The firm is known for its expertise in aviation accidents. It has handled recent cases that involved a crash of an Australian firefighting plane, a WW II B-17 crash, and the arrival of a South African wedding party to the ceremony by helicopter. The firm’s aviation expertise is demonstrated by two other recent cases.

Keith Maynard is a retired BlackHawk pilot and major who served in the Maryland Army National Guard. Maynard is a board certified aviation lawyer, so it was no surprise that he was asked to represent the victim of a military crash at the U.S. Army flight school in Alabama. This case was made more difficult by the fact that one of the unidentified defendants had an expired statute of limitations, which theoretically barred all claims against the company that overhauled a defective component. Maynard petitioned to the court in the case filed against all manufacturers and maintainers based in Delaware to apply Alabama law to extend the statutes of limitations to the primary tortfeasor. This preserved the client’s right and led to a successful resolution.

He says, “I was determined that this case would be handled correctly.” “Our client saved the lives of two Army officers by his actions in the accident. Unfortunately, he also suffered life-long injury just 10 days before his retirement. “I wanted to be sure that he was taken care of.”

Galen Bauer was one of 45 attorneys who are board-certified in aviation law. He served as the chairman of The Florida Bar’s aviation law certification panel from 2020-2021. He was given a flight-related case that was equally difficult. He represented the family a young woman killed in a crash of a private aircraft in a state that only allowed limited damages awards.

Bauer says that this case was a legal twist with an ironic and interesting twist. She was on a leisure flight which was scheduled to depart and land in Wyoming. Her family, as well as the family of pilot who crashed plane, lived in Wyoming. The plane that crashed was registered in Wyoming and had its base there. As the plane was approaching Wyoming to land, it crashed in Idaho about a half-mile from the Idaho/Wyoming boundary. “The challenge was that Wyoming, the obvious place to file a suit, was not the best venue for our client.”

It took some complex maneuvering to make sure they could apply the law that was most favorable to their client. Wyoming applies the law in the state where the harm happened (Idaho), and Idaho has a low cap on damages for grieving over the loss of a family member.

Bauer: “Wyoming had the greater contact with the parties involved and the events at issue,” Bauer says. This meant that a court in Idaho would apply Wyoming’s damages law. Ironically, we decided that filing the suit in Idaho would be the best way to avoid Idaho law. We filed suit in Idaho, and we were able quickly to resolve the case for our client.”