Arthur Alan Wolk

Last updated

Arthur Alan Wolk
Born (1943-10-25) October 25, 1943 (age 79)
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]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Airlines Flight 587</span> Aviation accident in November 2001, New York, USA

American Airlines Flight 587 was a regularly scheduled international passenger flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport to Las Américas International Airport in Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic. On November 12, 2001, the Airbus A300B4-605R flying the route crashed into the neighborhood of Belle Harbor on the Rockaway Peninsula of Queens, New York City, shortly after takeoff. All 260 people aboard the plane were killed, as well as five people on the ground. It is the second-deadliest aviation accident in U.S. history, behind the crash of American Airlines Flight 191 in 1979, and the second-deadliest aviation incident involving an Airbus A300.

US Airways Express was the brand name for the regional affiliate of US Airways, under which a number of individually owned commuter air carriers and regional airlines operate short and medium haul routes. This code sharing service was previously operated as USAir Express. Mainline carriers often outsource to regional airlines to operate services in order to increase frequency, serve routes that would not sustain larger aircraft, or for other competitive reasons. US Airways Express operations were conducted from smaller markets in the United States, Canada, and the Bahamas primarily centered on US Airways' major hubs and focus cities. Upon the completion of US Airways' merger process with American Airlines, US Airways Express was rebranded as American Eagle on October 17, 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alaska Airlines Flight 261</span> Aviation accident over the Pacific Ocean in 2000

Alaska Airlines Flight 261 was an Alaska Airlines flight of a McDonnell Douglas MD-83 plane that crashed into the Pacific Ocean on January 31, 2000, roughly 2.7 miles north of Anacapa Island, California, following a catastrophic loss of pitch control, killing all 88 on board: two pilots, three cabin crew members, and 83 passengers. The flight was a scheduled international passenger flight from Licenciado Gustavo Díaz Ordaz International Airport in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico, to Seattle–Tacoma International Airport near Seattle, Washington, United States, with an intermediate stop at San Francisco International Airport near San Francisco, California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SilkAir</span> Defunct Singaporean regional airline (1989—2021)

SilkAir Singapore Private Limited, operating as SilkAir, was a Singaporean airline with its head office in Changi, Singapore. It was a wholly owned subsidiary of Singapore Airlines and in 2017, operated scheduled passenger services from Singapore to 54 cities in Southeast Asia, the Indian subcontinent, East Asia, and Northern Australia. As the regional wing of Singapore Airlines, it served the short to medium-haul destinations in the Singapore Airlines Group network.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SilkAir Flight 185</span> 1997 aviation incident

SilkAir Flight 185 was a scheduled international passenger flight operated by a Boeing 737-300 from Soekarno–Hatta International Airport in Jakarta, Indonesia to Changi Airport in Singapore that crashed into the Musi River near Palembang, Sumatra, on 19 December 1997, killing all 97 passengers and seven crew on board.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United Airlines Flight 585</span> 1991 aviation accident in Colorado

United Airlines Flight 585 was a scheduled passenger flight on March 3, 1991, from Denver to Colorado Springs, Colorado, carrying 20 passengers and 5 crew members on board. The plane experienced a rudder hardover while on final approach to runway 35 at Colorado Springs Municipal Airport, causing the plane to roll over and enter an uncontrolled dive. All 25 people on board were killed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Los Angeles runway disaster</span> 1991 runway collision between two airplanes

On the evening of February 1, 1991, USAir Flight 1493, a Boeing 737-300, collided with SkyWest Airlines Flight 5569, a Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner turboprop aircraft, upon landing at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). Though air traffic was not heavy at LAX, as Flight 1493 was on final approach, the local controller was distracted by a series of abnormalities, including a misplaced flight progress strip and an aircraft that had inadvertently switched off the tower frequency. The SkyWest flight was told to taxi into takeoff position, while the USAir flight was landing on the same runway.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">USAir Flight 1016</span> 1994 aviation accident

