Bronx Crash, Then Contest Of Lawyers
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When four Canadian tourists burned to death in a fiery collision with a tanker truck in the Bronx last month, condolences poured in to their families from friends, strangers — and many New York lawyers. One New York lawyer showed up at a memorial service at McCall’s Bronxwood Funeral Home. Another New York lawyer was on the phone with the mother of one victim the morning after she learned of her daughter’s death. Yet another sent an investigator to a flower shop in Mississauga, Ontario, to offer his sympathy — and legal services — to one of the victims’ aunt, who worked there. ‘I Am Still Grieving’ “There were so many lawyers,” Shirley Taffe, another aunt, said wearily. The Jamaican-born relatives in Mississauga, a suburb of Toronto, said they were deluged with so many calls, letters and doorstep appearances that they could not always remain polite. “Give me some time — I am still grieving,” is how Loretta Plummer, the mother of one of the victims, said she welcomed one investigator who showed up at her front door. In the strange world of personal injury law, tragedy is all too often followed by the black comedy of lawyers competing ferociously to represent the victims’ next of kin. In this case, at least one firm may have stretched the gray margin that separates aggressive pursuit of business from unethical ambulance-chasing to its limits — and perhaps a bit beyond. The accident occured on May 21, when a truck owned by Island Transportation and loaded with 4,000 gallons of fuel collided with the Canadians’ car at an intersection and exploded. For lawyers, the case was, in the words of Stephen Gillers, a law professor at New York University, “no risk, a sure thing, like playing with loaded dice.” Passengers are by definition blameless and generally evoke sympathy. And in personal injury cases, the Bronx is known for the generosity of its jurists. “This is a dream case, a gold mine,” Mr. Gillers said. The competition to represent the families of the three passengers (the drivers in such cases can always become defendants) quickly narrowed to a race between two of the best-known personal injury firms in New York, Edelman & Edelman in Brooklyn, and Harry H. Lipsig & Partners in lower Manhattan. “We were kind of torn in between,” said Joy McKenzie, the stepmother of Judith Ann McKenzie, who first retained Edelman & Edelman, and then changed her mind and hired the firm of Harry H. Lipsig & Partners. Lawsuits are always courtroom versions of Rashomon, with each side presenting wildly divergent interpretations of the facts. In this case, the widely different accounts of what happened are not about the collision, but about the struggle between the law firms. Family members complained of feeling like victims twice over, first suffering the loss of loved ones, then suffering the attentions of the media and the unending persistence of lawyers. Partners of Edelman & Edelman portrayed themselves as victims of the victims’ families, invited to Canada and subjected to lengthy “auditions” by families who first hired them, then mysteriously changed their minds in favor of the rival firm. ‘Tragedy’s Clearinghouse’ More : query.nytimes.com |