Referring Attorneys

Katzman Lampert & Stoll works with attorneys throughout the United States as co-counsel or referral counsel in complex aviation accident litigation. The firm’s practice is devoted exclusively to aviation accident cases involving commercial airlines, manufacturers, maintenance entities, and government contractors.

Aviation cases are not simply catastrophic-injury matters involving an aircraft. They often require immediate attention to federal regulatory structure, National Transportation Safety Board investigations, certification and design history, operational issues, preservation of technical evidence, and sophisticated defense strategies raised at the outset of the case. Early positioning frequently affects the entire course of the litigation.

Where a potential matter arises from a scheduled-passenger operation, attorneys may also wish to review the firm’s Commercial Airline Accident Litigation page, which addresses carrier liability, multi-party structure, accident investigation overlap, and related federal and international issues that often shape serious airline cases.

Why Aviation Cases Require Specialized Counsel

Lawyers handling serious injury or wrongful death matters may quickly recognize that an aviation case presents issues outside the ordinary framework of general tort litigation. Questions regarding aircraft certification, maintenance responsibility, pilot training, operational control, federal preemption, treaty limitations, and accident investigation procedure can become central long before the factual record is fully developed.

In many matters, the most important work begins early: preserving physical and documentary evidence, evaluating the investigative posture, identifying potentially responsible entities, and avoiding assumptions that may later narrow the case. For that reason, attorneys often seek aviation-specific co-counsel before the technical and legal issues have fully surfaced.

National Aviation Litigation Experience

For more than five decades, the firm has represented victims and families in major commercial airline disasters, general aviation crashes, military aviation incidents, and complex product liability actions involving aircraft and component manufacturers. The firm has appeared in courts across the United States in aviation matters of national significance.

Federal preemption and certification-based defenses are central features of aviation product liability litigation. The firm has litigated these issues in the federal courts of appeals and before the Supreme Court of the United States. Those proceedings have helped shape the framework governing aviation accident claims nationwide and required disciplined appellate advocacy at the highest level.

Technical and Investigative Infrastructure

All three partners are pilots. The firm maintains in-house investigative capability and does not rely solely on outside experts to evaluate accident scenes, aircraft systems issues, or operational questions. In appropriate matters, the firm deploys its own aircraft to access crash sites, evaluate airport approaches, and conduct independent operational analysis.

Aviation cases frequently require early preservation of wreckage-related evidence, maintenance and inspection records, training materials, operational data, certification documentation, and other technical materials that may shape both liability analysis and expert development. The firm’s investigative infrastructure is designed to meet those demands from the outset.

Litigating Against Sophisticated Defendants

Aviation accident litigation often involves major airlines, multinational manufacturers, repair and maintenance entities, and government contractors represented by nationally recognized defense counsel. These cases may present early jurisdictional challenges, federal-preemption arguments, treaty-based defenses, complex causation disputes, and dispositive motions directed at the legal structure of the claim itself.

Effective advocacy in this environment requires familiarity with federal procedure, complex discovery management, technical expert coordination, appellate strategy, and the practical realities of litigating cases in which engineering, regulatory, and operational issues are tightly interwoven. The firm prepares aviation cases with trial readiness in mind while addressing threshold defenses that may otherwise foreclose relief.

Attorneys who would like to discuss a potential aviation matter before those issues become harder to untangle may contact the firm directly for a confidential attorney consultation.

Working With Referring and Co-Counsel Attorneys

The firm works collaboratively with referring attorneys and understands the importance of protecting existing client relationships. Co-counsel and referral arrangements are structured in accordance with applicable ethical rules and jurisdictional requirements. Communication with referral counsel remains direct, consistent, and transparent throughout the representation.

Some attorneys contact the firm at the moment an aviation matter is identified. Others do so after factual or legal complexity begins to emerge. In either circumstance, the objective is the same: to evaluate the matter early, identify the issues that may control the case, and determine the most effective path forward for the client.

When Early Consultation Matters

Early consultation may be especially important where the case involves a commercial airline, a turbine aircraft, a potential manufacturing or maintenance issue, a complex airport-surface or operational event, multiple potentially responsible entities, or questions concerning certification, federal preemption, or the role of the NTSB investigation. In those settings, delay can complicate preservation, issue development, and strategic positioning.

Attorneys considering whether to bring in aviation counsel do not need to have fully developed liability theories before making contact. In many cases, the most valuable initial step is a confidential discussion focused on the known facts, the likely investigative posture, and the issues requiring immediate attention.

Selected Technical and Doctrinal Resources

Attorneys evaluating a potential aviation matter may find the following pages and articles useful:

• NTSB Investigations and Civil Litigation
• Complex Aviation Litigation Methodology
• NTSB Investigation Process
• Federal Preemption in Aviation Product Liability
• Defeating the GARA Defense in Aviation Product Liability Cases
• NTSB Party Participant Process Commentary
• Sikkelee and Third Circuit Aviation Product Liability Preemption
• Who Is Liable in an Aviation Accident?
• Evidence Preservation After an Aviation Crash
• The Group Organization Model in Aviation Accident Investigation

These materials are not a substitute for case-specific analysis, but they reflect recurring investigative, doctrinal, and strategic issues that often arise in serious aviation litigation.

Attorneys considering a referral or co-counsel relationship may contact the firm directly for a confidential evaluation.