For information on earlier
crashes and Lieff Global experience, click
here.
_____
*Our representation of clients in these
cases has been by Lieff Global attorneys while at Lieff Global
or prior to their joining our firm.
About Our Firm
Lieff Global's Long-Standing Airplane
Disaster Case Experience
Robert L. Lieff, founding partner
of Lieff Global, first entered aviation litigation in
the early 1970s while at the law firm of Belli Ashe Ellison
Choulos & Lieff.
Among his aviation cases were hundreds
of lawsuits for wrongful death on behalf of the widows
and children of German combat pilots killed in crashes
involving F-104 Star Fighter jets. The U.S.-manufactured
Lockheed F-104 Star Fighter was designed for high-altitude
fighter combat, but used by German and European forces
for low-level bombing and attack training missions.
The aircraft had an extremely
high crash rate, with over 300 pilots killed. Robert
Lieff continued to prosecute these cases after the
formation of his new law firm, Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein,
LLP. The lawsuits were settled with Lockheed on terms
favorable to the plaintiffs.
In other landmark litigation,
Mr. Lieff served as Plaintiffs' Liaison Counsel on
behalf of the passengers and families of passengers
injured and killed in the United Airlines Boeing 747
cargo door catastrophe near Honolulu, Hawaii in 1989.
Plaintiffs brought claims against United Airlines and
the Boeing Corporation.
Families whose loved
ones died or were injured in airplane or
helicopter accidents are welcome to contact
a lawyer at Lieff Global to
learn more about their legal rights. We
welcome the opportunity to answer your
questions free of charge and without obligation.
Our lawyers have years of experience successfully representing clients in aviation accident cases.
There is no charge or obligation for our review of your case.
We are pleased to visit you where you live, at no cost, to discuss your legal rights and answer your questions.
We have retained many of the leading aviation safety experts in the world to assist our clients with their claims.
We developed a statistical system for settling the passengers' and families' damages claims with certain defendants, and coordinated individual wrongful death trials against the non-settling defendants.
In the 1990s, Lieff Cabraser represented the families of passengers who were on Aeroflot Russian International Airlines Flight SU593 which crashed in Siberia in 1994. The plane was en route from Moscow to Hong Kong. All 70 people on board were killed.
According to a transcript of the cockpit voice recorder, the captain's two children entered the cockpit during the flight and were allowed to take turns flying the plane. The autopilot apparently was inadvertently turned off and the plane went into a fatal nosedive. There was no auditory warning system to alert the pilots that the autopilot system had been disengaged.
Lieff Cabraser, alongside European co-counsel, Martin-Chico & Associates, filed suit in France where Airbus, the aircraft manufacturer, was headquartered. In the Aeroflot case, all the families Lieff Cabraser represented obtained substantial economic recoveries in a settlement of the action.
Lieff Global's attorney staff is fortunate to include partner Lexi J. Hazam. Ms. Hazam received her law degree from the University of California at Berkeley and also has a Master’s Degree in Anthropology from Stanford University. Before joining Lieff Global, Ms. Hazam practiced at Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP representing clients in mass torts cases, including aviation cases.
Ms. Hazam currently represents clients across the globe in a wide range of international tort cases, including families of Brazilian victims of last year’s mid-air collision of a commercial airliner and corporate jet over the Amazon rainforest.
Ms. Hazam speaks Spanish and Portuguese and has lived and worked previously in Latin America.
Additional Expertise in Global Aviation Accidents
English solicitor Nigel Taylor serves as Of Counsel to Lieff Global. Mr. Taylor has devoted much of his professional life to the representation of air crash victims and their families, and is regarded as one of the world's leading practictioners in that field.
London is the insurance capital of the world and Mr. Taylor's London office is located near the headquarters of insurers who handle more than 90 percent of the world's aviation accident insurance. When an accident occurs, it is those insurers who act on behalf of the airline and other responsible parties, to compensate the victims.
In the past, Mr. Taylor has negotiated settlements on behalf of the families of most of the passengers who died in the Air France Concorde disaster at Charles de Gaulle airport outside of Paris in July 2000. He has also helped resolve claims arising out of the following disasters: 1991 Lauda Air Boeing 767ER crash near Bangkok, Thailand; 1992 Pakistan International Airlines Airbus A-300 crash in Nepal; 1992 Thai Airways International Airbus A-310 crash in Kathmandu; 1994 Aeroflot Russian Airlines Airbus A-310 crash in Siberia; 1994 Royal Air Force Chinook helicopter crash in Scotland; 1994 British Army Westland Lynx helicopter crash in Germany; 1997 China Southern Airlines Boeing 737-300 crash at Shenzen, China; 1998 Air France Boeing 707 crash near Bogota, Columbia; 1998 Thai Airways International AIrbus A-310 crash at Surat Thani, Thailand; 2000 Gulf Air Airbus A-320 crash at Bahrain.
Mr. Taylor's expertise in negotiating with insurance representatives is a great advantage to Lieff Global's clients.
Another member of Lieff Global's
aviation team is David Fiol. A graduate of Harvard
Law School, Mr. Fiol has spent his legal career
working on aviation accident cases. Mr. Fiol has
written substantial portions of the treatise Aviation
Accident Law, including, most recently, the
entire chapter devoted to the treaties and laws
regulating international flights.
Mr. Fiol played a key role
in drafting the trial and appellate briefs that
led to substantial recoveries for the families
of those who died on Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie,
Scotland. Later, he helped institute an action
against the State of Libya for bombing the aircraft,
leading to a settlement of $2.7 billion.
Global Aviation Law Network
Our firm has ongoing relationships
with leading injury and accident lawyers across the globe.
In several of the cases mentioned above, our lawyers have worked
closely with the law firm of Martin-Chico & Associates,
one of Europe's leading aviation law firms with offices in
France and Spain. For Canadian cases, we are associated with
the Toronto, Ontario law firm of Rochon Genova, which represents
plaintiffs in a wide range of civil cases.
In addition to our attorneys,
we have retained leading experts worldwide in the fields of
accident and disaster reconstruction and aviation safety.
Current Airplane Accident
Lawsuits
For a list of our current
aviation cases click here.
Contact Lieff Global
To confidentially contact an experienced
aviation attorney at Lieff Global regarding a case, please click
here. Alternatively, you may call Lieff Global toll-free
at 1-800-541-7358 (or 1-415-788-8000 for international callers)
and as to speak to attorney Lexi Hazam.
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