Airplane Accident Lawyer

The phone rang, waking the aviation accident attorney out of a dead sleep, but immediately the woman knew it was not a prank call or a wrong number. Since the woman's specialty was wrongful death lawsuits involving airplanes, and since these accidents didn't happen just every day, there was a reason for concern. The woman prayed silently that this call was not involving a large commercial plane that could mean a large loss of life and years of litigation. The call did confirm a loss of life, but thankfully the crash only involved a small commuter plane with five people on board including a crew of two. Even so, there were a number of families suddenly without loved ones and the pain and sorrow of such a sudden loss of life would be enormous for these people. The crash had occurred near midnight three states away, but already a family member of one of the crew had called and the so the litigious ballet would begin.

Since the crew had been based out of the city where the airplane accident lawyer lived, meeting family members the next morning was not difficult to schedule. When the family sat down, the grief that each member shared was overshadowed by the anger that was present in the room. The wife and grown children of the plane's pilot almost all began in unison to tell of the pilot's attempt over two years to get the commuter airline to address a problem regarding the landing gear of the type of plane the company used almost exclusively on its state to state routes in the Midwest. The pilot often worried out loud in front of family members over the harrowing experiences of having to try repeatedly to get the landing gear down on that particular plane, and each time the malfunction occurred, it would eventually comply, but only after several attempts. The pilot made complaint after complaint to the airline, but each time the complaint was rebuffed because all mechanical efforts to find the problem were of no avail.

After listening for almost an hour, the airplane accident lawyer began to feel that she would have a pretty strong foundation for a wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of this family and the others who were aboard the ill fated flight that evening. The plane had crashed on approach to a small Midwest airport because the landing gear collapsed upon ground contact, despite the fact that the cockpit instruments confirmed the down and locked position of the gear. The pilot had radioed eight minutes before the accident that he was once again experiencing problems getting the gear down, but reported just before landing that the gear was down and secure. So the aviation accident attorney began slowly explaining to the family what would lie ahead in the process to make sure this accident would not occur again for other families. She spoke very slowly and clearly about the details.

The woman explained that the wrongful death lawsuit process was one that might take a number of years to litigate. She also explained that there would be no guarantees made as to the outcome of the lawsuit, although the woman's experience of being an aviation accident attorney led her to believe that the family had a very strong case against the airline. The point was made that if the airline's liability was not overtly recognizable, the court process might indeed push out into the five or ten year range of completion. However, if the liability of the airline was clearly recognizable form the start, a case could be settled in as early as six months to a term of about three years. The litigator then went on to explain the financial aspects of the wrongful death suit process. "Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man." (James 1:13)

The barrister explained that the litigations costs could be rather enormous as this legal undertaking unfolded. Costs for accident reconstructionists, economic damages experts, deposition costs and court costs could be staggering. Additionally, the attorney's firm would ask for 1/3 of the final settlement figure as a retainer fee. The airplane accident lawyer then laid out what would have to be proven in court. First, to prove a wrongful death scenario, negligence or misconduct or product liability would have to be shown. Additionally, proof that the airline had an obligation to act in a specific manner in regards to the pilot's complaints would have to be shown as well as the fact that the airline failed to meet a specific standard of maintenance care on the plane itself. Finally, there would have to be causation shown, which means that the failure of the airline to act in a specific manner caused their death of the people onboard that plane on that fateful evening.

Whenever a terrible accident occurs bring with it the loss of human life, trained professional from many disciplines are needed to help sort out the mitigating circumstances. In the case of aviation tragedies, an experienced aviation accident attorney is one of the first professions to be consulted. While it may appear wrong for a family or a group of people such as the survivors of accident victims to profit financially from such a tragedy, a higher purpose can exist for such wrongful death lawsuits. Because many companies will continue to engage in harmful practices until the companies are truly hurt in the pocketbook, it is often necessary to engage in high stakes litigation efforts in order to force large and financially successful companies into changing the way they do business and stem the tide of human loss caused by carelessness or recklessness. An airplane accident lawyer will be part of that action.