Bereaved relatives ‘hounded’ by US firms
NAIROBI/ADDIS ABABA: Days after the March 10 crash of a Kenya-bound Ethiopian Airlines’ Boeing jet that killed all 157 people on board, strangers began calling or visiting bereaved families, saying they represented US law firms.
Reuters interviewed 37 relatives of the victims, or their representatives, and found that 31 complained of being approached by people saying they represented US law firms.
In some instances, the behaviour may have been illegal or unethical under US laws and rules barring solicitation and deceptive practices, several legal ethics experts said.
Six firms were particularly aggressive in courting prospective clients after the Boeing plane nosedived into an Ethiopian field: Ribbeck Law Chartered and Global Aviation Law Group (GALG) of Chicago; the Witherspoon Law Group and Ramji Law Group from Texas; and Wheeler & Franks Law Firm PC and Eaves Law Firm of Mississippi.
Witherspoon, Wheeler, Eaves and Ramji denied any wrongdoing. Ribbeck and GALG did not respond to requests for comment.
Ribbeck Law and GALG jointly filed two lawsuits against Boeing seeking “all damages available under the law” without being specific about the size of the claims. Three suits filed by Ramji have been dismissed. The other firms haven’t filed any suits.
As of last week, there were 114 cases filed against Boeing in Chicago federal court on behalf of 112 crash victims, according to lead counsel for the plaintiffs, Robert Clifford. More than three dozen law firms are representing them. No trial date has been set.
Boeing has said it is “cooperating fully with the investigating authorities” and said that safety is its highest priority.
It has acknowledged errors in failing to give pilots more information on 737 MAX software involved in a Lion Air crash that killed 189 in Indonesia in October 2018 and the Ethiopian crash five months later, but Boeing has not admitted any fault in how it developed the aircraft. The 737 MAX is currently grounded.
Boeing declined to comment on the lawsuits.
UNINVITED GUEST
An uninvited stranger turned up at Paul Njoroge’s family home in Kenya just hours after a memorial service for his wife, his three small children, and his mother-in-law, who all died in the crash.
Mr Njoroge said the visitor gave him promotional materials for the law firm Wheeler and Franks. “I said, I don’t know who directed you to this place. Everyone here is praying,” he said.
Two other families said they received visits around the time of memorial services from Wheeler’s lawyers or people who said they represented the firm.
James Ndeda, who Wheeler represented after he was injured in the 1998 embassy bombing in Kenya, said he visited Mr Njoroge. The firm’s partners, Bill Wheeler and Jamie Franks, asked him to help the firm connect with crash victims’ families, Mr Ndeda said. Wheeler sent him literature featuring his firm and another Mississippi firm, Eaves Law Firm.
Mr Ndeda said he went to visit victims’ families either by himself, sent employees or accompanied Bill Wheeler or Jamie Franks, and sometimes Leo Jackson, an investigator with Eaves. Mr Jackson declined to comment.
Wheeler and Franks, and Eaves, said in a joint emailed statement they only met families if invited.
“The story you have been told is completely wrong,” they wrote. “We contacted no families without an invitation.”
Awards against an airline are capped if it was not negligent. However, there is no limit set for cases against aircraft manufacturers, making lawsuits against Boeing potentially lucrative for lawyers.