Addressing legal liability
SOON after Mitchell Proner, a New York personal-injury lawyer, heard about the capsizing of the Costa Concordia off the coast of Italy, he sprang into action.
Proner, who specialises in motorcycle-accident lawsuits, has never litigated a maritime case. But he has at least one advantage over other US lawyers who might want to sue over the disaster: He speaks Italian. Within days of the accident, he hopped a ight to Italy.
Once there, Proner met with an Italian consumer group, Codacons, which ultimately agreed to refer potential clients to Proner's rm and listed the rm on its website. Proner also set up his own website, which features a photo of a gleaming, pre-disaster Costa Concordia.
Proner's site claims he will le a suit seeking at least $160,000 in damages for any passenger he represents, and notes that some victims "may be able to collect multiple times that amount."
Unlike in Italy, accident victims who le suit in the United States can recover damages if they can prove a defendant acted egregiously. These damages can soar above the amount of any loss.
US lawyers who bring successful cases on behalf of injured people can be awarded fees of as much as 30 per cent of any recovery.
Carnival Corp, parent of the Italian company that operates the ship, Costa Cruise Lines, has not issued a statement addressing its legal liability. Costa has blamed the ship's captain for straying off course; he has said he was following instructions.
Last Friday, Costa offered to pay $14,500, plus a refund and costs of travel home, to the ship's 3,200 passengers. The offer does not apply to anyone who suffered physical injuries. It could not be determined how many passengers have accepted the offer.
Proner says the offer is "completely inadequate." He has teamed up with another New York lawyer, Marc Bern, whom he says he worked with on prior cases. Bern's rm, Napoli Bern Ripka Shkolnik, which has around 30 lawyers, gained attention last year when a federal judge said it and other plaintiffs' counsel would receive around $187.5 million in fees for representing Ground-zero workers who had health claims related to the September 11, 2001, attacks.
Proner and Bern have taken to the airwaves to promote their cause. On Saturday, January 21, one week after the accident, Proner told the BBC he planned to le a lawsuit the following Wednesday against Carnival in Miami, where the company is based. The report was picked up by the Daily Telegraph, the Guardian, and UPI, among other news outlets. Proner was interviewed again by radio and television stations from Miami to Calgary, and by Reuters TV.
On Tuesday Bern appeared on NBC’S The Today Show, saying the "conduct of this ship" was "outrageous."
On Friday, Bern provided a copy of a lawsuit on behalf of seven passengers that he said his rm and Proner's rm had led in Florida state court that day against Carnival. Reuters could not immediately con rm that the lawsuit had been led. The lawsuit provided by Bern makes allegations of maritime negligence, intentional in iction of emotional distress, and others. Bern said it was the rst of many he would le on behalf of hundreds of individuals.
Proner and Bern are among several US lawyers claiming to represent victims of the disaster — and there are others in Italy, such as Giulia Bongiorno, who also represented the former boyfriend of Amanda Knox, the American college student who was acquitted of murdering her housemate in Italy.
Mike Eidson, of the Miami plaintiffs' rm Colson Hicks Eidson, said he had as many as 200 clients lined up to sue over the accident. He said the majority found their way to him through referrals from other lawyers. Eidson, who has not led a lawsuit, issued a press release on January 16, saying he "believes punitive damages will be appropriate."
Last Thursday, lawyers from Ribbeck Law Chartered in Chicago led a classaction lawsuit on behalf of a crew member against Carnival in federal court in Illinois for breach of contract, negligence, and other allegations.