Memorable, thought-provoking, grounded in principle—and one that capped off an emotional trial in New Orleans and marked a victory long overdue—the following are some quotes from attorneys we interviewed in 2009…(in no particular order)…
“The ultimate objective of every member of the plaintiff’s aviation bar that I know who regularly handles aviation cases, is to reveal the dangers in aircraft and in the aviation system to enhance the safety of aviation,” Goldman says. “That’s our major objective. It’s not just about getting an award for the plaintiffs, it’s about making aviation safer.”
“I always tell my clients, just tell it like it is,” says Levine. “I have told my clients two and a half million times that there is no substitute for the truth. The truth never hurts you.”
On stockbrokers who pilfer money from their clients…when it comes to arguing his case to recover money, Stoltmann says he goes down his four-letter checklist (aka “SCUM”):
S – was the investment suitable for the client given their age and risk tolerance
C – was the investor’s account churned or repeatedly rolled over in order to earn fees for the broker
U – were the trades and changes in the account unauthorized
M – were the risks and type of investment misrepresented to the client
On the stockbrokers themselves: “How can they sleep at night?” says Stoltmann. “They sleep very nicely in their mansions.”
On the federal court ruling that the Army Corp of Engineers which built the canal linking New Orleans to the Gulf of Mexico, was to blame for the catastrophic flooding that followed Hurricane Katrina…
“The people of New Orleans are vindicated,” said Bruno before a throng of media representatives. “They (the Army Corps of Engineers) can no longer hide behind an immunity. It is time for the people of this city to be compensated.”
On the high percentage of Match.com profiles that were allegedly still shown as “reachable” even though the profiles did not belong to active subscribers…
“A simple analogy is—I sell you a six pack of ginger ale and two of the cans are empty,” says Hart. “If I sold you six cans and you believe that all six are the same, but they are not. Four of them are what you are looking for and two of them are empty—now how do you feel about that?”
On May 27, five days before Air France Flight 447 crashed into the ocean, Momento24 reported that an Air France flight from Argentina to Paris was delayed before departing after the airline received a bomb threat over the phone at the airport offices. Police and firemen inspected the plane but found nothing. Coincidence?
According to the Washington Post (June 3), Aviation safety analysts are continuing to play down lightning as the force that tragically caused the plane crash, explaining that aircraft routinely encounter such strikes. Still, a struggle with a “complex of thunderstorms” is the probable theory.
But why did the pilot fly through the thunderstorms? “It’s not like we didn’t know that flying through a thunderstorm was a bad thing,” said William R. Voss, president of the Flight Safety Foundation. “We’ve known this for decades — that thunderstorms need to be avoided at all costs…The question is why did the pilot have to fly though this thunderstorm and is there anything we could have done that would have made the aircraft more survivable?”
The cause of the plane crash is still unknown…