PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A lawsuit in the wake of the Titan disaster seemed inevitable, but obtaining a large judgment against the ship’s owner could be very difficult, legal experts said Thursday.

The family of French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, one of five people who died aboard the submersible in June 2023, filed a civil lawsuit for more than $50 million against the owner of the submersible OceanGate earlier this week. Nargeolet’s estate said in the lawsuit that the crew aboard the submarine experienced “terror and mental anguish” before the submarine imploded and that its operator was guilty of gross negligence.

Now comes the difficult part – winning in court.

Legal experts said Nargeolet’s estate may receive some money from the lawsuit, but it may be only a fraction of the amount sought. It is also unclear whether any money will be available since OceanGate has since ceased operations, they said.

Some say the passengers aboard the Titan took a risk when they boarded an experimental submersible that was heading for the wreck of the Titanic.

“They decided to do this, and in my opinion the chance that it would work was 50/50 either way,” said John Perlstein, a personal injury attorney in California and Nevada. “They are just as responsible as the guy who built and drove the thing.”

Nargeolet’s estate filed its lawsuit Tuesday in King County, Washington, because OceanGate was a Washington-based company. An OceanGate spokesman declined to comment on aspects of the lawsuit.

Lawyers for Nargeolet’s estate are basing their lawsuit in part on the emotional and mental pain of the passengers aboard the Titan. Lawyers at the Buzbee law firm in Houston, Texas, said the crew “knew they were going to die before they died” because they dropped weights about 90 minutes into the dive.

But that will be difficult to prove, says Richard Daynard, a renowned law professor at Northeastern University in Boston. Lawyers will have a hard time proving that the implosion and subsequent deaths did not happen instantaneously, he says.

It may be possible to prove negligence, Daynard said, but even that does not guarantee a high verdict, he said.

“A settlement is possible, but if the chances of success in the case are very slim, the settlement will probably be only a tiny fraction of the amount demanded,” Daynard said.

The Titan made its last dive on June 18, 2023, and lost contact with its escort ship about two hours later. After a search and rescue mission that attracted international attention, the wreckage of the Titan was found on the seabed about 300 meters off the bow of the Titanic, about 700 kilometers south of St. John’s, Newfoundland.

Stockton Rush, CEO and co-founder of OceanGate, was piloting the Titan when it imploded. In addition to Rush and Nargeolet, the implosion also killed British adventurer Hamish Harding and two members of a prominent Pakistani family, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood. No one on board survived.

The filing of a lawsuit in the Titan case was not surprising, but Nargeolet’s estate could be suing a company that has few assets, said Ted Spaulding, an Atlanta-based personal injury attorney, who called the suit a desperate attempt to get relief.

“I’m not sure there’s anyone else to sue in this case other than OceanGate. Maybe they could have sued the CEO and co-founder of the company, Stockton Rush, if he had any wealth, but he also died on the submersible,” Spaulding said.

Nargeolet was a seasoned explorer known as “Mr. Titanic” who participated in 37 dives to the Titanic site, more than any other diver in the world, the lawsuit says. His death was mourned by members of the underwater exploration community worldwide.

A high-level investigation into the Titan’s implosion is currently underway, launched by the US Coast Guard immediately after the disaster. A key public hearing is scheduled to take place in September as part of the investigation.