Foreign lawyers replace Indian lawyers in Mangalore air crash victims compensation case

Mulla & Mulla was designated by Air India for representing the Mangalore Air Crash Victims Family Association. The Bombay based law firm was assisting the victims in providing compensation has now been replaced by a Swedish law firm, Advokaterna, Liman & Partners..It may be recalled, on May 22 last year, Air India’s Dubai-Mangalore flight crash-landed in Mangalore, killing 158 passengers, including six crew members..Mulla & Mulla was the law firm designated by Air India for representing the Mangalore Air Crash Victims Family Association. The Bombay based law firm was assisting the victims in providing compensation has now been replaced by a Swedish law firm, Advokaterna, Liman & Partners..Swedish lawyer, Stephan Eriksson (pictured) specialising in air crash cases has made an interesting offer for settlement of compensation claims. TOI reports Swedish firm has offered that they will charge 30% fee above a certain compensation limit, that is, if the victim had a salary of Rs 50,000. The legal firm will not charge any fee for a compensation amount up to Rs 1 crore. This means that the families would get a higher compensation amount as against the amount offered by Mulla & Mulla..Speaking to Bar & Bench from Mangalore, Stephan Eriksson confirmed that he would be representing the victims against the insurance company and the carrier..The association has decided to hire the Swedish law firm due to undue delay in settling cases by Mulla and Mulla quotes another publication. The families who have already received compensation are also dissatisfied with the amount of compensation. Many of them have expressed their disappointment over discrimination in the cases of women passengers, children and infants whereby women will get a compensation of Rs 30 lakh and children will get Rs 25 lakh..Senior Partner Nanavati led Mulla & Mulla team. Coastal newspaper Mangalorean quoting one of the victim’s relative said, “Nanavati is a seasoned lawyer and he did not send any notices to the aggrieved families instead he was calling the families and discussing with them on the phone so that there will be no written proof of communication”..“We are not criticizing anyone but our motive is clear to help the affected families to get their rights. By seeing the attitude of the Air India authorities we approached the international lawyers to help us. The Air India authorities tried to stop me from approaching the international lawyers by saying that they will increase my compensation. According to the aircraft act, the compensation should be minimum 76 lakhs per victim and the compensation for the pilot is more. If there is pilot error then the family of the deceased will get more compensation,” he further said..The question is also whether the BCI rules permit the hiring of a foreign lawyer in a negotiation to secure higher compensation.