Arthur Alan Wolk

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Arthur Alan Wolk
Born (1943-10-25) October 25, 1943 (age 81)
Nationality American
Education Temple University, B.S., 1965; Temple University School of Law, J.D., 1968
Occupation Attorney/Author/Lecturer
Known for Aviation Law and Air Safety
Website airlaw.com

Arthur Alan Wolk (born October 25, 1943) is an American attorney and author. He is the founding partner of The Wolk Law Firm in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which specializes in aviation law and air crash litigation for plaintiffs.

Contents

Wolk is an author, [1] editor and lecturer on aviation law and air safety with articles published by The Aviation Consumer, Aviation Safety and other publications and has appeared on ABC Evening News, [2] CBS Evening News, [3] CNBC, and CNN Larry King Live. [4]

Wolk is admitted to practice law in Pennsylvania. [5] He received his B.S. degree cum laude from Temple University in 1965, [6] and his J.D. degree from Temple University School of Law in 1968. [7]

Notable cases

Wolk reports that he represented victims in several major airline disasters. [8] Some of the most notable air crash cases Wolk has had involvement in include:

Suits against AVWeb.com and others

In 2001, Wolk won a $480 million verdict against Cessna [15] [16] which drew criticism from the AVWeb.com website. In 2002, Wolk sued the website and four people who posted comments there. The website and comment submitters then settled the suit with a payment to charity and published apologies. This settlement in turn drew critical coverage from the Overlawyered.com weblog. [17] Ted Frank then posted a criticism of Wolk on Overlawyered.com for his 2007 lawsuit against Teledyne. [18] In 2009, Wolk sued Overlawyered editor Walter Olson, Frank, and Overlawyered blogger David Nieporent, claiming that the blog libeled him. [19] According to the complaint, Wolk did not discover the article until April 2009. [19] In 2010, Judge Mary A. McLaughlin of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania dismissed the lawsuit for failure to comply with the one-year statute of limitations on the grounds that a blog is mass media and the statute of limitations runs from the date of publication. [19] [20] [21] [22] Wolk has appealed the court's decision. [20] [21]

On July 26, 2011, Wolk filed a new lawsuit against 42 defendants, including the defendants from his original libel suit, the lawyers who represented those defendants in the suit, The Reason Foundation, "INTERNET BLOGGER '/b/'", and the Manhattan Institute, alleging over 20 causes of action. [23] [24] In the lawsuit, Wolk admitted that he had hired an organization to "place truthful, favorable information" about him on Wikipedia. [24] [25] Writing for Public Citizen, Paul Levy criticized the lawsuit; Public Citizen's blog reports that Wolk has since filed suit against both Levy and Public Citizen. [26] Wolk has also threatened to sue technology blog TechDirt over their reporting of the suit. [27]

Personal aviation experience

Wolk has been a pilot for more than 30 years and holds an Airline Transport Pilot License (ATP) certificate for multi-engine land and sea aircraft. [28] Wolk owned a restored Grumman F9F Panther jet fighter [29] that he has flown in air shows [30] throughout the country; performing low level aerobatics and formation flights. [31]

In November 1996, Wolk broke his arm and back when he crashed his F9F Panther. [32] He later sued the National Transportation Safety Board over its report of the crash. [33] The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in 2000, also names Honeywell International Inc. and Allied Signal Inc. as defendants, claiming they gave false information to the NTSB to avoid liability. The suit says the NTSB report contained extensive errors, including a statement that Wolk was not qualified to fly the plane. [32]

In 2002, the District Court judge dismissed Wolk's suit against the NTSB and other defendants in its entirety. [34] Wolk then appealed unsuccessfully to the U.S. Circuit Court for the Third Circuit. In this decision, United States Circuit Judge Joseph F. Weis, Jr. writes: "We have carefully reviewed the District Court's opinion and, despite the excellent brief and oral argument on appeal by plaintiff, do not find reversible error." [35] Wolk then sought a Supreme Court review of the decision, but the Supreme Court refused to hear the case. [36] Wolk represented himself in the lawsuit. [34]

