Kenyan Families of Ethiopian Plane Crash Victims Warned of US Law Firms Purporting to Represent Them
The Law Society of Kenya (LSK) has warned families of the Ethiopian Airlines plane crash victims of foreign law firms offering to represent them in court.
This comes after two United States law firms; Friedman Rubin and Shakespear N. Feyissa placed an advertisement in a local newspaper last week purporting to pursue justice for the Kenyan nationals who perished in the Nairobi-bound flight on March 10th, 2019.
The two firms said their lawyers would arrive in Nairobi on Sunday for meetings with families of the victims.
They also said that selected family members would be taken on due diligence trips to the US as their lawyers build their case against American aircraft maker Boeing.
In a statement, LSK president Allen Gichuhi said the two firms are not qualified to practice in Kenya under provisions of the Advocates Act.
“This is to caution unsuspecting members of the public that the persons appearing on the piece published by the Daily Nation purporting to offer legal services to families of the victims of the Ethiopian airplane crash are not qualified to practice law in Kenya under the provisions of the Advocates Act,” reads the statement.
Gichuhi said LSK is investigating how the foreigners were allowed to offer legal services in the country.
The Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft went down six minutes after leaving Bole International Airport, killing all the 157 people onboard including 36 Kenyans.
The accident raised questions about the safety of the new Boeing model that also crashed in Indonesia in October.
A recently released report showed that Ethiopian Airlines pilots wrestled with controls to stay aloft but the plane went down after restoring a computer system that was ordering the nose down because of faulty sensor data.
Comments
Gichuhi have several seats. …
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Gichuhi have several seats. This is a international case and most likely it will be filed in USA & Ethiopia. Ethiopian airline belong to Ethiopia and Boeing is an American Company. Chacha Mwita, Odunga, Mwilu, Orengo will not be rushing to Kenyan courts to deal with these cases.
The US law firms are only…
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The US law firms are only meeting the potential CLIENTS where they live(making it easier for the clients), but filing their cases in the United States, the DOMAIN of the defendant.
The law society is not providing full disclosure. They're looking out for their 'greedy' members to get a free ride, at the expense of the families for a piece of the cake.
Kenyan legal firms taking on such cases would need to partner with US firms since they have no jurisdictional authority to practice in the USA. Since they would have little knowledge if any in such litigation matters, they would be giving the victims nothing for a hefty fee, the everyday greed of the profession.
The US firms will be getting a percentage of the pay out if they win for their clients, after bearing the costs of litigation upfront, a common practice in the USA. They will be getting nothing from the victims upfront,a real foreign concept to our greedy legal fraternity!!
Let the Law Society for a change support the true course of justice for the victims families, rather than their greedy members.
Sharks coming from the…
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Sharks coming from the woodwork to have a stake in moolah. I hope the victims do their due diligence because lawyers all over the world can be sharks. LSK does not seem to understand a local vs international case. They should fire their spokesman because that kind of utterance showing a lack of understanding/incompetence will only put LSK to shame.
@Mugikuyu, I second you. …
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@Mugikuyu, I second you. Wote ni wezi. Tosha.
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