Federal Court Looks to Mediators to Resolve Air Crash Lawsuits
Wednesday, March 17th, 2010By: Stephen P. Lagoy
Not surprisingly, the crash of Continental Flight 3407 on its approach to Buffalo, N.Y. on February 12, 2009 has spawned lawsuits by the families of the 45 passengers, four crew members, one off-duty crew member, and one person on the ground, who died in the crash. The lawsuits have been filed against Colgan Air; Pinnacle Airlines; Continental Airlines, the company under whose name Colgan was flying; and Bombardier Aviation Services, maker of the Dash 8 Q400 twin-engine turboprop. Recently, U.S. District Judge William M. Skretny, who recently became the chief federal judge in Buffalo, assigned four local mediators to attempt to resolve the claims of the families of those killed. Mediation has been used extensively in Buffalo’s federal court since October 1995, when 400 lawyers came to the courthouse in hopes of clearing a logjam of 118 civil cases.
For more on the lawsuits the mediators will try to resolve, see http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf
Please contact Stephen P. Lagoy for more information.
