Amid threatened lawsuits and proposed settlements in the Virginia Tech shootings, attorneys said earlier this week that such legal battles don’t seem to be brewing over last month’s on-campus killings at Northern Illinois University.

Circumstances surrounding the NIU rampage that left five students dead differ starkly from those at Virginia Tech, where a gunman killed 32 people, noted Kathleen Zellner, a Chicago attorney who has won several high-profile lawsuits.

For starters, she said, there’s no indication of glaring shortcomings in NIU’s security response.
“In the absence of that, I don’t see the viability of a suit here,” said Zellner, who recently won a $15.5 million award for a couple who accused sheriff’s deputies of fabricating evidence in the slaying of their daughter, Riley Fox. “If somebody came to me – and no one has – without evidence of negligence, I wouldn’t take the case.”

No lawsuits have been filed yet in the Virginia Tech case, but at least 20 families have filed notice that they may sue. No lawsuits nor notices have been filed in the NIU shooting, state and school officials said.

Attorneys would have been hotly pursing NIU lawsuits weeks ago if they thought they could win one, said attorney Michael Helfand, who monitors Chicago’s legal scene for an online lawyers referral service.

“They would be soliciting the business through runners, and there would be motions to file for evidence, for videos,” he said. “None of that has happened.”

But in such a litigious society as the United States, Helfand added, a suit is always a possibility.
“Anyone can sue anyone if they really want to,” he said. “It could happen in this case. But it would be unusual.”

NIU’s response on Feb. 14 received little criticism, in part because the shooting began and ended so quickly.

Steven Kazmierczak, 27, opened fire in a crowded lecture hall before turning a gun on himself. Police entered the hall just minutes after the shooting began to find Kazmierczak dead.

Before authorities could confirm the gunman acted alone and was dead, NIU also launched its emergency alert system – a carefully rehearsed plan developed after the Virginia Tech shootings.

They sent out e-mails and posted messages on Web sites to notify students a possible gunman was on campus and that they needed to find a safe area.

The mental health histories of both Cho and Kazmierczak have raised questions for authorities about whether better access to state records and more stringent reporting requirements for patients who display violent, suicidal or threatening behavior might have prevented the bloodbaths.

But while Cho was a current student at Virginia Tech, Kazmierczak was a former NIU student. That would put a greater burden on anyone trying to prove any responsibility for predicting or preventing his rampage lay with NIU.

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