Lawyers for Remington Arms and families of several victims in the 2012 Newtown school shooting met over the gunmaker’s bankruptcy filing on Thursday.
Joshua Koskoff represents the families in a lawsuit that claims Remington dangerously marketed military-style weapons to civilians. His legal team was about to get testimony from Remington executives when the bankruptcy froze that process. Koskoff asked the court why Remington would file for bankruptcy for the second time in two years.
“Show us the financial information. Show us the documents that support that. If you have nothing to hide, you would think that they would just want to show and demonstrate that there is nothing fishy about this bankruptcy,” he said.
Koskoff said Remington failed to list the families as unsecured creditors on its new bankruptcy filing, although they had been included on that list in the company’s financial restructuring in 2018.
“This was really a red flag for us that something was a little fishy, which is the fact that our lawsuit, which of course is on Remington’s radar significantly for the last five years, wasn’t even listed on the list of what they call ‘unsecured creditors,’” Koskoff said.
Lawyers for Remington said in the hearing that disclosing financial information to Koskoff would give his lawsuit an advantage seeking damages.