The Caesar Rodney mother suing a student and father over a dodgeball game incident involving her son, will have a pretrial hearing Dec. 12 at 9 a.m.
India Scott, a Caesar Rodney School District mother suing a father and son over injuries her son received in gym class, has found a lawyer.
Scott was told to do that in a pretrial hearing Aug. 22 by Court of Common Pleas Judge Anne E. Hartnett, who gave her a deadline of Oct. 3.
After being turned down for months, Scott has hired Bruce Hudson from Hudson, Castle & Inkell, LLC, an injury law firm in Wilmington, to represent her son, Charles Cottman.
According to records, there was then an 11-second period during which Finn Dyer was hitting Charles’ head after Charles eliminated Finn from a game of dodgeball at Postlethwait Middle School. Police records state the weapon used was “hands and feet.”
Scott says that her son suffered a concussion and has lingering issues that will require continuing medical care and sued Alex Dyer, Finn’s father.
“Most law firms stated that it is hard to sue a parent, and it is very hard to prove gross negligence against a School District,” Scott said.
India Scott, the mother of Charles Cottman, a seventh-grader in Caesar Rodney School District.
To give Hudson time to review the evidence and documents of the case, a new hearing date has been scheduled for Dec. 12 at 9 a.m.
Immediate attempts to contact Hudson were unsuccessful.
Scott said she will no longer speak publicly about the case.
The December hearing will take place at the Kent County Court of Common Pleas in Dover.
Zachary George, the lawyer defending the Dyers, offered Scott a $1,500 proposal on May 9, which Scott rejected.
George is arguing that Alex Dyer has parental immunity and is not responsible for the actions of his son, who’s a minor.
He’s also argued that Alex Dyer is not the proper defendant because he wasn’t involved and that Scott is not the person who suffered the injury and therefore not the proper plaintiff.
In addition, George said that because Scott isn’t a licensed attorney, she is unlawfully representing her son Charles.
George’s office declined to comment on Scott hiring a lawyer.
After Scott filed the first lawsuit, they received a written letter of apology from Finn to Charles on Feb. 2, to which Scott and her son did not reply.
Raised in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, Jarek earned a B.A. in journalism and a B.A. in political science from Temple University in 2021. After running CNN’s Michael Smerconish’s YouTube channel, Jarek became a reporter for the Bucks County Herald before joining Delaware LIVE News.
