Legal experts weigh in.
Following the Astroworld Festival tragedy, Travis Scott and Live Nation have had to content with over 100 lawsuits, requesting millions for injuries sustained during the pandemonium tha tleft nine people dead
The camp’s most immediate response was to issue full refunds for everyone who had purchased tickets to Astroworld, but according to one legal expert, accepting a refund could forfeit any chance of filing a lawsuit against the Houston rapper or his team.
Soon after that announcement, it began to trend on social media that accepting any refund could waive ticketholders from the right to follow up with any lawsuit.
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In an interview with Insider, personal injury attorney Neama Rahmani, confirmed that that accepting a refund may very well invoke a waiver from arbitration, detailing the circumstances under which this could be the case.
“Courts generally uphold those types of waivers,” Rahmani, co-founder of the West Coast Trial Lawyers firm, says. “The classic case is arbitration agreements. Everyone kind of scrolls through. No one reads the fine print, and guess what, you’ve waived your right to a jury trial, waived your right to file a lawsuit, to demand arbitration.”
A local station in Houston also turned to legal analyst Carmen Roe who doubled down on Rahmani’s assertions.
“When asked what concertgoers need to look for before accepting any kind of refund, Roe added. “What they need to look for specifically, is the word ‘Waiver,’ ‘Consent’ ‘Agreement’ of any kind. And most importantly, they need to be concerned if they’re asked to sign anything.”
She continues: “Refunds should not come with a signature. So, in this particular case, Live Nation has suggested they’re going to refund these people, and that this is all going to be on the up and up. That shouldn’t require their signature under any circumstances.”