What lawyer can help an Airline Pilot with an injury on the job?

A lawyer who is familiar with the rules on the AOA, the Montreal Convention & Workers Compensation would be your best pick for help with a pilot’s injury on the job.

The rules of the AOA, the “sterile area” and in the air require that you select a lawyer experienced in these kinds of injury cases.

You would want a lawyer who has not only won personal injury cases for airline crew, airport staff and travelers, but also who has been successful in representing injured airline industry employees in their state workers compensation claims. Failure to retain the best airport injury lawyer for your case may lead to a good result in the personal injury case, only to have your workers comp benefits extinguished. Or, if the lawyer does not have significant experience in airline and airport cases, you could lose both cases. Pilots know that there are special rules on the AOA (“Air Operations Area”) and that the normal “rules of the road” do not apply once you pass through the TSA screening zone, into the airport’s “sterile area.” The airport and airline injury team at ABRAMS LANDAU, located minutes from Washington Dulles International Airport (“IAD”) and 20 miles West of Reagan National Airport (“DCA”) has experience navigating the special rules and regulations involved in airport and airborne injury cases. In fact. Doug Landau has lectured to: the American Association of Justice at the national trial lawyers convention in Miami, Florida; presented a webinar for the Maryland Association for Justice; and, published in peer-reviewed legal journals on the topic of airport injury litigation.

The airport and airline injury team at ABRAMS LANDAU has successfully represented pilots injured during pre-flight inspections, airport transportation crashes, even slip & fall accidents

For a pilot’s injury case, if the injury occurred on the AOA, there will likely no local police department report. In addition, unless you retain a pre-eminent law firm like ABRAMS LANDAU right away, the surveillance videos may be recorded over. In fact, some airports like Miami International (“MIA”) record over their digital images after only 20-30 days, so failure to act promptly can mean the loss of critical evidence of what happened. Because Doug Landau helps so many people injured at the airports, he is in regular communication with the airport authorities, airport subcontractors, vendors and their counsel. In fact, at a recent defense law education program, the Risk Management Department of the Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority (“MWAA”) was in the audience, and lawyer Landau was able to discuss cases, policies and procedures with then in person. Likewise, he has visited with MWAA staff and counsel at National Airport and at their offices in Crystal City, Arlington, Virginia. The ABRAMS LANDAU air injury team has also mediated cases with the major air carriers, like United, American and others. Landau also represented victims of the 9/11 crash into the Pentagon, including: the families of the pilot, the senior flight attendant, the woman escorting the children for National Geographic and the welder who died when the girder broke weeks later.

You also want a law firm that will not prepare and try the case on the cheap, that actually goes to court and that will thoroughly prepare you, your witnesses and the evidence for maximum results. ABRAMS LANDAU has tried cases in the Northern Virginia courts for those injured at the airports. Doug Landau was part of the trial team that set a record verdict in the Loudoun County Circuit Court for a flight crew ejected from their seats after landing at Dulles Airport. He more recently successfully medicated a senior flight attendant’s Dulles Airport injury case in New Jersey (where the client and his witnesses lived, sincere as biased out of Newark International Airport [“EWR”]), with a Virginia judge mediating and the airline’s lawyers in Chicago and the airport’s lawyers in DC participating remotely. Landau’s client was able to pay off a $660,000 workers coming “iou,” net several hundred thousand dollars in the personal injury case, AND keep his NJ worker comp claim open such that he cold receive another permanency Award a year after the successful Virginia Mediation!

Doug Landau flies on commercial airlines from the major U.S. airports. He has also logged many hours on private jets and airplanes, from airports large and small, in pursuit of justice for his clients. Lawyer Landau has conducted Depositions at airports in Clearwater, Florida, Prince William (Manassas), Virginia, and Teterboro, NJ.

