Lawyers swoop in after the Metrolink crash, looking for clients

It was a lawyer who'd spotted her husband's name among those badly injured in the Sept. 12 Metrolink crash in Chatsworth. An attorney she had never met was urging her to retain him and sue the government railroad for all it was worth. Only a week had passed since her comfortable suburban life had been upended by tragedy.

"I didn't even write down the name, I was so upset at the time," Akins recalled. "I said I couldn't think about a lawsuit now when my husband might be dying!"

In the weeks since Metrolink Train 111 crashed head-on with a Union Pacific freight train in Chatsworth, killing 25 and injuring at least 130 others, litigators have pursued clients so aggressively that the State Bar of California reminded lawyers of the professional sanctions they could face for initiating contact with accident victims.

"Any unsolicited contact with a potential client either in person or by telephone (and perhaps even by mail) by an attorney or someone acting on his or her behalf is both illegal and unethical," the bar's chief trial counsel, Scott J. Drexel, warned in a letter sent to area hospitals. "It is especially serious when the contact or solicitation takes place at the scene of the accident or at the hospital where the injured person has been taken for care and treatment."

The warning came as attorneys took out newspaper and TV advertisements, solicited on the Internet and even tracked down the injured at hospitals, all seeking a piece of what is likely to be hundreds of millions of dollars in damage awards for the victims and their loved ones.

One victim's cousin, who did not want to be identified in order to protect the family's privacy, told The Times her family had been called by a Los Angeles firm with an offer to pay funeral expenses in exchange for representing the family against Metrolink.

The state bar has cautioned potential claimants against agreeing to unsolicited representation or quick settlements, noting that the injured and distressed are often "unable to exercise reasonable judgment" in the immediate aftermath of a tragedy.