Days after the March 10 crash of a Kenya-bound Ethiopian Airlines’ Boeing jet th...
NAIROBI/ADDIS ABABA - Days after the March 10 crash of a Kenya-bound Ethiopian Airlines’ Boeing jet that killed all 157 people on board, strangers began calling or visiting bereaved families, saying they represented U.S. law firms.
In some instances, the behavior may have been illegal or unethical under U.S. laws and rules barring solicitation and deceptive practices, several legal ethics experts said. By Thursday, there were 114 cases filed against Boeing in Chicago federal court on behalf of 112 crash victims, according to lead counsel for the plaintiffs, Robert Clifford. More than three dozen law firms are representing them. No trial date has been set.
James Ndeda, who Wheeler represented after he was injured in the 1998 embassy bombing in Kenya, said he visited Njoroge. The firm’s partners, Bill Wheeler and Jamie Franks, asked Ndeda to help the firm connect with crash victims’ families, Ndeda said. Wheeler sent him literature featuring his firm and another Mississippi firm, Eaves Law Firm.
People saying they represented more than 30 firms contacted him over the next few months, including Witherspoon again, and GALG, said Bayihe. The constant calls about compensation hurt because it felt like people were suggesting he could benefit from his wife’s death, he said.“This firm does not solicit or engage in any illegal practices. We do not represent any of the families involved in the tragic crash,” Witherspoon’s founder Nuru Witherspoon said in an email.
This year, the Ribbecks set up a new entity, GALG, according to messages between GALG and the Ribbecks that have been viewed by Reuters. GALG staff directed clients to the Ribbecks, messages and emails shared by several bereaved families show. While many families interviewed by Reuters say they turned away cold callers, they typically wound up retaining lawyers after doing their own research.
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