Monica Kelly: Airline crash lawyer defends her legal focus

Monica Kelly

When it comes to airplane crashes and the lawyers who try to win money for victims' families — and themselves — it can be a shark fest, because aviation cases are highly lucrative and rarely lost.

Among those legal sharks is a self-described "piranha from the Amazon," Chicago's Monica Kelly.

When a commercial airliner goes down, like the disappearance of a Malaysia Airlines flight in March or the Asiana Airlines crash in San Francisco last year, Kelly is at the ready to sue airlines and aircraft-makers.

Kelly, born in the mountains of Peru near the Amazon River, is slight in stature — about 5 feet 3 inches tall. But she casts a relatively large shadow in the world of aviation.

In her first sit-down interview for a profile, Kelly defended herself against accusations she hears all the time — that she's the equivalent of an ambulance-chaser for the skies.

Kelly makes no apologies for her legal focus — obtaining money for plane crash victims and their families.

"If they want to be compensated, why shouldn't you help them get compensated?" she says in a thick Spanish accent. "Of course, I am not a nun. I charge for my services. There's nothing wrong with making money and helping people at the same time."

In part, she views herself as fighting for the defenseless — people who might otherwise be steamrolled by insurers offering meager settlements, for example.

Critics, though, have accused Kelly of preying on the grieving and injured, although she says victims or their families always contact her first, usually via email.

Kelly drew significant criticism this year after filing petitions in a Chicago court regarding the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. Although the plane hadn't been found — and still hasn't — and no victims were confirmed dead or injured, the petition named Malaysia Airlines and Chicago-based Boeing Co. as defendants.

Kelly suggested that the problem was mechanical failure and the aircraft was a "ghost plane for several hours until it ran out of fuel" eventually plunging into the southern Indian Ocean, killing all 239 passengers and crew.

Critics called the court filing premature and a publicity stunt — accusations cobbled in an attempt to win legal business after an air disaster. And Kelly's firm initially misidentified its client as the father of a passenger when, in fact, he was an uncle.

"These are the kind of lawsuits that make lawyers look bad — and we already look bad enough," attorney Robert Clifford told the Tribune at the time. His Clifford Law Office in Chicago also represents plane crash victims.

A Cook County judge threw out the petitions and threatened to impose sanctions against Kelly's firm if it again filed what the court described as improper, baseless motions.

Kelly says simply that she thinks the judge is wrong, and she has appealed that ruling.

As for criticisms from other attorneys, Kelly essentially dismisses them as jealousy — lawyers upset that she attracts clients they want.

"The competition in the aviation law area is very horrible," she said.

A spokeswoman for Clifford Law said: "The notion of highly respected international aviation attorneys like Bob Clifford being 'jealous' of her practice and her methods is ludicrous."

Why is competition so fierce for clients in airline crashes? Simple, Kelly said: "You never lose an aviation case.

"Never."

Lucrative business

In many personal injury cases, defendants can argue that the victim did something wrong that contributed to the injury or death, Kelly said. Not with airline crashes; passengers are almost always innocent victims. In addition, victims can sue the airline, the aircraft-maker, component parts-makers, maintenance companies — all of which have deep pockets and all greatly insured, she said.

"That's another reason why these cases are very profitable … there's plenty of money," she said. "You never get zero. There is no such thing as, 'Oh, we lost the case.'"

But conducting aviation cases can be expensive, potentially requiring upfront costs for travel, translators and experts.

"It's very expensive, so not a lot of firms can afford to do the case. But in the end, if you succeed, you do OK," she said.

Few aviation cases go to trial, said Bruce Ottley, co-director of the International Aviation Law Institute at DePaul University. The cases can be expensive for both sides, and airlines and aircraft manufacturers don't want the bad publicity, so the vast majority are settled out of court, he said.

"To the extent that they don't settle, they're just fighting over the amount of the damages, rather than the liability itself," he said. "It can tend to be a lucrative business because they tend not to go to trial."

When it comes to representing plane crash victims, being there first matters.

Story and photo:   http://articles.chicagotribune.com