ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, July 26, 1996 TAG: 9607260023
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B8 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NEW YORK
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
BUT WHEN A CAUSE of the TWA crash is determined, the ambulance-chasers may still get it in high gear.
The downing of TWA Flight 800 brought carnage and grief and anger. So where are the ambulance chasers?
New York law limits solicitation by lawyers, but even stricter measures in Florida didn't keep attorneys from descending on the relatives of victims of the ValuJet crash.
Some say the TWA tragedy is different: There was no quick determination of cause, international and marine law could severely limit any settlements, and quick disciplinary action against some lawyers in the ValuJet crash may have sent a message.
After the ValuJet flight went down in the Florida Everglades with 110 people on board in May, lawyers telephoned, sent flowers and mailed packages stuffed with brochures and contracts. Some families complained that lawyers even lurked behind plants in the hotel lobby waiting to approach them.
Although a few relatives of the 230 victims of Flight 800 have hired lawyers, there have been no reports of lawyers preying on the bereaved.
The manager of the Ramada Inn where most families are staying, Ron Petroski, said he wasn't aware of any mailings or deliveries to the families from lawyers. Bar associations have received no complaints.
Perhaps the lawyers have been kept at bay by the strict security at the hotel. People are checked before entering the hotel, and some areas are off-limits to all but the families and essential staff.
``As a practical matter, there's not a chance that a lawyer could get within 100 yards of those people,'' said Edward Fagan, a New York lawyer who drew complaints when he flew to Colombia in December after the crash of an American Airlines jet. ``That's not to say they couldn't go to someone's home, but if they do, shame on them.''
The only incident at the Ramada Inn has been a tabloid reporter's arrest for entering a restricted area while posing as a relative, said Port Authority spokesman Mark Hatfield.
Lawyers may also have been put on notice by a sting operation that followed the ValuJet crash.
Virtually every state bans lawyers or their representatives from soliciting business in person, and several, including New York and Florida, forbid direct-mail solicitations when they have reason to believe the mental or emotional state of a potential client is compromised.
Still, Florida's law - one of the toughest in the nation with a 30-day moratorium on soliciting victims - didn't stop several firms from quickly contacting the families.
To some degree, the efforts backfired when the Florida Bar took the unusual step of going to the hotel and advising families of their rights.
When lawyers hounded the mother of a girl who died in the crash, she joined in a sting operation with the bar associations of Florida, Louisiana and Texas.
An investigator posing as the mother met with the lawyer, giving authorities solid evidence of improper solicitation.
The aggressive enforcement after the ValuJet crash has resulted in disciplinary proceedings against three lawyers in Florida and two in Texas. The investigations continue.
The sting was an attempt ``to create a deterrent effect so that the next time a lawyer or a runner was improperly soliciting a client after a tragedy they would have some question in their mind'' about their chances of being caught, said Steven Young of the Texas State Bar Association.
In a pre-emptive move in the TWA crash, the New York State Bar Association last week warned that ``all lawyers should at this time avoid even the appearance of soliciting a client from this catastrophe.''
Some legal ethics experts believe reports of unscrupulous lawyers are overblown.
Young disagrees, saying many reports never make it to the disciplinary stage because they are so difficult to prove.
Still, some legal observers say the different tone surrounding Flight 800 might have more to do with money than manners.
A week after the downing of the TWA flight, the cause was still unknown. With ValuJet, a mechanical cause quickly became the prime suspect.
``Just because a plane crashes doesn't mean that there is strict liability of the carrier towards passengers,'' said William Hornsby of the American Bar Association. ``The question of liability may be a very difficult question to prove.''
In addition, while there is no limit for liability awards on domestic flights, the 1929 Warsaw Convention capped awards for injury or death at $75,000 per passenger on international flights. Victims' families must prove there was willful misconduct - such as poor maintenance or breached security - to command a higher settlement.
Indeed, Aaron Broder, who won $19 million for the widow of an executive killed in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, won much less, $75,000, for a client in the 1974 bombing of a TWA jetliner over the Ionian Sea because he didn't prove willful misconduct.
Broder thinks regardless of the cause, he could prove a case against TWA in Flight 800. Fagan believes he could, too.
``At the end of the day, no matter how it comes down, whether it's a terrorist act or whether it's some type of mechanical failure, there will be good reasons to maintain lawsuits against TWA,'' Fagan said.
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