Does this mean that it is always better to go after an airline in court(especially in a California court) than to accept whatever the airline's insurance company pays out?
(half a million vs. 15 million US dollars)

SQ will no doubt appeal this, but even if they end up paying just 10% of that, which is about 1.5 million, that's still three times more than half a million.

Lastly, how much do the lawyers get? (not a lawyer joke, but serious question.... as I'm trying to convince my niece to go to law school instead of med school)

http://www.forbes.com/markets/newswi...tr1364740.html

excerpt from articl:

"LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The children of a couple killed in a 2000 Singapore Airlines crash in Taiwan were awarded $15 million Friday by a federal court jury in Los Angeles, the first U.S. court verdict stemming from the accident.

Sidney and Christina Wu won the judgement after a three-day trial in their wrongful death lawsuit over Singapore Airlines Flight SQ006, which crashed at Chiang Kai Shek International Airport on Oct. 31, 2000."