knapplc
International Man of Mystery
We can't guarantee anything, because there is no clear legal position here. Nebraska may not pay a cent, or we may pay the full penalty. It depends on how we define "damages," and that's not been defined yet.
Exit Penalty
- Thread starter sd'sker
- Start date
VA Husker Fan
All-Conference
We're not going to get 20% of a share of Big 12 revenue in 2012. I will guarantee that.
huKSer
All-American
nemajordude
Five-Star Recruit
I am not a lawyer or anything resembling one, but here is my take anyway. I think that if NU can establish that UT did not act in good faith either when "negotiating" with the PAC 10 or when giving NU the "ultimatum", then I think NU has a case for not paying any penalties. In other words, if UT was trying to influence NU to leave by lying about possibly going to the PAC-10, and then trying to force NU to make a decision, then NU won't owe a thing. I think that there is a decent chance that this is exactly what happened.
River-runner
Four-Star Recruit
The really cool thing about a legal disagreement re: the Exit Penalty is going to be the discovery process. By the time discovery is over, we should pretty much know who did what, to who and when they did it!
Now does Texas and the Big 12 really want to air their dirty laundry in public?
Too bad these things usually take a long time. I'd love to see the email strings.......
RiverRunner
Now does Texas and the Big 12 really want to air their dirty laundry in public?
Too bad these things usually take a long time. I'd love to see the email strings.......
RiverRunner
Scarlet Overkill
All-Conference
That has been my thinking in all this, too. Slive, Delaney, and Scott would make excellent witnesses, huh?
sd'sker
Banned
deedsker15
Starter
BOJ
Special Teams Player
I can offer an opinion, but I must give the disclaimer that I only have one year of law school under my belt at this time. Without speaking on the legal terms b/c contract law is far more complex than about what is only written in the document (i.e. parties intentions when agreeing to a contract, which is incredibly hard to discern without an actual factfinder which means actually pursuing litigation), odds are Nebraska will pay some sort of penalty, but it will not be anywhere near the amount spelled out in the agreement.
Litigation is stupid crazy expensive and neither the Big 12 nor Nebraska wants it to come to that (lose lose) lawyers will settle out of court and neither party will be satisfied, so are legal disputes. In the end Nebraska will not pay the supposed 80% penalty (or whatever absurd number it is), but will pay something to make it go away.
I can't say 100% that it won't go to trial, but it is extremely rare for that to occur, especially in a situation such as this.
Litigation is stupid crazy expensive and neither the Big 12 nor Nebraska wants it to come to that (lose lose) lawyers will settle out of court and neither party will be satisfied, so are legal disputes. In the end Nebraska will not pay the supposed 80% penalty (or whatever absurd number it is), but will pay something to make it go away.
I can't say 100% that it won't go to trial, but it is extremely rare for that to occur, especially in a situation such as this.
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deedsker15
Starter
BOJ
Special Teams Player
This is true, but even Fortune 500 companies (which have huge legal departments) hire expensive law firms when this situation comes up. Certainly the Nebraska law department will be doing a lot of grunt work, but don't for a second think they haven't already hired outside counsel. Where litigation gets expensive is when you spend years doing discovery, paying outside counsel $500-$700 an hour for years of research and brief writing work. And neither party wants to do that, not only is it expensive, but dirty laundry gets aired that neither party wants out there. As I said it is quite possible it goes to trial, but there is no reason that both parties wouldn't settle before it comes to that, while both think they are in the right, neither is willing to bet the farm on it (in my opinion anyhow).
*Edit-again this is coming from a guy with only one year of law school experience, so take it with a grain of salt, but from the things I have learned about litigation, how often it actually comes to that (very rare), and negotiation/settlement, I will stand by it.
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