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Aviation & Aerospace Litigation
The commercial disputes that come with building, maintaining, and supplying aircraft on the Gulf Coast.
What Aviation & Aerospace Litigation Covers
Aviation and aerospace litigation, in the commercial sense, covers disputes arising from the business of building, maintaining, supplying, and housing aircraft (supplier and subcontract claims, warranty and nonconformance disputes, maintenance and overhaul contracts, facility and hangar leases, and the workforce claims specific to a small and highly trained labor market).
It is a different practice from aircraft accident litigation, which turns on federal preemption, airworthiness standards, and accident investigation, and which is handled by a specialised bar. This page is about the contracts and relationships that keep an aerospace operation running, and what happens when one of them fails.
Mobile is a genuine aerospace market rather than an aspirational one. A final assembly line, a maintenance and overhaul sector, and a tiered supplier base all sit within a few miles of each other, and the disputes they generate are commercial disputes with an industry accent.
What We Handle
Supplier and subcontract disputes
Delivery failure, nonconforming parts, disputed change orders, and termination under long-term supply agreements.
Warranty and nonconformance claims
Between manufacturers, suppliers, and operators where a component did not do what the specification said it would.
MRO and service contract disputes
Maintenance, repair, and overhaul work contested on scope, workmanship, turnaround time, or invoice.
Hangar, ground lease, and facility disputes
Tenancy, access, improvement obligations, and disputes with airport authorities and aeroplex landlords.
Aerospace facility construction
Buildout and expansion claims (ordinary construction litigation running against tolerances and schedules that are not ordinary).
Workforce and competitor claims
Departing employees, restrictive covenants, and process knowledge moving between employers in a small talent pool.
Sound familiar?
How These Disputes Differ From Ordinary Contract Claims
The legal theories are familiar. What changes is the evidence, the cost of delay, and who gets to decide.
The record is the contract, the purchase orders, and the email traffic between the parties
All of that, plus traceability records, certification and inspection documentation, and quality escape reporting (evidence that already exists in disciplined form because the industry requires it)
Delay causes damages that accrue steadily and can usually be quantified after the fact
One nonconforming part can hold a line, and the loss compounds down a build schedule that cannot simply be re-sequenced
Confidentiality is governed by an NDA between the parties
Confidentiality also runs to customer-imposed obligations and, on some programs, export-control restrictions that limit what can be filed on a public docket
The dispute goes to court unless someone raises an arbitration clause
Long-term supply agreements usually mandate arbitration, often with a seat and governing law chosen by the larger party years earlier
There is no regulatory overlay on the commercial claim
Certification and airworthiness obligations sit behind the commercial claim. They rarely decide it, but they shape what a party could lawfully have done differently
Who does this work
Jordan W Gerheim
Commercial, product, and industrial litigation across construction, manufacturing, and insurance contexts (the three bodies of law an aerospace supply dispute usually draws on).
Benjamin N. Kearns
Business and commercial litigation including claims involving multiple parties and contested responsibility along a supply chain.
Cost and related pages
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Frequently Asked Questions
Do you handle aircraft accident or crash cases?
No. Accident litigation is a distinct specialty. It runs through federal accident investigation, preemption questions, and statutes that apply to no other kind of case, and it should be handled by lawyers who do it regularly. Our aviation and aerospace work is commercial: supply agreements, warranty and conformance disputes, service contracts, facility leases, and workforce claims. If you call us about an accident matter we will tell you that directly and help you find the right firm.
Our supply agreement requires arbitration. Does that change our position?
It changes almost everything about how the dispute runs (where it is heard, who decides it, what discovery you get, how long it takes, and what it costs) but it rarely changes whether you have a claim. The mistake we see is treating the arbitration clause as boilerplate to deal with later. It is the first thing to read, because the seat, the governing law, the panel selection, and any notice or escalation requirement all constrain what you should do this week.
A supplier delivered nonconforming parts and it stopped our line. What can we recover?
That depends on what the agreement says about consequential and delay damages, because most well-drafted supply agreements limit or exclude exactly the losses that hurt most. It also depends on whether notice and cure provisions were followed (recoveries in these disputes are lost on procedure more often than on the merits). Send us the agreement and the notice correspondence before sending anything further to the supplier.
Do you work with companies in the Mobile aerospace corridor?
We are a Mobile firm serving businesses across the Gulf Coast, and the industry that has grown around Brookley is part of that market. Our work for it is the same business and litigation work we do elsewhere (contracts, disputes, employment, and facilities) applied to an industry with tighter tolerances and less room in the schedule.
Related Insights
Read the Agreement Before You Send the Next Letter
Book a Risk-Free Strategy Session. Send us the supply agreement, the service contract, or the lease and we will tell you what it actually allows you to do.