Court Orders Unsealing of Settlement in Stadium Liability Case

An Appellate Division Court in New Jersey has held that secrecy must be lifted on how much a Giants Stadium vending company agreed to pay last year to a girl whose paralyzing injuries in a crash with a drunken fan. The Court held that the lower court judge erred when he sealed all records of the June 2007 settlement and subsequent proceedings to protect the privacy of plaintiff. The three-judge appeals panel agreed with an open public record's advocacy group that moved for the unsealing, finding the public interest trumps such privacy concerns. The (not yet published) opinion is available here: Verni v. Lanzaro. UPDATE: Law.com reports now that the unsealed documets reveal that the beer refreshment vendor at Giants Stadium agreed to pay $25 million to settle the case. The full story is available here.