{"id":2665067,"date":"2026-09-19T16:35:01","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T20:35:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/specific-utah-law-could-derail-charlie-kirk-familys-wrongful-death-case-legal-experts\/"},"modified":"2026-09-19T16:39:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T20:39:10","slug":"specific-utah-law-could-derail-charlie-kirk-familys-wrongful-death-case-legal-experts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/specific-utah-law-could-derail-charlie-kirk-familys-wrongful-death-case-legal-experts\/","title":{"rendered":"Specific Utah Law Could Derail Charlie Kirk Family&#8217;s Wrongful Death Case: Legal Experts"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fspecific-utah-law-could-derail-charlie-kirk-familys-wrongful-death-case-legal-experts%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2665067&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>A family of Charlie Kirk filed a notice of claim against Utah Valley University, asserting security lapses linked to Kirk\u2019s death on September 10, 2025, just before the one-year anniversary. The notice outlines deficiencies, including inadequate security planning, insufficient police presence, and risky venue choices, which the family believes contributed to the shooting. Despite citing multiple security failures, Utah law provides broad immunity to government entities, making it tough to succeed in a wrongful death lawsuit. Experts note that such claims are challenging when a third-party criminal act causes death, but potential liability may exist if the university assumed responsibility for Kirk\u2019s safety. legal challenges and Utah\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >immunity statutes coudl significantly hinder<\/a> the family&#8217;s ability to pursue justice.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><br \/>\n<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\"><br \/>\n<?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><html><body><\/p>\n<section> \t\t\t\t<script>console.log(\"ad slot (AC1)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC1)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC2)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC3)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC4)\")<\/script><\/p>\n<p>A Utah state law would be a high barrier to clear if Charlie Kirk\u2019s family sues Utah Valley University over the security lapses the family said are linked to his death.<\/p>\n<p>On Sept. 9, Kirk\u2019s family filed a <a href=\"https:\/\/static.foxnews.com\/foxnews.com\/content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/2026-09-09_Notice_of_Claim_Final.pdf#&#038;_intcmp=fnc_us_article_main-content_article-body_6_5\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">notice of claim<\/a> that preserves the family\u2019s right to sue. The notice was filed one day before the one-year anniversary of Kirk\u2019s death on Sept. 10, 2025.<\/p>\n<p>Although the notice cites multiple ways in which deficient security efforts arguably contributed to Kirk\u2019s assassination, a Utah state law could mean that any lawsuit would quickly be blocked, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/kirk-family-powerful-evidence-utah-law-could-derail-wrongful-death-case\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Fox News<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The state gives governmental officials broad immunity from lawsuits, even when they fail to properly perform their duties, and Utah Valley University is a public college.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUnfortunately, Charlie Kirk\u2019s family is going to have a very difficult time prevailing in a wrongful death case in Utah,\u201d Tenielle Brown, a University of Utah law professor, said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUtah\u2019s government immunity statute is phrased in such a way that says even if the state and UVU were reckless, they retain immunity in cases that arise out of a battery, and that would include gunshot wounds,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere have been a number of cases where the plaintiffs and the family of the victims have sued for either wrongful death or battery,\u201d Brown added.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd in some cases, the government did behave recklessly, and they could show carelessness and recklessness and the plaintiffs were not able to prevail because it arose out of a battery. And that\u2019s unusual. Most states don\u2019t have that broad of a statute,\u201d she continued.<\/p>\n<p>Neama Rahmani, president of West Coast Trial Lawyers, said wrongful death claims against governments are hard to win when the death was caused by a third party.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve handled lack of security cases, including lack of security cases against the government,\u201d Rahmani said. \u201cThey are tough because you are trying to hold the police or city, county, or state responsible for someone else\u2019s criminal actions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-layout-index=\"5\">Rahmani said a lawsuit could possibly succeed if it is based on college Police Chief Jeffrey Long telling Kirk\u2019s team \u201cI got you covered\u201d after they expressed security concerns.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat means they\u2019re gonna argue that they assume the responsibility to make sure Charlie Kirk was safe, and they failed to do so,\u201d Rahmani said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn cases where you have the government taking on a duty, that tends to be better than simply arguing that the government has a duty to protect everyone because we know that murders happen all the time, and you can\u2019t sue the government just because someone is killed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Campus police allegedly did not have a written security plan or hold a security briefing in advance, the notice of claim said. The briefing also called the location picked for Kirk to speak a \u201cfishbowl.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe UVU Parties could have declined to approve the Tour event in the outdoor quad location, or could have moved the venue indoors or to a more secure location, as it had done for controversial speakers in the past,\u201d the notice said.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/charlie-kirks-family-set-sue-uvu-citing-damning-text-message-police-chief\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">notice<\/a> said the college devoted only six police officers to security that day.