Published Jan. 11, 2005, in the Kirksville Daily Express

Story by Matthew Webber

KIRKSVILLE - As families prepare to file lawsuits stemming from the Oct. 19 fatal plane crash near Kirksville, attorneys across the country are turning to the Internet to recruit those potential clients.

A Google search of the term "Kirksville plane crash" returns thousands of news stories about the Oct. 19, 2004, Corporate Airlines crash - some of which are posted on the Web sites of law firms, including at least two firms that are representing victims' families.

One week after Kirksville received a notice of claim it might be sued in connection to the crash about two miles south of Kirksville Regional Airport, lawyers from firms in Illinois and New York said they have been in contact with victims' families who found them either through referrals from other lawyers or information on the firms' home pages.

Although both lawyers said they had no imminent plans to sue the city, they said they do plan to seek compensation from the Smyrna, Tenn.-based Corporate Airlines sometime in the near future.

Tom Ellis, of the Chicago-based Nolan Law Group, said the family of one of the victims, Judith Diffenderfer of Michigan, has retained his firm's services, and several other families are in an interview process.

For some of these families, viewing the Nolan Law Group's Web site might have been the first step in choosing representation.

"The Internet has become an additional tool in the search," Ellis said. "A lot of times it's the first tool, because it's hard to talk to people about such an event."

Ellis said there is more to a family's choosing a lawyer than using a search engine, however.

"That's just a first step," he said. "You take that initial step and then you go beyond from there. You start looking at past records, what steering committees they've appeared on, peer ratings, things like that.

The Nolan group's Web site has a link to "our aviation practice," which includes a list of other aviation lawsuits in which the firm has participated and awards its clients have won.

"Typically, you won't get a client straight through the Internet," he said. "You're talking about a serious, serious matter to these families. They're not going to search the Internet and say, 'This one looks good.' A lot of firms out there do aviation work, but only a handful truly concentrate on that kind of work."

From previous cases, Ellis said he knows there is a lot of groundwork to be done before the Diffenderfer family can file a suit, although Ellis said the firm "will be filing shortly" against Corporate Airlines and its parent company, American Airlines, in a location and for damages yet to be determined.

Liability must be determined in a crash before plaintiffs can receive compensation, Ellis said. Because the National Transportation Safety Board continues to investigate the Oct. 19 crash, some lawyers for victims' families might be waiting to learn more information about the crash before filing.

Preliminary reports pointed to several possible factors including foggy weather, pilot fatigue, an older version of a terrain avoidance warning system on the Jetstream 32 plane and the lack of an instrument landing system for a more precise approach at the airport.

Further, because the airport, companies' offices and victims' homes are in different locations, Ellis said steering committees composed of plaintiffs' lawyers typically form after the different families involved in a plane crash have each filed their own suits. A panel of federal judges approves the committee and decides where the cases can then be tried.

Robert Spragg, of New York, N.Y.-based Kreindler & Kreindler L.L.P., described the filing process in similarly lengthy terms, although he said most firms file suits on behalf of the families within one year of the date of the crash to avoid exceeding the statute of limitations on wrongful-death and personal-injury suits.

The statute of limitations varies from state to state, but Spragg said it is two years for wrongful-death suits and three years for personal-injury claims in New York.

Spragg said his firm has been retained by a family of a victim from New York in the Oct. 19 crash, although he, like Ellis, said his firm has interviewed several other families who also might have learned about aviation law from the Internet.

"I think today, given the advent of the Internet, the average person is becoming a lot more savvy on learning what these law firms offer," Spragg said.

"We're still being contacted by people being referred [from other lawyers] but more and more directly by clients who go on the Internet, type in aviation attorney, and look at the Web sites that come up."

Like the Nolan group site, the Kreindler & Kreindler Web site includes an "aviation case list" the firm has handled. A link to "American Connection Flight 5966" provides information about a preliminary investigation of the crash.

However, since the NTSB investigation is incomplete, "there's a limit to the amount of information that's available right now," Spragg said.

"There's a certain amount of information we're not privy to until the NTSB decides to release it publicly," he said.

Because of the ongoing nature of the case, Spragg said it is "probably a bit early" to say if, when and where his firm will file a claim for its client, and "it would be premature at this point to speculate the amount of any damages."

"We take the time to see who is responsible and see where we should file," he said.

However, Spragg said he was not inclined to sue the city of Kirksville.

"Certainly if we were going to do it, it would be at the last instant," he said. "My inclination now would be not to bring the city or any government entity into the case and compound the investigation."

Last Tuesday, the city received a notice of claim from Robert Schreck of Buffalo, N.Y.-based Cellino & Barnes P.C., on behalf of the estate of one of the victims, Richard Sarkin of Amherst, N.Y.

The notice seeks compensation for the city's "wrongful, unlawful, negligent and careless acts and omissions" in connection with the Oct. 19 crash, including "primitive and obsolete" approach technology and insufficient runway lighting.

Ellis, Spragg and Pat Livingston, the director of marketing for Austin, Texas-based Slack & Davis L.L.P., all said their firms do not "solicit" clients through the Internet because there are ethical concerns and federal regulations against directly contacting the families involved in a plane crash for 45 days.

Even then, "it is not appropriate or ethical to contact a person directly," said Livingston, who said her firm is not currently representing the families of any victims of the Oct. 19 crash although lawyers have interviewed some of the families.

"Our firm does not pursue clients directly," Livingston said. "We have a Web site out there where people who are searching for an aviation lawyer can find us and contact us.

"This particular firm doesn't do much more than have a Web presence out there."