Relatives of foreign victims of the 8 April 2025 tragedy at the JetSet nightclub in Santo Domingo are preparing to file lawsuits against the establishment’s owners in the United States. They have retained national and international law firms to pursue justice. 232 persons, including foreigners, are reported to have died when the roof came crashing down on a full house gathered for a Rubby Perez merengue concert.
The US-based law firm Silva & Silva, P.A. says it has been hired to represent families of victims from the United States and Europe. The firm will collaborate with the Ángel Lockward law firm in the Dominican Republic. As reported, the American experts will travel to the Dominican Republic to conduct a technical investigation alongside local professionals, gathering evidence for the US lawsuit.
“Silva & Silva is actively working with a team of international engineering and safety experts to reconstruct the sequence of events and determine the root causes of the collapse, as well as what should have been done to prevent this catastrophic event,” the law firm stated. “We are committed to dedicating all our resources to understanding how this happened and identifying all those responsible.”
Carlos Silva, a partner at Silva & Silva, expressed their commitment to holding accountable parties responsible and securing compensation for victims and their families. “These deaths and injuries were preventable, and we are determined to provide answers to those mourning,” he said.
Silva & Silva has a long-standing connection with the Dominican community, having represented victims of the American Airlines Flight 587 tragedy, which claimed over 100 Dominican lives.
With extensive experience representing victims of major structural failures and disasters worldwide, Silva & Silva has handled high-profile cases including the FIU pedestrian bridge collapse, the Surfside condominium collapse, the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center, and numerous aviation catastrophes.
Locally, several relatives of the victims have already hired lawyers to investigate the collapse of the roof and sue those established to be responsible. As of press reports on Tuesday, 29 April, some two dozen families had sued the owners of the club and the government for responsibility in the collapse of the roof.
Read more in Spanish:
El Nacional
Listin Diario
30 April 2025