Shortly after I started practicing, I was asked to assist a partner with a case involving a man killed in a bar fight. We were representing the bar owner in a lawsuit brought by the decedent's family. The bar in question is an upscale brew-pub in a nice part of town. It's not the kind of place where fights break out. The guy who was killed went out that evening with his some friends and his sister. They bar hopped for a while and ended up at our client's place. That night there was a big group of fraternity guys out celebrating someone's 21st birthday, so they were all loud and quite drunk. One of the guy's friends got into it with one of the fraternity guys, and then all hell broke loose. This bar only serves draft beer, so glasses started flying everywhere in the fight and most people hid under tables or behind the bar. The guy tried to pull his friend out of the fight and get the hell out of there, but somewhere in the chaos the guy had his throat cut. This didn't look like a little cut from some flying glass, it looked like someone attacked him with a knife. I can still picture the autopsy photos. He wound up dying in front of the bar with his sister right there. She was truly heartbroken over the whole thing, and the guy who died had a young son too. Aside from the autopsy photos and the devastated family, the truly disturbing thing about the case is that everyone knows who the killer is, but there was never enough evidence to prosecute him. We hired a private investigator who interviewed a bunch of the fraternity guys and their friends. It turns out everyone who was there had a damn good idea who cut this guy, but no one actually saw him do it. Supposedly the fraternity brothers got together that night and swore they would never talk about it, but it was the worst kept secret on campus. Our investigator was certain as to the killer's identity, and I imagine the police knew as well, but no one could prove it. It's frightening that someone can just kill another human being in cold blood and get away with it. As for our client, it's tough to hold a bar owner liable for something like this. There are laws that hold bar owners liable if, for instance, they continue serving someone who is clearly drunk and allow that person to drive home and harm someone else on the way. The bar owner could also be held liable if the place is prone to violence and they don't take steps to prevent it. But in our case, none of that stuff really applied. We were able to get the case dismissed on summary judgment, and I think we wound up settling on appeal for a small amount. It was a victory for our client, but the whole thing just sucked. TL;DR - Represented a bar where an innocent guy got killed. Killer went free, bar wasn't liable for the death, and the guy's family is left to pick up the pieces.