As I told you would happen 4 days ago, yesterday Stan Chesley (previously referred to as "class-action attorneys," and ridiculed here) made himself the first class-action attorney to file a lawsuit against Comair and Delta. The fake caring has already begun.

Chesley's lack of shame is despicable. The crash was on Sunday morning. How long did it take Chesley to get to the victims' families, stir up his best Clintonian crocodile tears, and then talk them in to letting him sue someone on their behalf? Well, word about the suit came out Friday. You do the math. I wonder where Chesley and Co. celebrated afterwards. It just makes me sick the way this greedy predator pounces on grieving families.

A lawsuit which yields monetary benefits for anyone after an accident such as this one does nothing. It will not bring anybody back to life, and it can potentially make life even more miserable for the victims' families, because no amount of money can ease the pain caused by the loss of a loved one. Large sums of money often drive people into miserable lifestyles, and people (e.g. lottery winners) often regret ever taking the money. I believe that everyone should have a good life insurance policy for their spouse or family to collect at a time like this, but that is really just to replace the victim's income over the next x years.

I'm not saying necessarily that there should be no lawsuit here, or that if Comair was negligent they should not pay something. However, I think it would be more appropriate for Comair to spend money on increased safety standards, newer airplanes, and newer technologies to make catastrophes like this more rare. Maybe they could double the victims' existing life insurance policies and provide post-humous insurance for those victims who did not have life insurance. Perhaps the most appropriate thing would be for people to not fly on airlines after they crash, thus putting the airline out of business. That is one way to make them pay, isn't it? Then they, "can't do this to somebody else." Right? It would be much more effective. All suing an airline does is pull money out of the airline's insurance company. After the suit, it is back to business as usual. To wholly picket the airline would drive it out of business and strike fear in all the others.

Seriously, why do you think Chesley has already picked Comair/Delta? The NTSB's investigation is not complete. How could he know who to sue? Why not the Bluegrass Airport? Was the plane crash really Comair's fault? Maybe the pilots were just doing what they were told to do by the guy in the tower. Maybe Chesley should sue the controller for not sleeping enough and telling the pilot to go to the wrong runway. The controller doesn't have insurance for that kind of thing, though. Not enough for Chesley, even if he does. See, Comair and Delta are the Big Business, and so they probably have a Big Insurance policy that can be cleaned out when something like this happens. So Chesley doesn't really even have to worry about what is right and what is wrong. He just sues whoever has the most insurance.

Maybe eventually airlines won't fear the cost of updating equipment and revamping airplanes. Maybe one day we will all be comfortable on airplanes. Maybe one day there will be multiple cockpit doors, maybe even two cockpits, and armed security people on every flight. They can't afford these things now, though. The nation refuses to build coal to liquid fuel plants to provide airlines with cheap fuel. The nation refuses to allow competent security measures to be implemented at airports and on airplanes. And people sue each other over everything driving piles of cash into law firms, and slowing progress, all in the name of . . . some righteous mission. When was the last time you heard about a law firm being sued by someone. I don't think that happens very often. Legal malpractice is not a big topic, is it?

If I were Comair and I were not negligent, I would fight Chesley with everything I have, prove my innocence, and then sue Chesley for everything he has. Maybe then we could get some cheaper flights.