Originally Posted by
GrayAnderson
The histrionic statements from his lawyers are marking out the most aggressive ground they can as a starting point for negotiations and/or presentation to a court. It's helped by the fact that United can't exactly file a pleading that says "Yeah, this might have been bad, but come on..."
Sadly, this sort of thing is common...partly because judges seem to generally be unwilling to smack a side down for overblown or absurd pleadings.
That's why my hypothesis is the lawyer he was talking to on the phone was giving him advice specifically in an effort to maximize potential payouts later. When he listened to the advice, he got dragged out and his lawyer said cha-ching.