They got up to $800 and had no takers. Not sure why they didn't go higher, wondering if United doesn't allow employees to offer more compensation than that. Which is a problem if so.
If there is a lawsuit, I bet the settlement will be several order of magnitudes that. Particularly given that the guy was a physician.
I doubt that United would be party to the lawsuit. It would be the airport cops who were called and roughed up the passenger.
They will be party to a lawsuit; and I'm guessing that they'll settle for some amount even if they would almost surely win. Their legal costs will be far more than $800 in any case.
I doubt i'll ever book with United again. I had a flight with United the exact same day as this incident for business but I assure you they've already lost at least $800 from me in future flights as a result of this... bullshit.
$800 in highly constrained flight vouchers. If it had been cash, it would have been a different story.