UCSB Student Ryan Michalski’s Fatal Fall and Blunt-Force Head Trauma on Sigma Nu’s Unsanctioned Running Springs Trip — Attorney911 Investigates the National Fraternity and Chapter Officers Behind the Annual Big Bear Trip That Violated University Prohibitions, We Subpoena GroupMe and Snapchat Logs Before They Disappear, California’s Wrongful-Death Act, Survival Action for Ryan’s Four Days at Loma Linda, and Matt’s Law Anti-Hazing Liability, Lupe Peña the Former Insurance-Defense Insider Who Knows How Fraternity Insurance Towers Are Defended, Ralph Manginello’s 27+ Years of Federal-Court Trial Practice, Lead Counsel in the Active $10M+ Bermudez v. Pi Kappa Phi Hazing Lawsuit, the Firm Has Recovered Millions in Wrongful-Death Cases and $5M+ in Brain-Injury Settlements — Free 24/7 Consultation, No Fee Unless We Win, Hablamos Español, 1-888-ATTY-911
Running Springs Fraternity Death: When “Unsanctioned” Means Liability, Not Absolution If your family is reading this, you already know the worst part — a young person you loved is gone, and the institution that put him on that mountain is calling it an “unsanctioned event” as if that label somehow makes the death less their responsibility. It does not. It makes it more. We are the trial team at Attorney911, and we need you to understand something from the first sentence: “accidental” in a sheriff’s report and “unavoidable” in a courtroom are two completely different words. The first describes what happened. The second is what the fraternity wants you to believe. Our job is to prove the difference, and in California, the law gives us powerful tools to do exactly that — including Matt’s Law, the state’s hazing statute that strips away the “he consented” defense and lets a family hold a fraternity accountable even when the trip was supposedly off the books. The death happened on a mountain — Running Springs, San Bernardino County, at roughly 6,000 feet along State Route 18, where the terrain drops off steeply and the cabins that students rent for fraternity weekends sit on…