Atlas Crash - Pilot's Family Files Lawsuit

[OldnGrounded]

Originally Posted by wrench1

What I find interesting is they (Aska) include his employer Atlas in the filing. In most (all?) states an employee/surviving family can not sue the employer due to state workman's compensation laws as the work comp will pay out on the death claim. Was the crew considered "contractors" to Atlas or Amazon?? Then no workman's comp. I'm no expert on this side but something is amiss here. As the rotor turns...as they say on my end of the business.

One of the exceptions that permits employees to sue outside of workers' comp is when an employer has inadequate coverage to compensate for the loss. Also, whether it works or not, it's always easier to name all the defendants you can think of in the original claim. If some or all counts are dismissed as to some defendants, you've lost nothing. And, just maybe, they won't be dismissed.

Our legal system is deliberately adversarial. Plaintiffs' attorneys in cases like this know that the defendants are going to have high-powered counsel with killer instinct, so there's no advantage to being "reasonable" from the outset.

[tdracer]

Originally Posted by wrmiles

It seems they are alleging everything possible (fatigue, maintenance, airworthiness, etc) against every entity possibly involved. There is no hint of which allegations actually caused the accident, evidence of which would presumably come later.

That's SOP when filing a lawsuit - allege everything against everybody. It's relatively easy to drop something out of the suit once filed, much harder to add if it turns out you missed someone or something.
Maninthebar - yes I've known and dealt with a number of lawyers over the years. A few came across as fine, outstanding people and good lawyers, I wish I could say they were in the majority. But I can't - far too many were at the opposite end of the spectrum.

[wrench1]

Originally Posted by OldnGrounded

One of the exceptions that permits employees to sue outside of workers' comp is when an employer has inadequate coverage to compensate for the loss.

I believe that is true for an employee. But for the surviving family to bring suit there are 2 qualifiers that must be satisfied: there is actual harm to the survivors and the employee was not negligent in his death. If in fact the FO was pilot flying then might be hard to pass the latter test. However, each state has different work comp laws.

[fox niner]

If you need a lawyer, watch out. They will always tell you what YOU want to hear. Not whether the legal path you want him go down, is even possible, wise, smart or desireable.