Foreign law firms compete for Mandala crash cases

Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post/Medan

Several foreign law firms are competing for clients wanting to sue U.S. aircraft manufacturer Boeing Co. in connection with the tragic crash of a Mandala Airlines plane in Medan last month.

Abdul Hafiz Harahap, a brother of Regional Representatives Council member Abdul Halim Harahap who died in the crash, said on Friday that he had been approached by three foreign law firms offering to represent the family in its lawsuit against Boeing.

The three firms, he said, were the Nolan Law Group from Chicago, Law Offices Engstrom Lipscomb & Lack from Los Angeles and Speiser Krause from New York.

"After careful consideration, the family decided to appoint the Nolan Law Group since we found them more open and transparent than other law firms," Abdul Hafiz told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

On Thursday, one of the firm's lawyers, Manuel von Ribbeck, announced the firm had filed the first suit on Wednesday in a Chicago court to represent the late Abdul Halim Harahap's family. The initial target would be United Technologies Inc., the company that designed and manufactured the Boeing aircraft that crashed.

The law firms have claimed they had been appointed by a number of families of the crash victims. The Mandala Airlines Boeing 737-200 jetliner crashed into a densely populated residential area near Polonia Airport in Medan on Sept. 5. Fifteen passengers survived the crash, which killed 102 people on board and 47 on the ground.

Nolan announced that it represented at least 100 families while Speiser Krause claimed it had been appointed by 30 families.

Law Offices Engstrom Lipscomb & Lack and Medan-based Kamaluddin Lubin law firm, the only law firm that has expressed willingness to represent families of the crash victims in ads in local media, has not made any announcement to date.

However, none of the families that appointed the law firms know how much compensation they will get if they win the case, while the law firms insist each family will be compensated differently, based on their individual loss.

Abdul Hafiz said his family was told that the amount of compensation was determined by several factors, including the age of the victim, his or her job and the number of families he or she supported.

Ribbeck said the amount of compensation would depend on the jury's decision at the Chicago court, and that the firm would take a 33 percent fee of the compensation awarded each family it represented. He stressed that the firm would not take advantage of the families as it was charging less than the regular fee.

Law firm Speiser Krause, through lawyer Arthur E. Ballen, said in Medan on Tuesday the company would take about 30 percent of the compensation awarded. He expressed optimism that in the next 90 days, the families that the firm represented would know the amount of compensation they would receive.