournCat]

Probably most of the settlement/payout will be covered by Insurance.

I've tuned out of the talk of a trial date for this reason. No way does insurance let this go to open court. You always settle.

 

[No Chores]

Depositions will include players who made allegations about the hazing and Fitz himself. Should be very interesting

How do you know what depositions have been taken and/or scheduled? This could be determined by a Chicago area lawyer simply by checking the docket at the courthouse where the cases are pending. One of the lawyers on this Board previously posted that depositions are ongoing, and volunteered to check the docket in that regard. So far he has not done so, or at least he has not posted anything in that regard. I have always felt that NU will settle this case rather than producing Schill for a deposition, but, like everybody else, I have no idea what the evidence will reveal.

 

[techtim72]

How is Schill keeping his job with the Fitz and antisemitism messes? I know zero about the latter but last time I checked, maybe a quarter of the people I went to school were Jewish and that was over 50 years ago. Just in terms of the "Why do we need this hassle, particularly when this guy practically just got here and a whole lot of big money alumni are pissed off at him." - how is he surviving? Honest question.

 

[No Chores]

I've tuned out of the talk of a trial date for this reason. No way does insurance let this go to open court. You always settle.

The problem here is that we don't know what the applicable insurance consists of, and, likewise, don't know what the evidence will likely establish. I can assure you, however, that cases like this one don't always settle, having tried numerous high exposure cases in my career on behalf of insurance companies and their insureds. Of course I've settled a number of them as well. Whether or not any case settles depends on the strength of the defense case as well as the potential dollar amount of the exposure.

 

[No Chores]

How is Schill keeping his job with the Fitz and antisemitism messes? I know zero about the latter but last time I checked, maybe a quarter of the people I went to school were Jewish and that was over 50 years ago. Just in terms of the "Why do we need this hassle, particularly when this guy practically just got here and a whole lot of big money alumni are pissed off at him." - how is he surviving? Honest question.

I wonder about this as well. Also interesting is the fact that NU operates a campus in Qatar, from which country NU receives hundreds of millions of dollars annually. Qatar, of course is a well known safe haven for the top leadership of Hamas. This relationship was established well before Schill's tenure as President

 

[hdhntr1]

Asking seriously. Why would you WANT Fitz to get compensation? Don't get me wrong, I'm sure he'll end up with a nice payday, probably around the leftover value of his contract but why would you want him to win. Any money he takes away from NU is money we can't spend on our programs & athletes.

Because he was done wrong. No due process. And we have to stand for something. If they wanted to get rid of him for performance they could but they would have had to pay him. But what they did was vindictive and they worked hard to destroy him on the way out. At bare minimum it was wrong how they did it and if they are not forced to pay for that, what are we supporting?

 

[FeralFelidae]

I've tuned out of the talk of a trial date for this reason. No way does insurance let this go to open court. You always settle.

If Fitz doesn't need the money but wants a trial to clear his name?

 

[TheC]

How is Schill keeping his job with the Fitz and antisemitism messes? I know zero about the latter but last time I checked, maybe a quarter of the people I went to school were Jewish and that was over 50 years ago. Just in terms of the "Why do we need this hassle, particularly when this guy practically just got here and a whole lot of big money alumni are pissed off at him." - how is he surviving? Honest question.

I don't know what specifically happened at NU, but generally speaking, protesting the military actions of the Israeli government is not antisemitism.

 

[No Chores]

I don't know what specifically happened at NU, but generally speaking, protesting the military actions of the Israeli government is not antisemitism.

It is when Jewish students at NU are repeatedly bullied, harassed, and denied access to certain areas of the campus, including classrooms, which has been well-documented at NU.

 

[hdhntr1]

If Fitz doesn't need the money but wants a trial to clear his name?

He has been without pay for going on three years right now, and he has not gotten/taken any other job in the meantime. A large settlement would tend to clear his his name. Especially if one of the terms of the agreement is that NU had to admit fault in mishandling the whole situation