Michael Jackson wrongful death trial begins in LA

Jackson's family have taken concert promoters AEG Live to court for a reported £26 billion

The trial for the wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of Michael Jackson against concert promoters AEG has begun in Los Angeles.

The family are seeking £26 billion in compensation from concert promoters following his death in 2009. The trial started earlier today (April 2) at the Los Angeles County Superior Court and is expected to last several months, according to CNN.

It is thought that lawyers for AEG Live will defend the company by bringing up child molestation accusations against Jackson as well as evidence of his drug addiction to prove they had no part in his death.

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Speaking in a forthcoming CNN documentary, Michael Jackson: The Final Days AEG Live lawyer Marvin Putnam said: “Mr Jackson is a person who was known to doctor shop. He was known to be someone who would tell one doctor one thing and another doctor something else.”

Putnam added that Jackson’s child molestation trial – over which he was acquitted – is important to the case as it resulted in a significant increase in his drug intake.

Putnam continues: “We’re talking about Michael Jackson. This is a man who would show up in pyjamas. This is a man who would stop traffic and get out and dance on top of his car. This is a man who would go to public events with a monkey named Bubbles. This is a man who said he slept in an oxygen chamber.”

TMZ previously reported Katherine Jackson, mother of the ‘King Of Pop’, and his three children, Prince, Paris and Blanket, want £6.6 billion to make up for his lost future earnings after the series of concerts he’d scheduled before his death were cancelled. They’re also seeking a further £19.8 billion in other damages.

Jackson died aged 50 at his house in Los Angeles just weeks before the concerts were due to start. Its since been ruled Jackson was given a fatal dose of the anaesthetic Propofol by his personal doctor, Conrad Murray. Murray was jailed for four years in 2012 for Jackson’s involuntary manslaughter.

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