You may have heard that Al Sharpton’s daughter Dominique has sued the City of New York for $5 million to recover for injuries allegedly sustained in a trip-and-fall accident. Here’s her April 29, 2015 lawsuit.
An article in yesterday’s NY Post noted that Ms. Sharpton “was a no-show [on Dec. 2, 2015] for the first court date in her $5 million sprained ankle case against the city, letting her lawyer stand in for her.”
According to the Case Scheduling Order in Sharpton v. City of New York, a Compliance Conference was scheduled for (and apparently held on) Dec. 2, 2015. For these conferences, which are routine in litigation of this type, lawyers typically “stand in” for their clients.
This case has generated significant media attention (not all good; e.g. this article), perhaps due to what appears to be the plaintiff’s potentially case-undermining social media posts. In May the City sent her attorney a litigation hold letter demanding that she “preserve any photographs, documents, communications” relating to her “health, mobility, activity, or physical limitations after the alleged incident.”
I express no opinion as to the merits of her case. That said, it should be interesting to see how it turns out.