One thousand white balloons are released following the Jan. 15 service at Wesley Chapel on the campus of West Virginia Wesleyan College where a memorial service was held to honor the men who died in the Sago mine disaster.
CHARLESTON – One Pennsylvania lawyer placed an ad in the Buckhannon newspaper looking for business in the wake of the Sago Mine disaster.
But since then, there have been no reports of lawyers soliciting for work in since the disaster that left 12 miners dead after a Jan. 2 explosion at the Upshur County mine, according to officials with the West Virginia Bar and the West Virginia Trial Lawyers Association.
"We have not received anything since the first day or two after the incident occurred," said Tom Tinder, executive director of the State Bar. "We haven't heard of lawyers soliciting."
Beth White, executive director of the Trial Lawyers Association, reported the same thing.
The State Bar also has offered, through Gov. Joe Manchin's offie, to provide legal information and assistance to any of the miner's families. They made a similar offer when evacuees from Hurricane Katrina were living at Camp Dawson in Preston County.
So far, Tinder said, they haven't had any requests for that assistance.
"My sense is that as those family members of the miners start attempting to get back to some sort of normal life, if they have legal questions, I hope they will contact us or they have some relationship with lawyers in their part of the area," he said.