Katherine Kersten: After I-35W bridge collapse, lawyers promptly pounced

The last victim of the Interstate 35W bridge collapse has been recovered from the water. The long, complex search for the disaster's cause is ramping up in earnest. It's about the time we'd expect the lawyers to descend.

But the pinstripes are already out of the gate, setting new records for jumping the gun in a disaster.

Just days after the collapse, while recovery crews were still battling treacherous waters, Schwebel, Goetz & Sieben -- one of the state's highest profile personal injury firms -- petitioned for access to the site for three attorneys and two expert witnesses.

An immediate inspection of the bridge "will be essential to vigorously ... prosecute wrongful death and personal injury claims" for five unnamed clients, the lawyers insisted.

Such an inspection, of course, would also create big-time publicity and a chance to attract more clients.

U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz rejected the petition. Judges have to be civil, of course, but in reading between the lines I detected a judge who was steamed.

In an order heavy with understatement, the judge made clear that the Schwebel firm's appearance in court was highly premature. The firm, he noted, "candidly admitted" that it does not yet know "whom it should sue or what allegations it should make."

The court found no precedent for ordering the government to let private attorneys inspect a mass disaster site while recovery efforts were underway.

The judge emphasized the government's "urgent interest" in recovering victims, clearing unstable and dangerous wreckage, reopening the Mississippi River to commerce and beginning to rebuild the bridge as soon as possible. These challenges are "daunting enough," he said, "without this Court turning loose dozens of lawyers, expert witnesses, and investigators on the site."

The court seemed to anticipate a coming feeding frenzy. "The I-35W bridge collapse is, to put it mildly, of intense interest to the local bar," the judge observed.

'Ambulance chasing'

Omar Jamal of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center in Minneapolis can testify to that. His organization's phone began ringing off the wall after news got out that a pregnant Somali woman and her daughter were among the victims. Some lawyers who called asked for telephone numbers and other personal information, he said.

"This is the worst form of ambulance chasing," Jamal complained to the news media. "The divers are still in the river looking, and the attorneys keep calling us."

That's not to say that everyone in the legal profession has dollar signs in their eyes. Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi -- the firm that won a record settlement against Big Tobacco about a decade ago -- has offered to represent victims or their families without compensation, as have several other firms. Some folks speculate that Robins' offer is self-interested. Mike Ciresi, one of its partners, is running for the Senate. But if politics can contribute to people doing the right thing -- well, that's what politics is for, right?

Lawyers will face obstacles in recovering the expected pot of gold, which has been estimated at $1 billion. The state of Minnesota is an obvious target, since it built, maintained and inspected the bridge. But the state's liability is limited by law. Nor can lawyers recover from companies that constructed the bridge or worked on it decades ago. They are either defunct or protected by statutes of limitation.

They'll find a target

Yet lawyers, ever resourceful, will not be at a loss for targets. They'll likely set their sights on engineers and construction contractors who had more recent contact with the bridge. These defendants will face crushing legal costs or even bankruptcy, and their insurers will pass on costs to other Minnesota businesses.

State Rep. Ryan Winkler, DFL-Golden Valley, has suggested a novel solution: a special victim-compensation fund like the much larger one that Congress created after 9/11. Victims or families received prompt, fair compensation in exchange for their agreement not to sue, Winkler said in a Star Tribune commentary. Ninety-seven percent of the families of those killed chose to participate, he added.

Winkler's idea may or may not have merit, but one thing's for sure: The legal spectacle about to play out threatens to drag on for years and impose huge costs on some defendants.

In the future, as Winkler has pointed out, even the largest contractors may hesitate to work on Minnesota's riskiest projects: repairs to crumbling infrastructure. "If engineers and constructors are scared away from bidding," he warns, "it will be a long time before our infrastructure is adequate and safe."

We can argue about whether to raise the gas tax, hold a special session, or require a new bridge to be light rail-ready. But we should be able to agree that we don't need to compound our disaster by letting loose a flood of lawyers.

Katherine Kersten • kkersten@ startribune.com Join the conversation at my blog, Think Again, which can be found at www.startribune.com/thinkagain.