(The Associated Press circulated the following on September 30.)
SIMI VALLEY, Calif. — Lawyers have begun campaigns to represent victims of the Sept. 12 Metrolink commuter train wreck that killed 25 people and injured more than 130 others in suburban Los Angeles.
Attorneys are running newspaper and television advertisements, and several law firms organized a town hall-style meeting Tuesday in Simi Valley, in the heart of communities most affected when a Metrolink train taking commuters home from Los Angeles collided with a freight train.
The Web site of one law firm advertised in the Ventura County Star newspaper includes a list of cases the firm was involved in where plaintiffs won multimillion-dollar jury awards after various railroad incidents.
Greg Keating, a law professor specializing in torts and professional responsibility at the University of Southern California, said members of the public often feel conflicted about law firms soliciting for business after a big accident.
“On the one hand, we think people who are wrongly injured have legitimate claims for redress,” Keating said. “But on the other hand, we are squeamish about making life and death entangled with ordinary commerce.”
Keating said law firms often seek multiple victims in cases because much of the work done on the behalf of one plaintiff is often applicable to other cases. Lawyers often get a 30 percent cut of any payout.
Litigation from the Metrolink disaster could easily push the limits on a federal law that sets a $200 million cap on damage payouts to victims of a train crash. California’s U.S. senators have questioned that law and suggested alternatives, such as Congress making up the difference if the liability limit is reached.
The commuter train was heading toward Simi Valley, a Ventura County city about 45 miles northwest of Los Angeles, when it ran head-on into a freight train coming the other way. Many of Simi Valley’s residents take the Metrolink line to commute to school or jobs in the Los Angeles area.
Metrolink has said its engineer, Robert Sanchez, failed to stop at a red light.
Several teenage train enthusiasts told a reporter Sanchez sent them a text message just before the collision. The National Transportation Safety Board has said Sanchez did send text messages from his cell phone while on duty the day of the crash but has not revealed the times of those messages.