A federal appellate court on Wednesday threw out a yearslong civil suit brought against school district officials by the parents of a high school sophomore who committed suicide, blaming the parents’ former and current attorneys and writing that the case “highlights the risks for counsel who do not develop a coherent legal theory at the outset of their case and who instead continuously adopt new arguments.”
The decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for Sixth Circuit dismissed, on statute of limitations grounds, the parents’ suit alleging civil rights and discrimination violations by a Tennessee school district that the parents allege helped cause their son’s suicide. In its Sept. 21 opinion, the appeals court called out the parents’ lawyers for their failures in the case.