Another asset to consider is whether or not the lawyer can win your injury case AND your related Workers Comp claim. At ABRAMS LANDAU, we have a long track record of success with our airline clients’ personal injury AND workers comp claims. In fact, for many of our personal injury cases, we call upon our many satisfied past clients to assist us with “inside info,” and the “411” on what may have happened “off camera” or in places where there is no airport security surveillance. This gives Doug Landau a huge advantage in helping injured pilots get full compensation for their injuries. Knowing the FAA rules, the rule of the AOA and the special protocol pilots must follow (i.e., random screenings, no controlled narcotics, collective bargaining agreements, etc.), make these cases that a general personal injury firm should not handle, unless you want to wind up with a bad result.

Furthermore, only a firm that handles airline injury cases regularly will be familiar with the Montreal Convention, the international treaty that governs air travel with a foreign component. That is,  if ANY leg of the trip involves foreign travel, this Treaty’s laws may apply. They govern what evidence is allowed and the amount of damages that can be claimed. AND, these cases MUST be filed in the Federal Courts. The Virginia Federal Courts are the fastest courts in the country. Just Google , “Rocket Docket.” So, if your legal counsel is not prepared to try your airport or airline injury case when suit is filed, you may never catch up in those courts. And the state courts of the Commonwealth are also incredibly quick, so time, personnel, money and assets must be invested at the outset in order to have a good chance of a successful outcome in an airport or airline injury case in Virginia. As in past years, ABRAMS LANDAU again helped clients settle in-flight scalding cases under the Montreal Convention last year and have several more pending in the Federal Courts presently.

Just as their are special rules & regulations regarding pilot’s employment, there are special considerations when selecting the best airport injury lawyer for your injury &/or workers compensation case

ABRAMS LANDAU has helped pilots injured during:

A. Flights, while dead-heading;

B. Conducting pre-flight inspection;

C. Slip & Falls, Trip & Falls on the AOA or inside the terminal;

D. Crashes on the midfield people movers, mobile lounges, airport vans and other motor vehicles;

E. While taxiing at private airports;

F. While being transported to the airport hotel.

Doug Landau and former Airline Pilots Association Counsel, Dan Kozma enjoy the annual trial lawyers association of DC’s charity auction for the benefit of Children’s Hospital. Landau attends most every single year, and supports this worthwhile cause. Sometimes he even brings things home that Mrs. Landau actually appreciates. Usually Howard, however, her first three words are “where is the receipt?. “Landau & Kozma had worked in the 1990s at the DC law firm Connerton, Ray & Simon. Kozma was in the Union benefits department and Landau represented injured workers in the personal injury, Worker’s Compensation, and also Social Security Disability cases all over the country. In fact, Landau flew all over the country to take depositions of asbestos workers who were unlikely to live long enough to see their day in court. It was said work, and it was a very tough time, as these depositions were defended by groups of lawyers, representing the various manufacturers of this lethal substance, who often times were not even paying attention to proceedings, but rather getting their billable hours. It was critical that these dying man were given the chance to tell their stories, and provide valuable evidence for the required “product identification “that would help prove their cases against these manufactures defendants.

If you are a pilot, and you are injured at the airport, on board the aircraft, or while being transported to or from the airport, you need a lawyer who can win BOTH your Personal Injury case AND your Workers Compensation claim. And ABRAMS LANDAU can do nearly anywhere on the East Coast of the United States. Doug Landau understands that his clients may be injured at a Washington, D.C. area airport, but be based out of Miami or Fort Lauderdale Airport, and be receiving treatment at Yale Medical Center in Connecticut. Doug Landau is licensed in all of these states, and has helped clients through the East Coast, the entire United Staes and asa far away as Australia!

So, if you, or someone you care about, has been injured on board an aircraft, at the airport, or while traveling to or from the airport, please call us or e-mail us at once. Not only are there strict legal deadlines in these kinds of cases, but critical evidence is recorded over quickly, travelers disburse and memories fade when travelers are trying to catch their connections and no contemporaneous record is made.

 

N.B. Doug Landau used to pass the Airline Pilots Association headquarters in Herndon on his way to the Law Shop. The ALPA offices are now in McLean and Wasington, D.C. Doug Landau worked with ALPA’s former counsel at a law firm that represented national unions in various areas of law (contract negotiations, retirement, benefits, etc,) as well as their members’ personal injury, workers compensation and Social Security Disability income cases.