Alaska Air Crash Settles Final Cases in Chicago; West Coast Trial Set to go Ahead Monday

Critical motions are set for argument today (Monday, June 30) in San Francisco in the first cases to go to trial involving the crash of Alaska Air Flight 261. Kevin P. Durkin, partner at Clifford Law Offices in Chicago, was asked by attorneys to argue critical pre-trial motions Monday in federal district court before U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco on behalf of two families who cases are set for trial against the airlines and Boeing Corporation.

Clifford Law Offices just settled the final case of the seven families it represented aboard that fateful crash. These settlements totaled over $40 milliion for the five families from Seattle and two from Chicago. Two of the settlements were the largest of the 85 settled thusfar.

Durkin’s work on the crash was particularly noteworthy as well because, as co-lead counsel, he was able to secure an admission of liability earlier this month from Boeing Corporation following two years of intensive depositions. This, despite the National Transportation Safety Board gave the Chicago-based aircraft manufacturer a pass in its report. "We did not take the easy way out, but continued to press Boeing on its part in the crash," Durkin said of the January 2000 crash that killed 88 people as it was en route from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, to San Francisco and Seattle. "This persistence led to settlement offers being as much as quadrupled because we would not let Boeing off the hook for its clear liability."

The trial, therefore, will be strictly on damages inasmuch as Boeing and Alaska Airlines have admitted liability. "Their admission of liability means that they did not want the specific problems with the stabilizer of the MD-80 series aircraft be made known to the public," Durkin said. "It is clear that Boeing and Alaska Airlines are trying to avoid scrutiny of the problems with the MD-80 aircraft series which are still flying in the sky today."

Durkin is Co-Chair of the Aviation Section of the American Bar Association Section of Litigation. He has taken hundreds of depositions in his representation of families who have lost loved ones in every major commerical airline crash in the United States in the last 15 years.

Clifford Law Offices also has been retained to represent the only American who was on board the Turkish Airline craft that crashed in Turkey in January of this year, killing all aboard.