Potential Aviation Claims
Motley Rice guides each client through the litigation process for cases involving wrongful death, personal injury, strict liability or a combination of legal issues. When a victim’s family is hiring a firm, they should feel very comfortable and ready to build a working relationship with them for an extensive amount of time. The firm should also be one that has litigated numerous complex cases, worked with legal teams and experts, and can advance the long-term costs necessary to litigate aviation cases. Possible costs include investigation, deposition and filing expenses as well as expert fees.
Often a family's probate attorney is consulted first following a fatal plane crash. Probate attorneys address issues regarding the victim's estate assets and bills. Motley Rice’s aviation team works with probate attorneys in wrongful death, personal injury and product liability cases, class actions, and cross-border litigation.
Types of Potential Claims
Wrongful Death
In addition to the investigation and litigation of all issues of causation, fault and liability, we gather information necessary to establish financial estate matters, present and future financial losses, and other losses. Damages arising from wrongful death fall into the following categories: economic loss (lost income), non-economic loss (pain and suffering), survival damages (fear, grief, sorrow), and punitive or exemplary damages.
Personal Injury
When injured due to the negligence or careless actions of others, a victim may be entitled to payment for various damages. Depending on the victim and the injury, these may include such things as compensatory damages (property damages, medical expenses, lost earnings, "other" damages and future damages), general damages, loss of consortium, emotional damages, and punitive or exemplary damages.
Product Liability
Product liability law is complex and differs from general personal injury law. Claims are usually based on state laws and brought under theories of breach of warranty, negligence or strict liability. Consulting an attorney immediately is important as there is a legally defined time frame in which you may bring a claim.
Class Actions
Other nations' laws sometimes permit class actions to be brought to redress mass disaster losses. We have brought such class actions in several countries and have teamed with foreign co-counsel to work for our clients.
Multinational and Cross-Border Litigation
Motley Rice attorneys, together with foreign co-counsel, have sought justice for plaintiffs of various nationalities in many countries. With more and more U.S. airlines flying foreign-manufactured aircraft, any air crash has the potential to present multinational and multilingual litigation. Motley Rice has successfully tracked defendants, evidence and assets on multiple continents and in dozens of countries, including hostile nations and terrorist states.
Contact Us
If you or someone you know is interested in seeking legal recourse due to wrongful death or personal injury as a result of a plane crash, please contact Motley Rice aviation attorney and former Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Transportation Mary Schiavo by email or call +1 800.868.6456.