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOn information and belief, Chief Jeffrey Long requested approval from then-UVU President, Astrid Tuminez, to allocate more than the six officers \u2014 which represented only 25% of the UVU police force \u2014 but his request was denied,\u201d the notice said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe UVU Parties\u2019 planning was so deficient that when Mr. Kirk was shot first responders were not available and Mr. Kirk was transported to Timpanogos Regional Hospital in a private vehicle, not an ambulance,\u201d the notice said.<\/p>\n<p>The bottom line? \u201cThrough a series of stunning failures and reckless decisions, the UVU Parties created a foreseeable danger to Charlie,\u201d the notice continued.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThose decisions ultimately rendered Mr. Kirk helpless to the rooftop shooter in an assassination that could have been avoided had the UVU Parties only taken reasonable steps to plan and oversee a safe event, steps outlined below that have been standard practice for other universities hosting controversial speakers,\u201d the notice said.<\/p>\n<div style=\"background-color: #f7f7f7; color: #171717; display: flex;font-size: 16px;font-weight: 600;line-height: 1.5;margin: 24px 0;padding: 18px 20px 18px 30px;text-align: left;\">\n<div style=\"align-self: stretch;border-left: 3px solid #171717;flex-shrink: 0;padding-left: 20px;\"><\/div>\n<p><a style=\"text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/\">Choose The Western Journal as your preferred source on Google and never miss reporting that defends truth, protects freedom, and advances Western civilization<\/a><\/div>\n<p style=\"border: 1px solid #f5f5f5; padding: 16px;\">Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/advertise-us\/?wj_source=article\">Advertise Today<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div style=\"position: relative;\">\n<div class=\"ff-fancy-header-container\"> \t\t\t \t<\/div>\n<div class=\"entry-submit-correction inner-content\">\n<div class=\"correction-form\">\n<form style=\"display: none;\">\n<div class=\"sc-name-field\"> \t\t\t\t\t\t<label>* Name<\/label> \t\t\t\t\t\t<br \/> \t\t\t\t\t\t<input type=\"text\" name=\"name\" required> \t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<div class=\"sc--field\"> \t\t\t\t\t\t<label>* <\/label> \t\t\t\t\t\t<br \/> \t\t\t\t\t\t<input type=\"text\" name=\"\" required> \t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p> \t\t\t\t\t<label>* Message<\/label> \t\t\t\t\t<br \/> \t\t\t\t\t<textarea name=\"message\" required><\/textarea> \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<div class=\"required-message\" style=\"display: none; padding-bottom: 15px;\">* All fields are required.<\/div>\n<p> \t\t\t\t\t<input type=\"submit\" value=\"Submit\" onclick=\"event.preventDefault(); firefly_sc();\"> \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<div class=\"firefly-sc-confirm\" style=\"display: none;\">Success!<\/div>\n<\/p><\/form>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p> \t\t<script> \t\t\tfunction firefly_sc() { \t\t\t\tif( typeof window.captchaPublicKey == typeof undefined ){ \t\t\t\t\tconsole.error('window.captchaPublicKey is not defined'); \t\t\t\t} \t\t\t\tgrecaptcha.execute( window.captchaPublicKey, { action: 'submit_correction' } ).then( function( token ) { \t\t\t\t\tvar opts = { \t\t\t\t\t\taction:    'firefly_sc_submit', \t\t\t\t\t\tname:      document.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction [name=\"name\"]' ).value, \t\t\t\t\t\t:     document.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction [name=\"\"]' ).value, \t\t\t\t\t\tmessage:   document.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction [name=\"message\"]' ).value, \t\t\t\t\t\tpost_id:   firefly_post_id, \t\t\t\t\t\tcap_token: token \t\t\t\t\t}  \t\t\t\t\tvar inputs = [ 'name', '', 'message' ];  \t\t\t\t\tfor( var i = 0; i < inputs.length; i++ ) if( ! ( opts[inputs[i]] = document.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction [name=\"' + inputs[i] + '\"]' ).value ) ) { \t\t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .required-message' ).style.display = 'block'; \t\t\t\t\t\treturn; \t\t\t\t\t}  \t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction input[type=\"submit\"]' ).style.display = 'none'; \t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .firefly-sc-submitting-img' ).src = firefly_loading_gif_url; \t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .firefly-sc-submitting-img' ).style.display = 'inline-block';  \t\t\t\t\tconsole.log( 'ma subbing' );  \t\t\t\t\tif( firefly_post_id ) opts['post_id'] = firefly_post_id;  \t\t\t\t\t\/* Send the data using post with element id name and name2*\/ \t\t\t\t\tvar posting = jQuery.post( firefly_ajax_url, opts );  \t\t\t\t\t\/* Alerts the results *\/ \t\t\t\t\tposting.done( function( response ) { \t\t\t\t\t\tif( response.success ) { \t\t\t\t\t\t\tconsole.log( response.data ); \t\t\t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .firefly-sc-submitting-img' ).style.display = 'none'; \t\t\t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .firefly-sc-confirm' ).style.display = 'block';  \t\t\t\t\t\t\tdataLayer.push( { 'event': 'submit-correction' } ); \t\t\t\t\t\t} \t\t\t\t\t}); \t\t\t\t}); \t\t\t} \t\t<\/script> \t     \t\t\t\t\t\t     \t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p> \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t<script>console.log(\"ad slot (BA1)\")<\/script> \t\t<\/p>\n<div class=\"ff-fancy-header-container\"> \t\t\t \t<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<p><\/body><\/html><\/p>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Utah law may block Charlie Kirk\u2019s family from suing UVU over security issues linked to his death, as they filed a claim on Sept. 9, just before the anniversary<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2665068,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Ben-Working-Feature-Image-2026-09-19T150924.925.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[44291,32285,34514,85941,38173],"class_list":["post-2665067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-charlie-kirk","tag-legal-case","tag-legal-experts","tag-utah-law","tag-wrongful-death"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Ben-Working-Feature-Image-2026-09-19T150924.925.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2665067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2665067"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2665067\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2665071,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2665067\/revisions\/2665071"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2665068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2665067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2665067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2665067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}