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A Jamaican law firm has forged a major alliance with a charter of international lawyers to aggressively pursue multi-million US dollar claims for the survivors of the crash of an American Airline passenger jet on a rocky beach in Kingston, last month.
Anthony Hylton, who manages the firm Hylton-Brown, has teamed up with the Chicago based Ribbeck Law to initiate litigation in American and Jamaican courts on behalf of the victims.
The law firms held a joint press conference on Thursday morning to lay out how they intent to manoeuvre the legal battle ground which has begun to heat up.
The laws firms have hit the ground running with the filing of petitions for discovery in a Chicago court Thursday morning.
They are trying to obtain an order for Boeing, the maker of the downed American Airlines plane, to hand over sensitive documents deemed to be vital in getting the crash victim's claims prepared.
Manuel von Ribbeck, who is the lead American attorney in a firm that specialises in aviation litigation, states that it is important to find out what caused the crash and determine the liabilities involved.
He says the lawsuits will be filed individually in accordance with the losses and damages each family and survivor has suffered.
<span style="font-weight: bold">However he was unable to quantify the value of the lawsuits.</span>
"With our experts we will assign liability as to who made the mistakes, who acted negligently or even recklessly and depending on that we will ask for those problems to be corrected and sanctions to be assigned but we are in the process of helping a number of people that have been injured in this case. The injuries range between orthopedic injuries which are broken bones and things like that to brain injuries, some of them have traumatic brain injuries," Mr. Ribbeck said.
<span style="font-weight: bold">The lawyers have hired an independent expert, Canadian, Max Vermij, who specialises in plane accident cause analysis, to help determine the probable causes of the crash</span>.
Attorney Anthony Hylton, the Jamaican lead counsel says the passengers who were on the ill-fated flight are yet to receive their baggage and strong demands have been made for their return.
"The sixty days indicated by American Airlines for the safe return of luggage is unacceptable. We have made demands on American Airlines to meet with is to discuss a more acceptable time frame in which the passengers could receive the luggage and personal items," Mr. Hylton said.
Clearance is now being sought from Jamaican Aviation authorities to grant the expert permission to view critical information as the investigations continues.
And senior partner in Ribbeck Law, Monica Kelly says speculation that pilot error could have caused the plane crash is premature.
Ms. Kelly says the firm's litigation will take into account the major factors even though mechanical problems with the aircraft have been ruled out by the Jamaican authorities.
"Aircraft are very complicated machines and when an incident happens there are many factors involved. There is of course the human error factor, there is the mechanical component part and there is also the weather conditions and perhaps in this incident all those three factors were involved," Ms. Kelly said.
Meanwhile, Director General of the Jamaica Civil Aviation Authority, Lieutenant Colonel, Osar Derby says Air Traffic controller error will not be a consideration in the JCAA's investigations into the crash.
He says from all indications the correct procedure was followed by the air traffic controller on duty at the time.
He added that information has already been gathered from the person on duty at the time and other relevant information recorded in the tower has also been collected.
Anthony Hylton, who manages the firm Hylton-Brown, has teamed up with the Chicago based Ribbeck Law to initiate litigation in American and Jamaican courts on behalf of the victims.
The law firms held a joint press conference on Thursday morning to lay out how they intent to manoeuvre the legal battle ground which has begun to heat up.
The laws firms have hit the ground running with the filing of petitions for discovery in a Chicago court Thursday morning.
They are trying to obtain an order for Boeing, the maker of the downed American Airlines plane, to hand over sensitive documents deemed to be vital in getting the crash victim's claims prepared.
Manuel von Ribbeck, who is the lead American attorney in a firm that specialises in aviation litigation, states that it is important to find out what caused the crash and determine the liabilities involved.
He says the lawsuits will be filed individually in accordance with the losses and damages each family and survivor has suffered.
<span style="font-weight: bold">However he was unable to quantify the value of the lawsuits.</span>
"With our experts we will assign liability as to who made the mistakes, who acted negligently or even recklessly and depending on that we will ask for those problems to be corrected and sanctions to be assigned but we are in the process of helping a number of people that have been injured in this case. The injuries range between orthopedic injuries which are broken bones and things like that to brain injuries, some of them have traumatic brain injuries," Mr. Ribbeck said.
<span style="font-weight: bold">The lawyers have hired an independent expert, Canadian, Max Vermij, who specialises in plane accident cause analysis, to help determine the probable causes of the crash</span>.
Attorney Anthony Hylton, the Jamaican lead counsel says the passengers who were on the ill-fated flight are yet to receive their baggage and strong demands have been made for their return.
"The sixty days indicated by American Airlines for the safe return of luggage is unacceptable. We have made demands on American Airlines to meet with is to discuss a more acceptable time frame in which the passengers could receive the luggage and personal items," Mr. Hylton said.
Clearance is now being sought from Jamaican Aviation authorities to grant the expert permission to view critical information as the investigations continues.
And senior partner in Ribbeck Law, Monica Kelly says speculation that pilot error could have caused the plane crash is premature.
Ms. Kelly says the firm's litigation will take into account the major factors even though mechanical problems with the aircraft have been ruled out by the Jamaican authorities.
"Aircraft are very complicated machines and when an incident happens there are many factors involved. There is of course the human error factor, there is the mechanical component part and there is also the weather conditions and perhaps in this incident all those three factors were involved," Ms. Kelly said.
Meanwhile, Director General of the Jamaica Civil Aviation Authority, Lieutenant Colonel, Osar Derby says Air Traffic controller error will not be a consideration in the JCAA's investigations into the crash.
He says from all indications the correct procedure was followed by the air traffic controller on duty at the time.
He added that information has already been gathered from the person on duty at the time and other relevant information recorded in the tower has also been collected.