As the Astroworld lawsuit prepares to begin, two lawyers are fighting over who will take the lead role in the case. Days after civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump argued that he should lead the case, Houston-based lawyer Sean A. Roberts disagrees.
Crump, who is Black, positioned himself to be the best attorney to represent a group of victims who are "disproportionately" African American, per Billboard. Roberts, who is also Black, also noted that Crump has no ties to Houston. "Any suggestions by Mr. Crump in his legal papers that Houston lacks qualified African-American trial lawyers who can serve as liaison counsel, such that the Court should appoint a Florida lawyer instead, is willfully tone-deaf," wrote Roberts. "While Mr. Crump undoubtedly has his finger on the pulse of Florida law and national matters involving police shootings and other civil rights matters, the firm that understands the pulse of the Astroworld community - a Houston Festival - is Roberts Markland."
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Live National, Travis Scott, and a handful of other participants are facing billions in potential liability over the Astroworld crowd incident that left 10 dead and hundreds injured. For smoother legal processing, hundreds of individual lawsuits have all been consolidated into a single court case. Judge Kristen Brauchle Hawkins is expected to handle the process by coordinating thousands of individual litigants, exchanging evidence, and taking depositions, plus other pre-trial matters, per Billboard.
Crump and Roberts are currently fighting for the lead role ahead of the attorneys that will also be working on the case. Many of the victims' lawyers have already been given this role, but nothing has been finalized. A larger "executive committee" made up of lawyers will also be appointed prior to the start of the case.
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