A couple of years ago I represented the family of a Navy pilot who was killed when his F/A-18 aircraft was shot down by a U.S. Patriot Missile system that mistakenly identified the plane as an incoming Iraqi Scud missile. Based on our interpretation of the Army's investigation report, we concluded that the Patriot system had some fundamental flaws. The most significant was the inability of the system to consistently perform its chief function of distinguishing friend from foe. We therefore sued Raytheon in an effort to recover damages for the pilot's family and in an attempt to bring some light to this dangerous situation. The case was ultimately dismissed because the present state of the law does not adequately protect our nation's service men and women. Specifically, there is no current law that balances the provision of a civil remedy for those injured by defective military products with the protection of military secrets, even though such a law would not be difficult to draft. The attached article, which was published in the September 2010 edition of Trial Magazine, discusses the case in some detail. Of particular interest is that two bills introduced in 2009, one in the House and one in the Senate, could change the outcome of such actions in the future. Both bills are presently sitting idle in committee and have had no action taken for more than a year. If, when you read the article, you become angry at the injustice involved in this case, contact your congressional representatives and tell them to take action on the State Secrets Protection Act of 2009 - House Resolution 984 and Senate Bill 417. It is time we took better care of our service people.

To read the article, cut and past the following link into your web browser:

[http://hightangel.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/PDF-f0011.pdf]