Media Report Akin Gump Pro Bono Work in 11th Circuit Bolivian Human Rights Appeal

Law360 and Courthouse News Service reported proceedings before the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in which Akin Gump is representing, pro bono, Bolivian families and survivors in the aftermath of attacks in 2003 by Bolivian troops under the command of then-president Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada and his then-defense minister José Sánchez Berzain that left at least 58 Bolivian civilians dead and hundreds more injured.

The families and survivors had sued both Bolivian officials in U.S. court, as the men had fled Bolivia for Florida and Maryland in the years after the unrest that saw these murders. Although a Miami jury had returned a verdict for the families at trial in 2018 and awarded them $10 million in damages (learn more here), a district court judge vacated the decision, noting that the evidence did not show that the two men had planned to kill unarmed civilians.

The families appealed the case to the 11th Circuit, where Akin Gump Supreme Court and appellate partner James Tysse argued before a three-judge panel that, according to Law360, the plaintiffs had presented an extraordinary amount of evidence, including eyewitness testimony, that supported the trial jury’s original finding. Courthouse News Service reported that Tysse said in this regard, “All of this evidence was presented to the jury, and the jury found in our favor.”

Among his arguments, Tysse noted that the district court judge did not consider the “command responsibility doctrine,” whereby a leader can be shown to have liability if it can be established that they had effective control over their forces and knew (or should have known) about extrajudicial killings but did nothing to prevent them. Tysse said, “It’s very clear it’s a ‘knew or should’ve known’ standard, and there is ample evidence they knew.”