An attorney said he has filed a lawsuit for the family of a passenger killed in the Aug. 27 Kentucky air crash in a Florida court because juries in Florida give better awards.

Steven C. Marks, a Miami attorney with the Podhurst Orseck law firm, in his announcement of the wrongful death legal action, said that although other plaintiffs have filed suits in Kentucky as a result of the crash of Comair Flight 5191 at the Blue Grass Airport in Lexington, Ky., he filed in Broward County, Fla.

His statement said jury verdicts in Kentucky are historically much lower than those awarded in Florida, "especially in South Florida, where verdicts are among the highest in the country."

The announcement mentioned that Mr. Marks recently obtained a $25.2 million dollar jury verdict in Broward on behalf of the family of a pilot killed in a mid-air collision.

The Comair lawsuit, which seeks damages under the Florida Wrongful Death Act, "could be a major hit to United States Aviation Insurance Group, which is the insurer for Comair and its employees, especially if the other victims take advantage of a South Florida forum," according to the announcement released by Wragg & Casas Public Relations, Inc.

Mr. Marks' suit was filed in Broward County Circuit Court on behalf of the family of Charles Lykins of Naples, Fla., one of 49 people killed in the Comair crash.

The named defendants in the complaint are Comair Inc., a Delta Connection carrier; Delta Air Lines; and First Officer James M. Polehinke, the plane's co-pilot and the crash's lone survivor.

According to family members, Mr. Lykins, 46, was scheduled to be on a later flight, but caught the earlier flight home to be with his wife, Karen, and children--Alexander, 7, and Ashlee, 5.

The National Transportation Safety Board initially concluded that the CRJ-100 regional commuter jet, which was cleared to take off from a different runway, mistakenly departed from a 3,500 foot-long runway that was too short for the plane, which crashed into a field and burst into flames.

"In addition, it is clear that the flight crew made critical and fatal mistakes," said Mr. Marks. "Comair has acknowledged publicly that its pilots were using an outdated airport map in an attempt to make excuses for departing from the wrong runway. Therefore, both the airline and its pilots are clearly responsible for this tragedy despite what we are sure will be efforts by their insurer and lawyers to blame others."

Mr. Marks announced that one reason why the suit was filed in Broward County was because Mr. Polehinke resides in Margate, Fla. "We sought to avoid having Mr. Polehinke named as a party, but were unable to reach what we thought would be a routine stipulation with the insurer."

Mr. Marks, a veteran air crash litigator, also focuses on personal injury and wrongful death litigation, product liability, commercial litigation, class actions, medical malpractice, premise liability, and admiralty.

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Lawyer Likes Fla. Juries For Ky. Crash Suit

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