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References

  1. Wolk, Arthur (2002). Arthur Wolk on the ups & downs of litigating airplane crashes . Retrieved January 20, 2011.
  2. 1 2 "Headline: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania / USAir Flight 427 Crash". ABC News - via Vanderbilt Television News Archive. September 9, 1994. Retrieved January 20, 2011.
  3. 1 2 "Headline: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania / USAir Flight 427 Crash". CBS News - via Vanderbilt Television News Archive. October 25, 1994. Retrieved January 20, 2011.
  4. "JetBlue Flight 292 Makes Emergency Landing At LAX; Hurricane Rita Continues Path Towards Texas Coast". CNN - transcripts - Larry King Live. September 25, 2005. Retrieved January 20, 2011.
  5. "PA Attorney Information - Arthur A. Wolk". Disciplinary board of the Supreme court of Pennsylvania. Archived from the original on July 24, 2011. Retrieved January 20, 2011.
  6. "Temple University - Templar Yearbook (Philadelphia, PA) - Class of 1965". Yearbook.com. Retrieved January 20, 2011.
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  8. 1 2 "Aircraft disaster - Verdicts and settlements". The Wolk Law Firm - Airlaw. Archived from the original on December 4, 2010. Retrieved January 20, 2011.
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  16. The Devil in the Details, and the Seat Rails... Check-Six.com
  17. "Archives 2002 - section - September 16–17 – Free speech & web litigation: AVweb capitulates to defamation suit". Overlawyered. Archived from the original on January 10, 2011. Retrieved January 20, 2011.
  18. Frank, Ted (April 8, 2007). "Arthur Alan Wolk v. Teledyne Industries, Inc". Overlawyered . Archived from the original on January 17, 2011. Retrieved January 20, 2011.
  19. 1 2 3 "Arthur Alan Wolk v. Walter K Olsen et al - Cvil action - Memorandum" (PDF). US District Court Eastern district of Pennsylvania - Office of Clerk of Court. August 2, 2010. Retrieved January 20, 2011.
  20. 1 2 Jacob Sullum, Reason , "Lawyer Trying to Protect His Reputation As an Effective Advocate Misses Deadline for His Libel Suit", August 6, 2010
  21. 1 2 Shannon P. Duffy, The Legal Intelligencer , Discovery Rule for Libel Doesn't Apply to Blogs, Says Federal Judge, August 6, 2010
  22. Jeff Blumenthal, Philadelphia Business Journal , Overlawyered blog case testing statute of limitations for defamation, August 6, 2010
  23. REUBEN KRAMER (July 28, 2011). "Attorney Says 'Tort Reformers' Defamed Him". Courthouse News Service. Courthousenews.com. Retrieved March 8, 2013.
  24. 1 2 "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on September 29, 2011. Retrieved August 3, 2011.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  25. "What Do They Say About The Lawyer Who Represents Himself?". Techdirt. August 2, 2011. Retrieved March 8, 2013.
  26. "Arthur Alan Wolk Sues the Lawyers Whose Arguments Got His Libel Suit Dismissed As Untimely (CL&P Blog)". Pubcit.typepad.com. July 29, 2011. Retrieved March 8, 2013.
  27. "Our Response To Arthur Alan Wolk's Threat To Sue Us". Techdirt. August 4, 2011. Retrieved March 8, 2013.
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  32. 1 2 "Inquirer archives". inquirer.com. Archived from the original on September 25, 2020. Retrieved August 28, 2023.
  33. "Brief". www.ntsb.gov. Archived from the original on June 23, 2013. Retrieved June 29, 2020.
  34. 1 2 Court document uscourts.gov
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  36. Wolk v. United States, 2003 U.S. LEXIS 2210 (U.S., Mar. 24, 2003)