The Queen of the North sank on March 22, 2007. This image was taken by a submersible robot. (Transportation Safety Board)

The family of one of two people who died when the Queen of the North ferry sank in March 2006 has settled its legal action against BC Ferries.

Lawyer Peter Ritchie said Gerald Foisy's two daughters decided to settle the lawsuit with BC Ferries for an undisclosed amount because the cost of a civil trial was too high.

Ritchie, a high-profile Vancouver lawyer who represented convicted murderer Robert Pickton, slammed the high fees in B.C.'s justice system in a statement he released on Thursday in Vancouver.

"If one of your loved ones dies because of negligent actions onboard a British Columbia ferry, don't go looking for justice in the province of British Columbia. Unless you are wealthy, you won't be able to afford court in B.C.," wrote Ritchie.

"The people of B.C. will never get a chance to hear in court why or how two people died in the BC Ferries disaster in March 2006. Very sadly, two lovely teenage girls from Penticton will never know what happened to their father. Our so-called justice system has let them down."

Court fees would have been $40,000

Ritchie said that the hearing fees and jury fees charged by the B.C. government in order to stage the 30-day trial would have cost Foisy's daughters $40,000 up front, not including any fees for their legal representation.

"If you are wondering how ordinary people pay for these excessive government fees, the answer is simple. They don’t," he wrote.

He estimated it would cost the girls another $20,000 to bring 14 BC Ferries employees to Vancouver to act as witnesses during the trial.

"Maybe the B.C. government expected these girls to raise money by doing more baby-sitting? Maybe they should have held a bake sale at their Penticton high school?" wrote Ritchie.

Other family settled earlier

The family of Foisy's partner, Shirley Rosette, settled their claim earlier in January.

Rosette and Foisy died when the Queen of the North sank after it hit Gil Island at full speed as it made its scheduled run from Prince Rupert to Port Hardy.

The families filed wrongful death suits after a Transportation Safety Board report found the two crew members on the bridge were having a conversation and did not make a critical course change just before the ship slammed into Gil Island.

A Transportation Safety Board report found crew members Karl Lilgert and Karen Bricker, who had recently ended a romantic relationship, were engaged in a conversation before the ship slammed into the island.

The vessel sank in less than two hours and although 99 people aboard escaped, Rosette and Foisy were never found.

The B.C. Supreme Court upheld in November the suspensions of Lilgert and Kevin Hilton, who were on the bridge of the Queen of the North before the ferry sank.

BC Ferries suspended the pair when they refused to give crucial details of what happened before the incident.

No criminal charges were ever laid.