Legal Implications of the DC Plane Crash

on January 29th last night an American Airlines Regional Jet from wiah Kansas to Washington DC crashed upon its descent into the rean national airport in Washington DC the reports coming out now suggest that the plane collided with a Blackhawk helicopter with three crew members on board there does not appear to be any survivors uh this is an extremely UPS setting situation that obviously could have been prevented while I don't have conclusive evidence right now it's only been 12 hours since this happened the reports coming out appear to suggest that it was the Blackhawk helicopter's fault the ATC came out there's a recording that said that the American Airlines flight was cleared for landing and that the Blackhawk helicopter probably just should not have been there when I see stuff like this I get so mad because it is preventable so I'm making this video describing about what I think should happen given these circumstances for those poor families who lost a loved one I hope they get great lawyers and I hope they sue the federal government somebody has to pay so in today's video I'm going to talk about how to sue the federal government the very first thing that I want to talk about is the concept of sovereign immunity that's the very first thing that pops up when you think of suing the government what is sovereign immunity well it's a doctrine that dates back centuries and essentially what it means is that the government The Sovereign is the one who makes the laws how can you sue someone they are above the law this goes back to the days when we had kings and queens the common law all laws were issued in the Name of the King so you can't sue the king because he can just change the laws he is the one who issues the laws so how can you sue the SE the federal government when they are the ones who create the law and for a long time that was actually the case the federal Sovereign was immune from all potential types of torts however that changed they introduced something called the federal Tor claims act somewhere in the mid 20th century I'm going to read a little excerpt from a academic paper that I pulled up until the mid 20th century a tort victim could obtain compensation from the United States only by persuading Congress to pass a private bill compensating him for his loss Congress enacted the federal tort claims act or ftca which authorizes plaintiffs to obtain compensation from the United States for torts of its employees subjecting the federal government to tort liability creates a financial cost to the United States and it also May incentivize government officials to base their decisions on desire to reduce the government's exposure to monetary damage is regardless of the perceived social benefits of an alternative so there's a law the ftca allows you to sue if you watched this channel before you know about a year ago I did an interview with Jamal alsafar he was the lawyer in the Southerland spring shooting case this was an ftca case it is an extremely interesting area of Law and there some more caveats to it if this were a thirdparty case meaning if it was a Refinery explosion in Pasadena and somebody came to my office lawsuits would be filed the next day they just would you got to get a lawsuit on file to preserve evidence all that stuff that's not going to happen here because the ftca you cannot file a case right away you actually have to put the government on notice before you file an ftca lawsuit you have to inform the government of notice that you are intending to file a claim and in that 6 months they can choose to either accept your notice to potentially settle the case to get it off their books to pay you what you're asking or they can deny it and then only after they deny your claim or the six Monon notice lapses then can you file your case so you're not going to see law La suits filed

tomorrow you might see notices filed tomorrow but you won't see lawsuits of course when you are suing the government the only jurisdiction that you're going to have is suing in federal court specifically this happened in DC so they will be filing in federal court in DC now the last thing that I want to talk about it's assumed the six-month notice goes unanswered or denied meaning the victims file a lawsuit what are they looking at next it's very interesting the ftca does not allow for juries this is not a case that will be held in front of a jury it will be a case adjudicated by a federal judge usually ftca cases are also bifurcated meaning there's two separate trials there's a trial for liability and then if the plaintiffs Prevail on liability then you pursue a trial based on damage images so that is what I think is going to happen I think there's going to be an ftca case filed by the federal government if in fact it was the Blackhawk helicopter's fault depending on who was in charge of the Blackhawk helicopter you don't just sue the United States of America you sue the entity if it was the government you sue the government Air Force you sue the Air Force so that is what I think is going to happen of course I'm not absolving American Airlines in any way if there's anything that they did wrong there's probably some liability on their end as well so maybe you'll see cases filed against American Airlines but um this was the first thing I thought of when I saw what's going on in the news I hope these families hire great lawyers great ftca lawyers um if I can make a selfless recommendation Jamal alsafar um he doesn't know I'm making a Rec commending him but he's a great ftca lawyer all right it's really sad talk to you guys later bye