Six years later and still pending, ….. pending, …. pending

Judge Defends Keeping 9-11 Documents Secret Before Trial

NEW YORK — A judge said Wednesday he favors keeping Sept. 11-related documents and interviews secret until the trials for several families of victims suing the airline industry, an opinion that upset several victims' family members.

Donald Migliori, a lawyer for families of three people who died on hijacked planes in the 2001 attacks, asked U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein to make nearly a million pages of evidence and 200 depositions public, saying there was no reason for secrecy.

Hellerstein did not rule, but he said he favored not publically disclosing evidence that had been gathered and shared with lawyers for the victims under a confidentiality agreement until a trial occurs. No trial has yet been scheduled.

He said the confidentiality agreement speeded a pretrial process that enabled more than 90 families of victims of the Sept. 11 attacks to settle their cases. Only three families have not settled.

Michael Rowe Feagley, a lawyer for the aviation defendants, said it would not be fair to make all of the pretrial evidence public now, especially since defendants had turned over so much with the understanding that it would remain confidential before trial. He said it would take "extraordinary circumstances and an extreme need for it" to force its public release.

Low sued in spring 2003 on behalf of his daughter, Sara Low, 28, a Boston-based flight attendant who died when American Airlines Flight 11 struck the World Trade Center.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,510655,00.html

And I will betcha a case of beer against a rock that it will never come to trial.

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I knew an attorney named Don Migliori back in RI. I can't help but think it's the same man. The Don Migliori I knew was tenacious and unlikely to give in. His client wants the documents made public and the Don Migliori I am familiar with will not stop until he's successful or all avenues are exhausted. I haven't seen him in over a dozen years, but I remember him as intelligent, persistent, and kind.