USAir Flight 1016 was a regularly scheduled flight in the southeastern United States, between Columbia, South Carolina, and Charlotte, North Carolina. On July 2, 1994, the flight encountered heavy thunderstorms and microburst-induced windshear while attempting to land, and crashed into heavy trees and a private residence near the airport. The crash and ensuing fire caused 37 fatalities and seriously injured twenty others.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">USAir Flight 5050</span> 1989 aviation accident

USAir Flight 5050 was a passenger flight that crashed on takeoff from LaGuardia Airport in Queens, New York. As the plane took off from LaGuardia's runway 31, the plane drifted to the left. After hearing a loud bang, the pilots attempted to reject the takeoff, but were unable to stop the plane short of the end of the runway. The plane continued past the end of the runway and plunged into Bowery Bay. Two passengers were killed.

Aircraft upset is a dangerous condition in aircraft operations in which the flight attitude or airspeed of an aircraft is outside the normal bounds of operation for which it is designed. This may result in the loss of control (LOC) of the aircraft, and sometimes the total loss of the aircraft itself. Loss of control may be due to excessive altitude for the airplane's weight, turbulent weather, pilot disorientation, or a system failure.

Overlawyered was a law blog on the subject of tort reform run by author Walter Olson. Founded in 1999, it is "widely considered to be the oldest legal blog and is also one of the most popular", according to Law.com.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Comair Flight 5191</span> 2006 passenger plane crash in Lexington, Kentucky, United States

Comair Flight 5191 was a scheduled United States domestic passenger flight from Lexington, Kentucky, to Atlanta, Georgia. On the morning of August 27, 2006, at around 06:07 EDT, the Bombardier Canadair Regional Jet 100ER crashed while attempting to take off from Blue Grass Airport in Fayette County, Kentucky, 4 miles (6.4 km) west of the central business district of the city of Lexington.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gol Transportes Aéreos Flight 1907</span> 2006 mid-air plane collision in the state of Mato Grosso, Brazil

Gol Transportes Aéreos Flight 1907 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Manaus, Brazil, to Brasília and Rio de Janeiro. On 29 September 2006, the Boeing 737-800 operating the flight collided with an Embraer Legacy 600 business jet over the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso. The winglet-equipped wingtip of the Legacy sliced off about half of the 737's left wing, causing the 737 to break up in midair and crash into an area of dense jungle, killing all 154 passengers and crew. Despite sustaining serious damage to its left wing and tail, the Legacy landed with its seven occupants uninjured.

Survival in the Sky, known as Black Box in the United Kingdom, is a British documentary series of six one-hour episodes produced by Darlow Smithson Productions for The Learning Channel and Channel 4. The series was narrated by Will Lyman in the United States and Sean Barrett in the United Kingdom. The series primarily concentrated on commercial aviation accidents and the investigations related to them. They were first aired as a series of only four episodes in late 1996, with two additional episodes produced and aired in 1998.

Theodore H. Frank is an American lawyer, activist, and legal writer based in Washington, D.C. He is the counsel of record and petitioner in Frank v. Gaos, the first Supreme Court case to deal with the issue of cy pres in class action settlements; he is one of the few Supreme Court attorneys ever to argue his own case. He wrote the vetting report of vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin for the John McCain campaign in the 2008 presidential election. He founded the Center for Class Action Fairness (CCAF) in 2009; it temporarily merged with the Competitive Enterprise Institute in 2015, but as of 2019 CCAF is now part of the new Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute, a free-market nonprofit public-interest law firm founded by Frank and his CCAF colleague Melissa Holyoak.

During the 1990s, a series of issues affecting the rudder of Boeing 737 passenger aircraft resulted in multiple incidents. In two separate accidents, pilots lost control of their aircraft due to a sudden and unexpected rudder movement, and the resulting crashes killed everyone on board, 157 people in total. Similar rudder issues led to a temporary loss of control on at least one other Boeing 737 flight before the cause of the problem was ultimately identified.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eastwind Airlines Flight 517</span> 1996 aviation incident

On June 9, 1996, while operating a passenger flight from Trenton, New Jersey to Richmond, Virginia, the crew of Eastwind Airlines Flight 517 temporarily lost control of their Boeing 737-200 because of a rudder malfunction. The crew were able to regain control and land the aircraft successfully. One flight attendant was injured.

