Los Angeles, California
phone (888) 406-6726
fax (310) 820-7444
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Paul J. Hedlund focuses his practice on commercial transportation accidents including, aviation, bus, train and truck crashes and other mass disasters. He is a senior partner and trial lawyer for the national law firm of Baum, Hedlund, Aristei & Goldman.

Mr. Hedlund maintains the highest 5.0 out of 5 AV Peer Review rating through Martindale Hubbell and the highest Avvo.com superb score of 10. He has been selected to Southern California Super Lawyers and is listed in the Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers, Who's Who in America, Who's Who in American Law, and Who's Who in the World. He is also listed in Aviation Counsel Magazine's List of Recommended High Flyers, believed by the International Air Transport Association's Legal Dept. to be one of the most elite lists of aviation law practitioners ever produced.

Over the past two decades Paul and his firm have handled more than 850 commercial transportation catastrophic personal injury and wrongful death cases across the country. Paul was appointed to the Plaintiffs Steering Committees in several major airline crash cases including, United 232 Sioux City crash, Alaska Airlines crash off Pt. Mugu, CA, and September 11, 2001 Tort Litigation. He was also part of the aviation lawyer team that negotiated, as a term of the settlement, an unprecedented public apology by Air Midwest in a formal ceremony to the families of the victims of the crash of Air Midwest Flight 5481, which crashed on January 8, 2003 at the Charlotte-Douglas International Airport.

Paul has testified at government held safety hearings on two occasions. Because of his expertise as a mechanical engineer, he was the only attorney to testify about train configurations and safety at a California state hearing in 2005, looking into the cause of the worst train disaster in Metrolink's history, in which his firm represented 15 passengers.

After the October 17, 1989 Loma Preita earthquake, Paul was also the only attorney to testify about the need for labeling earthquake susceptible buildings, before the California State Legislature Seismic Safety Commission hearing held in 1990. Paul's client's son died when a commercial building known to be vulnerable to tremors, collapsed on him during the quake.

Paul has also argued a wrongful death case before the United States Supreme Court.

He earned a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan and his law degree from UCLA.

Paul has appeared more than 150 times on television, radio and printed publications across the nation including, ABC's PrimeTime Live with Sam Donaldson, ABC World News Tonight, CNBC, CNN, Court TV, EXTRA, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, NP R, and all of the Los Angeles news stations. He has also appeared in print media such as, Newsweek, Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, Los Angeles Times, National Law Journal, and the Washington Post.

Areas of Practice:

Aviation Accidents, Catatrosphic Injury, Helicopter Accidents, Mass Disaster Litigation, Air Medical Accidents,  Personal Injury, Wrongful Death

Certification/Specialties:

Patent Law, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, 1978

Bar Admissions:

California, 1973

U.S. District Court Central District of California, 1977

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, 1978

U.S. District Court Eastern District of California, 1991

District of Columbia, 1994

U.S. District Court Northern District of New York, 1994

U.S. Court of Appeals 9th Circuit, 1994

U.S. Supreme Court, 1997

U.S. District Court Western District of New York, 2009

Education:

University of California at Los Angeles School of Law, Los Angeles, California, 1973, J. D.

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1968, B.S.M.E.

Published Works:

Successful Handling of Wrongful Death Cases in California: The Law, The Traps, The Tricks; Trying Your Case to Verdict or Settlement; What Damages Do You Get?; Quirks of Courts, Lorman Education Services, 2002

Another Level of Justice: The Public Apology, Andrews Aviation Litigation Reporter by Thomson West, Volume 24, Issue 5, 2006

Another Level of Justice: The Public Apology, ATLA-Association of Trial Lawyers of America Aviation Law Section Newsletter, Vol. 13, No. 3, 2006

Pilot's Reaction Among Flight 3407 Crash Causes, Findlaw KnowledgeBase, 2009

Airplane Maintenance Outsourcing Tests Bounds of Safety, Findlaw KnowledgeBase, 2009

Representative Cases:

Sigala v. Anaheim City School Dist., 19 Cal.Rptr.2d 38 (Cal.App. 4 Dist. 1993)

Curry v. Continental Airlines, 513 F.2d 691 (C.A.9 (Cal.) 1975)

Lewis v. Sacramento County, 98 F.3d 434 (C.A.9 (Cal.) 1996)

County of Sacramento v. Lewis, 523, U.S. 833, 140 L. Ed. 2d 1043 (S. Ct. 1998)

Prudential Home Mort. Co. v. Superior Court, 66 Cal.App.4th 1236, 78 Cal.Rptr.2d 566 (Cal.App.4.Dist. 1998)

In re Air Crash Off Point Mugu, California, on January 30, 2000, 145 F.Supp.2d 1156 (N.D.Cal. 2001)

Butler v. Bell Helicopter Textron, Inc., 109 Cal.App.4th 135 Cal. Rptr. 2d 762 (Cal. App. 4th 2003)

County of Sacramento v. Lewis, 118 S. Ct. 1708 (S. Ct. 1998)

Classes/Seminars Taught:

Mapping the Maze of Considerations in Disaster Litigation, Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles, October 6, 1996

Lewis v. Sacramento County Re: High Speed Police Pursuits, Univ. of San Diego School of Law

Panel Moderator: Aviation Issues in the New Millennium - Ramifications of the RAND Report ("Safety in the Skies - Personnel and Parties in NTSB Aviation Accident Investigations"), Aviation and Space Law Committee of the American Bar Association

Successful Handling of Wrongful Death Cases in California, Lorman Education Services

Honors and Awards:

AV Peer Review Rating 5.0 out of 5 through Martindale Hubbell

Selected to: Southern California Super Lawyers 2005, 2010

Avvo.com Superb 10.0 Rating

Listed, Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers

Who's Who in American Law

Who's Who in the World

Who's Who in America

Who's Who in the West

Aviation Counsel Magazine's List of Recommended High Flyers

National Air Disaster Foundation Safety Award

Professional Associations and Memberships:

State Bar of California, Member

District of Columbia Bar, Member

American Bar Association, The Forum on Air and Space Law, Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section

American Association for Justice, formerly ATLA, Aviation Law Section, Railroad Law Section

United Airlines Crash, Sioux City, Iowa, 1989

Member, Plaintiffs' Steering Committee, MDL 817 - and Trial Counsel

Alaska Airlines Crash off Pt. Mugu, California, 2000

Member, Plaintiffs' Steering Committee, MDL-00-1343-CAL

September 11, 2001 Tort Litigation, September 11, 2001

Member, Plaintiffs' Executive Committee

Chatsworth Metrolink Collision Cases, Chatsworth, California

Member, Plaintiffs' Steering Committee