The law firm hired by American Airlines that blamed a 9-year-old girl for being secretly filmed while using a plane bathroom has been “fired,” according to the attorneys for the child’s family.
The airline, facing lawsuits after a flight attendant allegedly recorded girls in airplane bathrooms, in a recent defense filing had argued the young girl should have known the toilet contained a recording device.
That bombshell court filing from the law firm Wilson, Elser, Moskowitz, Edelman & Dicker LLP led to “intense media and public backlash,” as American Airlines claimed that the airline’s lawyers made “an error.”
That outside legal counsel has reportedly now been replaced. The law firm Kelly Hart & Hallman, LLP has been asked by American Airlines to represent them in the lawsuit.
“As a result of the intense media and public backlash surrounding the outrageous allegation, we are not surprised to learn that American Airlines fired its law firm,” said attorney Paul Llewellyn, a partner at Lewis & Llewellyn LLP, which is representing the girl’s family.
“With the benefit of this new legal representation, we hope that American Airlines will now take a fresh look at the case and finally take some measure of responsibility for what happened to our client,” Llewellyn added. “Otherwise, we are very confident that a Texas jury will do the right thing and hold American Airlines responsible.”
The lawsuits against American Airlines started after a former flight attendant was arrested in connection with allegedly recording a 14-year-old girl in a plane’s bathroom on a Boston-bound flight.
Estes Carter Thompson III, 36, of Charlotte, N.C., also allegedly had recordings of four other girl passengers using airplane lavatories — including the 9-year-old girl, who’s from Texas and was flying with her family to go to Disneyland.
During the flight last year, she was secretly filmed while using the airplane toilet, according to the family’s lawsuit against American Airlines. The family is arguing that the airline knew or should have known that Thompson “was a danger.”
In the viral court filing from earlier this week, the previous law firm for American Airlines wrote, “Defendant would show that any injuries or illnesses alleged to have been sustained by Plaintiff, Mary Doe, were proximately caused by Plaintiff’s own fault and negligence.”
The airline’s lawyers had also previously written about the 9-year-old girl using “the compromised lavatory” on the plane: “She knew or should have known contained a visible and illuminated recording device.”
That court filing was amended a couple of days later.
“Our outside legal counsel retained with our insurance company made an error in this filing,” the airline said earlier this week. “The included defense is not representative of our airline and we have directed it be amended this morning.
“We do not believe this child is at fault and we take the allegations involving a former team member very seriously,” American Airlines added. “Our core mission is to care for people — and the foundation of that is the safety and security of our customers and team.”
American Airlines did not immediately respond Friday afternoon about replacing the law firm.
Thompson was arraigned on the federal charges in connection to the Boston-bound flight during a U.S. District Court of Massachusetts hearing earlier this week.
Thompson, who’s in federal custody, pleaded not guilty to one count of attempted sexual exploitation of children, and one count of possession of child pornography depicting a prepubescent minor.
