Impermissible Client Solicitation After Metrolink Crash in L.A.

Article in the L.A. Times -- Lawyers swoop in after the Metrolink crash, looking for clients: State bar officials cite possible professional sanctions, but the aggressive attorneys note that time is limited and the stakes are expected to be very high, by Carol J. Williams.  Thanks to Robert Glassman for bringing the article to my attention.  Here's an excerpt:

The phone rang at a rare moment between Angie Akins' frantic drives from her home and her husband's bedside in an intensive-care unit, between shuttling to her job and driving her 14-year-old daughter to after-school sports and ballet.

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!"

BGS