WTVM Legal Break – United Airlines

Injury & Accident Attorney Serving Nearby Areas of Columbus & Fort Benning, Georgia and Phenix City, Alabama

This week on Legal Break, Attorney Gary Bruce talks about the recent United Airlines incident from the perspective of a lawyer.

Transcript:

Maureen: Hello there and welcome to Legal Break. I’m Maureen Akers and with me today, as always, Gary Bruce. Thank you so much for joining us again Gary.

Gary: Good to be here again.

Maureen: It is, and we’re asking and answering questions and talking about things that are pertinent and relevant to the law.

Gary: Well, I hope so.

Maureen: Right, that’s the objective at least, right? So, there’s been a lot of talk, even though it’s been out there for a bit, about this United Airlines case that happened to this doctor – I think Dr. Dao on his flight, or attempted flight. He’s hired an attorney, kind of interesting. Tell us about that.

Gary: You know, I watched the initial interview with the attorney, or his press conference, and he hired a good lawyer. It’s going to be fun to watch what happens, I think, as a lawyer. I mean, this is not O.J. 2.0, but it’s going to be interesting because this guy knows what he’s doing. He explained well and to this point particularly – it is a process of gathering information and presenting a case. It is not just all about the video we’ve seen, and what I think is going to be fascinating is the decision making process of, “who decided this was a good idea [to remove a seated passenger].”  As a lawyer, that’s the kind of thing you have fun with – you made this decision all by yourself? So, it should be interesting and I suspect that all the depositions will be on video and they will leak out and be there, unless United ponies up early in order to save some face here. But, it’s an interesting case and the civil side being explored in Chicago, it’ll be interesting.

Maureen: To that point then, we have this doctor and there’s been some reported instances in his background. Is that relevant? Does that even matter in a case like this?

Gary: Well, does it matter? Probably not. You know, did that have anything to do with the fact that he sat there and said, “I’m not getting up” or whatever he said. But, does it come into cases? The other side will always try to use what they have and they’ve already smeared him, somebody has. I mean, why is this relevant? Why do we even care? Somebody was dragged off an airplane. The decisions, bad decisions, were made that led to all of this. But, will it come up? In most cases, people do try and use things. Is it relevant is the question and that’s what we, as lawyers, argue. No, that didn’t come in, that’s not for the fact finder to hear or consider.

Maureen: Right, you gotta look at everything that has to do with this particular case.

Gary: That’s right. Unless you can show it had some impact, and in this case it’s just too irrelevant to any decision of the case.