Katzman Lampert & Stoll has long approached aviation accident cases with a focus on truth, technical investigation, and accountability. The following letter reflects that commitment and explains how the firm views aviation litigation, accident causation, and the pursuit of justice for victims and families.

Our Commitment to Air Law and Litigation

Letter to Prospective Clients–The Truth About Airplane Incidents

The relationship of our law firm with our clients often begins in the midst of great human tragedy. When aviation goes wrong, it has the capacity to injure and kill. With each death and injury, grief ripples through loving relationships, families, and extended families, bringing terrible loss and sorrow.

Often, even in the midst of such horrific loss, questions arise: why did this accident happen, how did it happen, and how can it be prevented from happening again?

Like many law firms, we have attorneys dedicated to advancing our clients’ causes. The difference is that at Katzman Lampert & Stoll, our aviation lawyers approach these cases through the disciplines of piloting, engineering, investigation, and reconstruction. We believe there is a need to seek and determine the real cause of an aviation tragedy while also pursuing fair and just compensation for accident victims and their families. When regulatory systems fail to fully expose wrongdoing, the civil justice system remains one of the principal means of accountability. Through litigation, public policy failures and corporate misconduct can be brought to light.

Although the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is responsible for investigating and determining the probable cause of aviation accidents in the United States, many general aviation and some commercial aircraft accidents do not receive the depth of investigation they warrant. In many general aviation cases, investigators spend limited time at the scene before components are sent to manufacturers for examination and testing, and the investigation closes with conclusions that may not fully address all technical issues.

Experienced Aviation Attorneys

In high-profile aviation disasters, the NTSB may devote greater time, manpower, and resources. Even then, however, major investigations can be shaped by institutional and political pressures as much as by technical inquiry. Over the years, this firm has been involved in matters concerning significant safety issues, including uncommanded rudder reversal on certain Boeing 737 aircraft, fuel tank explosion hazards on wide-body aircraft, and the lack of a requirement for child restraint use on commercial airliners.

Through political influence and participation as party representatives in aviation accident investigations, industry has often exerted substantial influence over the investigative process. It is therefore left, in many cases, to aviation accident attorneys, especially those with backgrounds in flying, engineering, and technical analysis, to commit the time, money, and manpower necessary to get to the bottom of these tragedies. Litigation, and the prospect of meaningful jury verdicts, can serve as one of the few effective checks on the profit-driven conduct of large corporate actors.

The attorneys of Katzman Lampert & Stoll have an established record of pursuing every credible lead, conducting the engineering analysis required, and undertaking the extensive testing needed to determine the cause of an accident. These efforts have contributed to advances in aircraft design, more reliable powerplants, improved air traffic control procedures, and more crashworthy aircraft. As pilots ourselves, we would rather help prevent the next accident than repeatedly litigate the same preventable failure after more lives have been lost. That is the higher goal we seek to achieve.

You can expect, and we promise, a partnership dedicated to finding the truth and holding legally accountable the individuals or corporations whose actions caused a tragedy. We seek to hold wrongdoers accountable, obtain fair and just compensation for those who have suffered a tragic loss in an aviation accident, and help protect others from a similar fate in the future.

Very sincerely,
The Aviation Attorneys of Katzman Lampert & Stoll