A quick access recorder (QAR) is an airborne flight recorder designed to provide quick and easy access to raw flight data, through means such as USB or cellular network connections and/or the use of standard flash memory cards. QARs are typically used by airlines to improve flight safety and operational efficiency, usually in the scope of their flight operational quality assurance plans. Like the aircraft's flight data recorder (FDR), a QAR receives its inputs from the Flight Data Acquisition Unit (FDAU), recording over 2000 flight parameters. The QAR is also able to sample data at much higher rates than the FDR and, in some cases, for longer periods of time. Unlike the FDR, the QAR usually is not required by a national Civil Aviation Authority on commercial flights and is not designed to survive an accident. Despite this, some QARs have survived accidents and provided valuable information beyond what was recorded by the FDR.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">USAir Flight 427</span> Aviation accident in 1994

USAir Flight 427 was a scheduled flight from Chicago's O'Hare International Airport to Palm Beach International Airport, Florida, with a stopover at Pittsburgh International Airport. On Thursday, September 8, 1994, the Boeing 737 flying this route crashed in Hopewell Township, Pennsylvania while approaching Runway 28R at Pittsburgh, which was USAir's largest hub at the time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Northwest Airlines Flight 85</span> 2002 aviation incident involving a Boeing 747-400 near Anchorage, Alaska, USA

Northwest Airlines Flight 85 was a scheduled international passenger flight from Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport in the United States to Narita International Airport in Japan. On October 9, 2002, while over the Bering Sea, the Boeing 747-400 experienced a lower rudder hardover event, which occurs when an aircraft's rudder deflects to its travel limit without crew input. The 747's hardover gave full left lower rudder, requiring the pilots to use full right upper rudder and right aileron to maintain attitude and course.

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.
  7. "Arthur Alan Wolk - Lawyer Profile". Martindale.com. Retrieved January 20, 2011.
  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.
  9. "Accident investigation docket - USAir Flight 427, September 8, 1994, Aliquippa, Pennsylvania DCA94MA076". National Transportation Safety Board. Archived from the original on December 21, 2010. Retrieved January 20, 2011.
  10. Passarella, Gina (April 7, 2010). "Pa. Jury Awards Nearly $89 Million in Plane Crash Case". The Legal Intelligencer . Retrieved November 5, 2010.
  11. "District court for the eastern district of Michigan, southern division - Re Aircrash disaster near Monroe, Michigan on January 9, 1987". Findacase.com. September 15, 1998. Archived from the original on July 10, 2012. Retrieved January 20, 2011.
  12. "Swissair offers to settle in crash". The Washington Post. August 6, 1999. Retrieved January 20, 2011.
  13. "Families Sue Airline in 1999 Crash That Killed More Than 200". Los Angeles Times . October 24, 2000. Retrieved January 20, 2011.
  14. "Pilot error contributed to crash, lawsuit says". USA Today . June 19, 2001. Retrieved January 20, 2011.
  15. "James Cassoutt, et al. v. Cessna Aircraft Co. - Circuit Court, Escambia County, Florida". morelaw.com. August 17, 2001. Retrieved January 20, 2011.
  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.
  28. "FAA Registry:Airmen Certification Inquiry". Federal Aviation Administration . Retrieved January 20, 2011.
  29. "F9F Panther/BuNo. 123072". Warbird registry.org. Retrieved January 20, 2011.
  30. "Fighter-plane Airshow Opens Today At Willow Grove Station". The Morning Call. October 15, 1988. Retrieved January 20, 2011.
  31. "Bio - Arthur Alan Wolk". Airlaw.com. Archived from the original on October 24, 2010. Retrieved January 20, 2011.
  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
  35. "Wolk v. NTSB, (3rd Cir. 2002) - Case Law - VLEX 18137503". Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved July 9, 2013.
  36. Wolk v. United States, 2003 U.S. LEXIS 2210 (U.S., Mar. 24, 2003)