The Blind Side Lie (Oher v. Tuohy)

Welcome back to LegalEagle. The most avian legal analysis on the internets.

GOT A VIDEO IDEA? TELL ME!
▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀

MY COURSES
▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀

SOCIAL MEDIA & DISCUSSIONS
▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀

BUSINESS INQUIRIES
▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀

LEGAL-ISH DISCLAIMER
▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀
Sorry, occupational hazard: This is not legal advice, nor can I give you legal advice. I AM NOT YOUR LAWYER. Sorry! Everything here is for informational purposes only and not for the purpose of providing legal advice. You should contact your attorney to obtain advice with respect to any particular issue or problem. Nothing here should be construed to form an attorney-client relationship. Also, some of the links in this post may be affiliate links, meaning, at no cost to you, I will earn a small commission if you click through and make a purchase. But if you click, it really helps me make more of these videos! All non-licensed clips used for fair use commentary, criticism, and educational purposes. See Hosseinzadeh v. Klein, 276 F.Supp.3d 34 (S.D.N.Y. 2017); Equals Three, LLC v. Jukin Media, Inc., 139 F. Supp. 3d 1094 (C.D. Cal. 2015).

Special thanks:
Stock video and imagery provided by Getty Images and AP Archives
Music provided by Epidemic Sound
Maps provided by MapTiler/Geolayers

[Lionheart]

I never saw The Blindside, but I always thought it was weird how the movie marketing and accolades focused way more on Sandra Bullock playing the "mother" rather than the tragic childhood of Michael Oher. He looked like a side character in his own life story and now over a decade later it finally makes sense why

[tarettime]

The fact that they included a scene in the movie where someone points out exactly what they allegedly did and frames that person as a bad guy is so wild

[Janon]

Funny how the NCAA investigator was painted as the villain of the movie but it looks like she was completely right

[micahbush]

I always find it comical when very rich people use the claim that they're "too rich to care about money." They wouldn't have *gotten* incredibly wealthy if they didn't care about money.

[juansaavedra]

The conservatorship is the main issue for me. It stinks of all sort of shenanigans, specially knowing that adoption was an option.

[CobaltDegrees]

The fact that Oher's side is asking for transparency on the money made during his conservatorship and the Tuohy's seemingly responding with 'nuh uh and also we're offended you even asked' makes me immediately more likely to believe Oher.

[Alwayz]

It never did sit right with me how stupid and helpless they presented Oher in the movie. If it were fictitious, perhaps, but presenting a real guy as too stupid to understand how you play a linesman in football because he's too busy playing with a butterfly? And of course Lady White Savior had to come in and show him how good he is, not that he was already an accomplished player on his own

[this_is_patrick]

"The Tuohys are rich, why would they con someone?" is like saying "Jeff Besoz is rich, why would he use loopholes to avoid paying taxes?"

[russelljacob]

The part I find shocking... How can somebody who is not considered able to legally sign documents on their own allowed to legally sign away their rights on their own?

[Erynden]

To be honest, "the blind side" is so american a story that It HAS to finish in a legal court.

[sanmer]

I side with Oher, purely because the conservatorship is already plenty shady, with no accounting done throughout the entire decades of it.

[A-dsmt]

"We're too rich to be crooks" is the opposite of a compelling argument. The crookedest people I know are all also the wealthiest.

[rileymcphee]

Placing an adult in conservatorship in order to get them health insurance is like putting a teenager in high intensity inpatient rehab for trying a cigarette.

[Kokoamaya]

I do find it sinister that the Tuohys apparently asked Michael to call them 'mom' and 'dad' only to Not adopt him. Regardless of the financial exploits that just seems cruel to me.

[SteefPip]

This is why you should wait 20 years to make a movie about a real life event so things like this can be flushed out ahead of time.

[SC]

That they didn’t just adopt him when they easily could have is incredibly convincing of the idea that they’re acting nefariously.

[Mrinsecure]

All I'll say is this: if the Tuohys weren't up to anything shady, they sure picked a shady way to go about things.

[mariaregina]

As a law nerd and an adoptee, I'm hoping this opens people up to considering how many parents/foster families also use their adopted children/foster kids for financial and social gain. This is a classic case of the children the foster system/adoption industry are supposed to protect being stripped of their personal narratives and personhood. This is just the surface of the insidiousness.

[jekanyika]

Whether they made money off him or not the fact they lied about not being able to adopt him speaks volumes.

[krisherman]

The fact that a cognitively intact adult was allowed to give up his right to make medical decisions for himself by the courts is the biggest stink of all my book.