Abby Zwerner Won $10 Million After Being Shot by a 6-Year-Old Student — But She Probably Won't Collect
In this video, Dr. Justin Baeder discusses why Abby Zwerner's $10 million jury verdict likely won't result in meaningful compensation due to insurance limitations and the unique circumstances of her case.
Key Takeaways
- The $10 million verdict may be uncollectible - The school district and its insurance were dismissed from the case, leaving only the assistant principal as defendant
- Insurance doesn't cover gross or criminal negligence - The district's insurance company is likely off the hook due to the assistant principal's alleged negligence
- A separate criminal trial is pending - If criminal negligence is established, it would definitively prevent insurance coverage
- The district tried to call it a workplace injury - They initially argued the shooting should be limited to workers' compensation
Transcript
Abby Zwirner was awarded $10 million by a jury.
The teacher who was shot by a six-year-old student won in her civil suit and was awarded $10 million.
But she probably will not collect much, if any, of that because the only remaining defendant in the civil case is the assistant principal, Ebony Parker, who probably doesn't have anywhere close to $10 million.
And the district is probably going to be off the hook here, and the district's insurance is probably going to be off the hook for one particular reason that has to do with the nature of the negligence.
See, the district tried to argue initially that Zoerner should not be able to sue at all because her injuries should have been covered under workman's comp, as if this was any kind of normal workplace injury, which of course it's not.
Now, the district is likely going to be off the hook for paying because of the assistant principal's gross or criminal negligence in not handling the situation when it was reported to her.
And as it turned out, the lawsuit was originally against the district, against the superintendent, against the school board as well.
But they were dismissed from the suit because, you know, basically they didn't have anything to do with how the incident was handled on that day.
So the sole remaining defendant...
in the civil suit was the assistant principal and she is now on the hook for that 10 million dollars and her district does not have to pay you know the insurance does not have to pay that claim out because she was acting with gross or criminal negligence now here is one more twist that is still to be resolved there is also a criminal trial against the assistant principal and i think if that criminal trial shows that she was criminally negligent then that makes it you know definitely the case that the insurance is not going to pay the district is not going to pay So where does Abby Zwirner end up in all of this?
Not really much better off.
I mean, vindicated in the sense that like this shouldn't have happened.
Other people were responsible and especially the assistant principal was responsible for what happened because it was not handled correctly.
And yet she's not really probably going to get any money at all out of this.
So let me know what you think.
Let me know what you predict for the criminal trial.