Not necessarily.

The accident victim should retain the best aviation contingency fee attorney he can find, regardless of the attorney’s piloting credentials. Rather than asking whether the prospective attorney has a pilot’s license, the victim should ask whether the attorney has a history of successful jury verdicts in aviation cases. A record of successful verdicts is important even if the victim would prefer to settle rather than go to trial. Defendants and their insurance companies will seldom pay a fair settlement to a victim represented by an attorney who has not proven that he can take an aviation case all the way to verdict. The lack of a trial record is a weakness that a defendant or the insurance company will always exploit. It’s a weakness that no amount of piloting credentials can make up for.

Of course, many of  the aviation lawyers who own the best trial records are also active pilots. That’s because current piloting experience is an advantage when interviewing witnesses or taking their depositions, sifting through evidence, and working with experts.

For this reason, the manufacturers who are to blame for an accident often chose lawyers who are pilots to defend them. They feel that, all other things being equal, lawyers who are pilots have an advantage over those who aren’t.

But for the victim of an aviation accident, the prospective aviation attorney’s record at trial is always more important that his flying credentials. If the aviation attorney doesn’t have a history of successful jury verdicts, that lawyer – regardless of whether he holds a pilot’s license — is a poor choice.

Related Post: Helicopter Crash Lawyers Bribe Judge, Settle Case, Get Sued
 

Thursday’s mid-air collision involving a Coast Guard C-130 and Marine Corps AH-1H Super Cobra was the second military helicopter crash that has occurred east of San Clemente Island since 2007.  

On January 26, 2007, four were killed when a Navy MH-60S Seahawk crashed just miles from the San Clemente Islandspot of Thursday’s accident.

The Navy was unable to determine the cause of the 2007 crash.  As reported by the Navy Times,

[Navy] investigators were unable to conclusively determine a specific cause for the mishap, unable to find fault, finding no culpability, no sign of neglect on the part of the aircrew nor the personnel responsbile for maintaining the aircraft. 

When the Navy was unable to determine a cause, the family members hired their own aviation experts to investigate.  But, as reported by the Aviation Internation News Network,  the Navy wouldn’t allow the families’ experts access to the wreckage, instead requiring them to file a lawsuit so that they could conduct their own investigation.

The families of the victims of the Zodiac crash near Oakdale, California, have filed suit against the aircraft’s maker, Zenith Aircraft, alleging that the Zodiac’s design is defective. The Zodiac is the two-seat aircraft whose wings tend to break off in flight due to a design-induced aerodynamic phenomenon known as flutter.  That appears to be exactly whatZodiac happened in the Oakdale crash. The design has caused at least 10 deaths so far. 

According to the Modesto Bee, Zenith Aircraft is blaming the pilot and passenger for getting into the airplane it designed.

 Zenith Aircraft said the crash was caused by the "negligence" of [the pilot and his passenger]. The company said both had "full appreciation" of the risks involved.

As discussed here, months ago the NTSB called upon the FAA to ground all Zodiacs. The FAA, however, has yet to do so.  Unfortunately, the NTSB has no power to ground an aircraft on its own.  It doesn’t matter how bad the design of the aircraft is; only the FAA can ground a fleet. 

The FAA refuses to act, and Zenith Aircraft won’t accept responsibility for the fatal flaws in its aircraft’s design.  Lawsuits brought by aviation accident lawyers like the families’ lawyers in this case seem to be the only way to prevent others from being killed in the Zodiac. 

The victim’s family is seldom in the best emotional state to make important decisions right after an airplane or helicopter accident.  The stresses can be overwhelming.  Fortunately, hiring an aviation attorney is one decision that is seldom urgent.  It is a decision that, in most cases, can wait.

But how long is too long to wait?  Certainly, the attorney who the family eventually selects will want to investigate the accident, interview witnesses, collect evidence and make sure the wreckage is preserved.  He would like to begin his work while the evidence is fresh. The more time that passes, the harder it will be for the attorney  to prepare the case properly.  That said, as long as the wreckage remains secure in the custody of the NTSB, it is usually safe to wait up to 90 days after an accident before retaining an aviation lawyer.

Some families may want to wait longer than that.  In fact, some may want to wait until the NTSB has completed its work.  That’s not a good idea.  In most cases, a lawyer should have investigated the case and, if warranted, filed a lawsuit well before the NTSB’s issues its final report, for the reasons discussed here.  

