Irv Pinsky, Conn. lawyer, withdraws $100M Sandy Hook lawsuit request

Irv Pinsky, a Connecticut lawyer who requested permission last week to sue the state for $100 million on behalf of a 6-year-old survivor of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings, said today that he was withdrawing his request, the Associated Press reported.

More from GlobalPost: Sandy Hook lawsuit seeks $100 million for girl survivor, 6

Pinsky told the New Haven Independent that he was withdrawing his filing to “calm the divisiveness and tremors.” But he said he had received new evidence related to Sandy Hook Elementary School’s security and might refile in the future, the AP reported.

Pinsky told the New Haven Independent that he has received at least 50 death threats since filing his request to sue the state for compensation for his client, who suffered "emotional and psychological trauma and injury" when shooter Adam Lanza killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary on Dec. 14.

Pinsky has also been criticized by the Connecticut Trial Lawyers Association, the New Haven Independent reported. “CTLA joins with all other citizens in Connecticut in mourning the tragic loss of life in Newtown,” the group said in a recent statement. “We believe that the timing and circumstances of this action are ill-advised.”

Pinsky said the family of the anonymous student, "Jill Doe," contacted him about filing a lawsuit after their daughter survived the shooting rampage at the school, the Hartford Courant reported.

According to the Hartford Courant:

Pinsky's claim says the State Board of Education, the state Department of Education, and the education commissioner failed to take steps to protect the children from foreseeable harm.

However, the state attorney general, who must grant approval for lawsuits against the state, said it is not immediately obvious that the state is liable, the Hartford Courant reported.

“Although the investigation is still under way, we are aware of no facts or legal theory under which the state of Connecticut should be liable for causing the harms inflicted at Sandy Hook Elementary School," Attorney General George Jepsen said in a statement on Monday, the Hartford Courant reported. "Nor does the claim letter filed in this case identify a valid basis to support a claim against the state and, by extension, its taxpayers.”