This Kentucky woman was sitting home, minding her own business when a plane crashed into the house.  She hired an attorney.

"An English teacher at Pineville High School, Osborne was devastated by the crash, which destroyed her home and belongings. Her blood pressure skyrocketed and her diabetes flared, according to her doctor, and each time she returned to sift through the contents of her former home, she broke into tears, she said.

She thought Keeney’s fee was expensive, but he promised that she had a strong case against the pilot, who owned the plane.

The National Transportation Safety Board’s findings, while not admissible in court, said the probable causes of the crash were inadequate maintenance and the pilot’s decision to fly with a "known deficiency."

Before the pilot took off, a mechanic saw him spraying fuel from a squirt bottle into an engine, which then backfired and burst into flames. The pilot departed anyway but got only 50 feet off the ground before losing power and crashing into Osborne’s attic. The pilot and a passenger survived, but were seriously injured.

The month after retaining Keeney, they met with the company’s adjuster, who had already cut checks for $151,390 for the loss of her home.

Even though Keeney had done "nothing to earn it," Sitlinger said, Keeney took 20 percent — about $30,000. After paying off her $96,000 mortgage, Osborne was left with about $24,000.

A few months later, after Osborne painstakingly worked to draw up an inventory of the home’s contents, State Farm paid out another $72,051; Keeney took 20 percent — again, "for no work," Sitlinger said.

Keeney claimed he sent $5,573 to Osborne’s ex-husband, David Osborne, to cover items he had stored in the house, but David Osborne swore later in a deposition that he never received it.

When she inquired about a third check from State Farm, for $11,000 in replacement costs, she discovered Keeney had deposited the check in his personal account — rather than an escrow account, as required by ethics rules, Sitlinger said.

Keeney had endorsed her signature, which he said he had the authority to do under a contract he produced only after Osborne sued him. He also testified that she had authorized him to put the money in his personal account.

"That’s a lie," Sitlinger told the jury. "I can’t sugarcoat it."