By MATT CHANDLER
mchandler@bizjournals.com | 716-541-1654

Saturday marked the two-year anniversary of the crash of Continental Airlines Flight 3407, which claimed 50 lives when the Bombardier aircraft crashed into a home in Clarence Center on approach to the Buffalo Niagara International Airport.

Though the National Transportation Safety Board released its findings related to the crash long ago, the full closure that many of the families have sought remains elusive.

Attorneys have worked to hash out a mountain of legal issues common in a case of this magnitude, and the families continue to wait. It has been reported than 10 of the families who originally filed lawsuits related to the crash have settled out of court. For those remaining, it looks as though the third anniversary of the crash will come and go before the civil cases even make it to court.

Of the 50 people who died in the crash, 43 lawsuits have been filed. One family settled without filing suit and families of the four employees of Colgan Air (two pilots and two flight attendants) are not permitted to sue the airline. Of the remaining two victims, one was a Colgan employee riding along on the flight and it is unclear whether that person can file a lawsuit in the case.

Hugh Russ III is a partner in Hodgson Russ LLP and the liaison for the plaintiffs in the federal case.

"We met last week with Justice Frederick Marshall in state court (where six of the cases have been sent) and, with the anniversary of the crash, it has been a busy couple of weeks," Russ said.

The six state cases have been given a tentative trial date of May 2012. The remaining cases are scheduled to be collectively heard in front of Judge William Skretny, who has set a trial date for March of next year. As for the division of cases between state and federal court, Russ said it comes after much legal maneuvering and decisions from the bench.

"Originally, when various victims' families around the country started suing, some started their cases in state courts and some started them in federal courts," he said. "Then there were five families who sued in state court here in Erie County."

Eventually, he said, all of the cases were transferred to Buffalo to be managed by Judge Skretny in federal court. Five of the plaintiffs subsequently requested that the cases be remanded back to Erie County, with a six lawsuit later filed.

He said some plaintiffs may opt for state court because they can better control the pace of discovery. The second factor is that in state court, the lawyers control picking the jury, as opposed to the judge.

"The plaintiffs' lawyers in state court see the ability to select a jury as a huge advantage," Russ said.

In addition to the 10 lawsuits already settled, he said he expects more settlements to follow in the coming months.

"I think for the first time, there is a feeling of momentum, and it does appear, at least from my perspective, that cases are starting to settle," he said. "Also, Judge Skretny has started to make a number of rulings that have narrowed the issues remaining in the case so that the parties are more amenable to settling than they might have been before."

For those families who chose to settle, Russ said it was a combination of factors that led to the decision. While there were families who lost their breadwinner in the crash, others sought to end the legal wrangling and create their own closure via a settlement with the airlines.

Still others press on. Russ said many are determined to take the case to trial and hold the airlines accountable for what they say were shoddy employee regulations, a lack of proper training and a series of preventable mistakes that led to the loss of their loved ones. Despite how it may appear from the outside, three years to get a case of this magnitude to trial is not uncommon, he said.

"Between the complex, serious legal issues to be faced by the court and the work to be done to develop the proof necessary to support our case, it is going to take some time," he said. "Obviously, we would have hoped to have moved at a better pace, but I don't think three years is out of line."