The Evolving Landscape of Drone Lawsuits

A drone, also called an Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS), is an aircraft without an onboard pilot. Instead, an individual operates the drone using controls on the ground.

Commercial drone activities include agricultural and commercial property monitoring, filmmaking/photography, newsgathering, and research, to name a few uses. Recreational drone use has become huge.

Types of Drone Lawsuits

Drone operators can face potential liability under FAA regulations and state and local laws. Early legal actions fall into a few categories.

Personal Injury and Property Damage

Careless or non-compliant drone operators can face lawsuits when they injure people or damage property. The metallic blades on drones can cause some real damage.

Here are a few examples of the kinds of personal and property damage that can result in drone lawsuits.

• A California production company taking wedding pictures flew a drone too low and hit a lady in the eye, causing blindness.
• A small drone shooting a Fourth of July fireworks video crashed into a crowd and severely cut a man’s arm and leg.
• A drone flying too low or that gets out of control can crash into other aircraft, homes, buildings, cars, and other property, causing property damage.

Regulatory and Compliance Violations

The FAA can take legal action against drone operators for violating FAA regulations, imposing civil and criminal penalties.

• A Philadelphia United States Attorney filed a complaint in U.S. District Court against Michael DiCiurcio for “operating UASs illegally and in a careless or reckless manner that endangers others.” The government seeks substantial civil penalties and an injunction to prevent DiCiurcio from additional illegal conduct.
• In an FAA enforcement case, the agency sought $16,000 and $4,000 against two people who operated drones in restricted areas near SoFi Stadium during the 2022 Super Bowl. The FAA charged that the operators lacked remote pilot certificates, and flew their drones into airspace classified as national defense airspace without authorization.

Privacy and Surveillance Disputes

Privacy issues are becoming a hotbed of drone legal disputes at the state and local levels.

• In a bellwether Michigan local zoning and nuisance proceeding, a property owner sought to suppress drone photos and videos a Township obtained from drone flights over the defendants’ property. The plaintiffs argued the drone flight violated their privacy rights and constituted an unlawful search.
• In May 2024, the Michigan Supreme Court ruled that the exclusionary rule for illegally obtained evidence under the 4th Amendment does not apply to local zoning and nuisance ordinance enforcement proceedings.
• Yet, Minnesota and Oregon laws require the government to have a warrant to acquire information, except for exigent circumstances.

Intellectual Property

Legal disputes over drone technology patents are extremely technical and complex. The early drone intellectual property (IP) cases show that litigants will need expert witnesses to speak to the highly technical issues in these matters.

A Northern California U.S. District Court Judge recently rejected a plaintiff’s expert’s views on what constituted “noise” under a patent for manned and unmanned aircraft collision avoidance system that uses sound from an approaching aircraft. Instead, the judge agreed with defendant Zipline’s view concerning the definition of “noise.”

Landmark Cases and Emerging Precedents

Two drone cases shed light on the trends in federal and state drone law.

FAA v. Pirker

After a multi-year fight over the FAA’s $10,000 civil penalty against a videographer for reckless drone use, in 2015 the agency settled for a $1,100 fine.

• In 2014, a National Transportation Safety Board (“NTSB”) administrative law judge vacated the penalty when Raphael Pirker, the videographer, appealed. The judge said the FAA lacked authority because drones are not “aircraft.”
• The NTSB later reversed that opinion, stating that the FAA did have the authority to regulate UAS.

U.S. Supreme Court Declines to ReviewTexas Drone Law Case

The plaintiffs challenging the constitutionality of a Texas drone law recently asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the appellate ruling upholding the law. The Court declined this request in its 2024 Fall Term.

Chapter 423 of the Texas Government Code prohibits drone use to capture images of private property or individuals on private property with the “intent to conduct surveillance and bans the publication of such images and imposes criminal penalties.

• After a Texas prosecutor threatened a journalist with prosecution for drone use in reporting on a fire and prominent newspapers refused to publish photos taken with a drone for fear of prosecution, the Media Freedom & Information Access Clinic (MFIA) filed a lawsuit challenging the law in 2019.
• A U.S. District Court judge struck down the drone law, saying the images taken would not invade a protectable privacy interest and that the Texas law unduly burdened journalism.
• The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed – stating that the law sought to protect substantial privacy rights and that the press had operated for centuries without constitutional protection for drone use.

Conclusion

As commercial and hobbyist drone usage grows, so too will lawsuits. Interested attorneys should closely watch the emerging drone legal landscape.