In all cases, the victims must retain an aviation lawyer before the applicable statute of limitations runs.  It doesn’t matter how good the case is — if the applicable statute of limitations expires and no lawsuit is on file, the victim’s rights will be lost forever.  Some statutes of limitation may expire as soon as 6 months after the accident.  Of course, every case is different.  Though some of the statutes of limitations are discussed here, determining which statute of limitation applies is a task best left to a qualified aviation lawyer.   

Are written waivers of liability worth the paper they are written on?  The answer, of course, is that it depends.  In California, a waiver that a passenger signs before stepping into an aircraft is enforceable, as long as it meets certain rules.  For example:Waiver

  • The waiver language must be clear and conspicuous to the person signing away his rights—not buried in fine print.
  • A passenger cannot waive liability for injuries resulting from another’s recklessness. 
  • A waiver will not release an employer from liability to an employee for risks that are inherent in the employee’s job.
  • A passenger cannot waive liability for injuries resulting from an aircraft’s defective design or manufacture.  

Despite the rules, a waiver can be written in such a way that it will, in most situations, prevent a passenger from obtaining compensation for injuries received in an aviation accident caused by another’s negligence.  In fact, a well-written release can prevent not just the passenger who signed it from suing, but in the event of the passenger’s death, his heirs as well.   But the release must be properly drafted. The language used is critical.  Many releases look "official" but simply do not pass muster.

The families of Michael and Anne Harris, the American couple on board Air France Flight 447, filed suit this week in Houston federal court.  It’s the first lawsuit arising from the crash. The most frequently asked questions about this suit are:

Question:  Aren’t the families jumping the gun?  The Air France Fuselage Recoveryblack boxes haven’t yet been recovered, and may never be.  For all we know, this may have been the result of a chance encounter with a thunderstorm.  The crash may have been an unavoidable accident with no one to blame.

Answer: The Montreal Convention is the international treaty that governs all claims against airlines involving international air travel.  Under the convention, Air France is responsible even if the the crash was "just an accident."  As a result, Air France must compensate the families for their loss regardless of what the cause of the crash turns out to be.

Question: Flight 447 was from Rio de Janeiro to Paris on a French airline.  Why should the families be allowed to sue in Houston, of all places?

Answer: The Montreal Convention allows the families to sue in the country of the passenger’s "principal and permanent" residence.  The families say that, though the couple was living in Brazil, the couple maintained a permanent residence in The Woodlands, a suburb of Houston.  If that’s so, the families have a good argument tha they are entitled to sue in Houston.

Question: Why did the families file suit in federal court, rather than state court?

Answer: Many aviation lawyers believe that state courts are more favorable than federal courts for family members who have suffered a loss.  So victims’ attorneys often prefer to sue in state court.  However, a fairly new federal statute requires almost all cases arising from large air disasters to be heard in federal court.

More Air France Flight 447:

What happens to the wreckage after an airplane accident? Who gets access to it? What does the aviation accident attorney need to do to make sure it is properly preserved?
 
Here’s what happens: 
 
1. The National Transportation Safety Board Secures the Wreckage on Site. The wreckage usually remains at the site of the aircraft accident until the National Transportation Safety Board arrives. The Board investigator immediately secures the wreckage and makes Wreckage Awaiting NTSBsure no one tampers with it.  The Board investigator inspects, documents, and photographs the wreck.
 
2. The Wreckage is Removed to a Secure Location. After the Board investigator has inspected the wreckage on site, it asks a salvage company to remove it to a secure location.  The salvage company usually cuts the aircraft up, loads it on a truck and carts it away.  Wreckages from northern California airplane accidents often end up at a facility called Plain Parts in Pleasant Grove near Sacramento.  Wreckages from southern California accidents often end up at Aircraft Recovery Services in Pearblossom, California. Though the wreckage is now in the hands of a private salvage company, it is still considered to be in the custody of the NTSB. The salvage yard operators are supposed to allow no one access to the wreckage without the NTSB’s permission.
 
3. The NTSB Goes to the Storage Facility. The NTSB visits the storage facility with the other parties whom the NTSB has invited to participate in the accident investigation.  (As discussed here, the NTSB often invites the aircraft and engine manufacturer to participate in the investigation. The NTSB never invites the victim or the victim’s representatives. In fact, the NTSB won’t even allow the victim or his representatives access to the wreckage.)  The NTSB and the invited parties conduct a more detailed inspection of the parts, and they may disassemble the engine. They may send parts out for testing. 
 
