After Rutherford County settled a large class action lawsuit over its policies for arresting and detaining children, lawyers who sued the county are scrambling to find more than a thousand children who are owed compensation. And close to $6 million is at stake.
The lawsuit alleged that for more than a decade Rutherford County violated the rights of kids by arresting them illegally and placing them in juvenile detention without sufficient grounds.
In June, after five years of litigation, Rutherford County agreed to pay up to $11 million for its alleged transgressions. $7 million of that is earmarked for the children who were impacted.
But this isn’t a traditional type of class action settlement where the money gets dumped into a trust and doled out to plaintiffs. In this case, the lawyers must find the children they claim were illegally arrested and detained—nearly all of whom have no idea they’re even involved in this case.
“The range of money that the county will pay out depends on how many valid claims are filed and approved,” said attorney Kyle Mothershead. “So, it’s probably about $6 million dollars that hangs in the balance.”
The county could avoid paying out the lion’s share of the settlement, if not enough claims are filed.
The class of children who comprise this lawsuit is massive—more than 1,500 spanning decades. Meanwhile, Mothershead and his fellow attorneys have until late October to file the children’s claims.
The task of doing so weighs heavily on them.
“This is the most important work we’ve ever done in our lives,” Motherhead said. “We’ve been at this so long and we put so much heart into this. To just let all these kids down…we would not feel like we had triumphed. We would feel, like, ashamed of ourselves.”
This lawsuit is the largest in a string of lawsuits that has plagued the county’s juvenile court for the last five and a half years.
Brazil Clark, a law firm representing the kids is helping sign up those who are eligible, free of charge.
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