Lawyers can't contain their appetite for litigation

By DAVID USBORNE

NEW YORK - One month after the terrorist attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, there are signs that an informal understanding among lawyers that they should hold off from filing massive suits against the airlines and other possible defendants is collapsing.

There has been a virtual gentlemen's agreement in the profession to avoid any rush to the courts at a time of national crisis. Families of victims have been told to look to a compensation fund created under legislation passed by Congress.

But the pact looks shaky as America's appetite for litigation begins to resurface.

An example is a tiny, two-line advertisement on the front of yesterday's New York Times saying:

"Victims 9/11 disaster: Free consultation. Don't apply to fund before learning more. Law firm Broder & Reiter." And there is a telephone number.

And lawyers suing Libya for its role in the bombing of a Pan Am jet over Lockerbie are preparing legal action against Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network in a compensation claim worth $US1 billion ($2.42 billion).

The case will focus on dozens of bank accounts frozen by the United States and other countries where security agencies suspect that money has been used to finance terrorism.

Ken Nolan, of New York firm Speiser, Krause, Nolan and Granito, said it had instructed forensic investigators to establish the strength of the evidence linking directors of the organisations to the September 11 attacks.

In Germany, a prominent lawyer who helps victims collect compensation from Hitler-era corporations served notice that he was taking instructions from European victims of the World Trade Center attacks and their relatives for possible legal action against airports and airlines.

Michael Witti, a Munich lawyer, said each family of victims of the attacks could be entitled to more than 10 million marks ($11.29 million) in compensation.

The lawsuits could run into the billions of dollars. The defendants could include the two airlines targeted in the hijackings - United and American Airlines - the airports where the hijackers boarded and the security companies operating at those airports. It is also likely that the owners of the World Trade Center would be cited.

Plaintiffs might seek to prove that their loved ones died because of the design of the towers that impeded an easy escape. Or they might challenge the security officials who advised occupants of the towers to stay in their offices after the planes hit.

"They're all going to be socked real hard," said Aaron Broder, whose law firm placed the ads in the New York Times.

"Right now everybody's so patriotic they've forgotten about the fact that there are defendants and wrongdoers here."

Mr Broder's manoeuvring to win clients from among the victims' families has infuriated some of his peers.

They worry that lawyers, who already have a grim image among many Americans, will be seen to be rushing to exploit one of the saddest days in American history.

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