4. The Wreckage is "Released" to the Owner.  When the NTSB is done with its various inspections, it "releases" the wreckage to the owner.  By now, legal title to the aircraft has often changed from its original owner to the insurance company that paid for the loss of the aircraft. As far as the NTSB is concerned, the owner — whether it’s the insurance company or the original owner — is now free to do with the wreckage what it wants, including scrapping it or selling it.    
 
Of course, the aircraft wreckage is important evidence. Therefore, before the NTSB releases the wreckage, the aviation attorney must take whatever steps are necessary to make sure the wreck is preserved.  The victim’s attorney needs to determine who the aircraft wreckage’s owner is, and he must obtain the owner’s written agreement to keep the wreck secure once the NTSB releases it. If the owner refuses, or threatens to destroy the wreck, the attorney may need to seek a court order. 

NTSB Chairman Deborah Hersman’s recent testimony before congress concerning the mid-air collision over the Hudson raises more questions than it answers.  She stated that  the Teterboro controller instructed the Piper pilot to switch to frequency 127.85 to contact the Newark controller.  But before leaving the Teterboro frequency, according to Hersman, the pilot read back to the controller “127.87,”  which was wrong.  Thereafter, the pilot was in contact with neither Teterboro nor Newark, and so neither facility could warn him of the impending collision. Hersman’s remarks are here.

Hersman’s implication is that the Teterboro controller failed to correct the pilot, and so the controller contributed to the pilot’s getting “lost in the hertz” (out of radio contact) at a crucial moment.  However, the animation that the NTSB released on the same day that Hersman testified does not appear to back Hersman up.  It just doesn’t sound as though the pilot read back “127.87” as Hersman states.  You can listen to the audio yourself beginning at minute 2:25.

 

An aviation insurance company must fairly compensate those injured due to the negligence of one of its policy holders.  Of course, in most cases, the insurance company’s  financial responsibility is limited to the dollar limits of the insurance policy. 

But not always. 

When an insurance company unreasonably forces an aviation accident victim to take his case to trial instead of paying the policy limits to settle out of court, the rules change.  In that situation, the insurance company may be required to pay whatever amount the jury decides would fairly compensate the injured person, even if that amount is more than the limits of the policy.  That is because an insurance company who unreasonably refuses to pay its policy limits to settle a case is considered to be acting in "bad faith." 

Here’s an example of how California insurance law works. Let’s say that a passenger is injured in an aircraft crash, and that the crash was caused by the pilot’s negligence.  Let’s also say that the passenger has medical bills and lost wages or more than $250,000, but that the limit of the pilot’s insurance policy is only $100,000.  If the injured passenger demands  from the pilot’s insurance company $100,000 to settle out of court, the insurance company should pay it.  After all, it would be unreasonable not to pay that amount given the harm  the passenger has suffered.  But what if the insurance company decides to play "hard ball" and force the case to trial?  If a jury renders a verdict against the pilot of, say, $500,000, the insurance company may be required to pay the entire amount.  It is no defense that its policy was for only $100,000.  

This doesn’t mean that the insurance company must automatically fork over the policy limits to the accident victim in every case. Rather, the insurance company must pay the limits to settle only when it would be unreasonable not to.  In short,  if the insurance company decides to play hardball with the injured party, then the insurance company can be held financially responsible for the consequences.

 

When someone is killed in an airplane or helicopter accident, California’s wrongful death law allows only certain members of the victim’s family to obtain monetary compensation from those who are responsible.  The family members who are entitled to compensation are:

  • The victim’s Spouse or registered Domestic Partner
  • The victim’s Parents – but not where the victim left children, unless the parents were financially dependent on the victim
  • The victim’s Children, including Adopted Children
  • The victim’s Stepchildren – but only if they were financially dependent on the victim 
  • Unrelated children in the victim’s care – If the child lived with and was financially dependent on the victim for the 180 days before the victim’s death 
  • The victim’s Brothers & Sisters – but only when the victim left no other relatives with a right to sue.  

Many aviation accidents occur over navigable waters.  When that happens, maritime law may apply and the rules can be slightly different.  For example, parents may be entitled to compensation for the loss of their son or daughter, even though the son or daughter was married with children, and though the parents were not financially dependent on him or her.