- Child Custody and Visitation
- DUI/DWIWe advise airmen on FAA medical certification issues involving denials, appeals, requests for reconsideration, special issuance, medical certificate applications, alcohol and drug testing, DUI reporting compliance, and more.
- Corporate LawJohn Yodice set up his private practice in the District of Columbia and Maryland upon graduation from the George Washington University School of Law in 1959. Since then he has been continuously representing pilots, flight schools, corporate and commercial operators, aircraft owners, and others in aviation and corporate law matters. Mr. Yodice is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Oklahoma. He served as General Counsel to the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association and the International Council of Aircraft Owner and Pilot Association. He is a Director (and past president) of the Lawyer-Pilots Bar Association and currently continues to serve as their Convention Manager, a position that he has held for 45 years. He is a founding member and current secretary of the International Aviation and Transportation Safety Bar Association (formerly the NTSB Bar Association).
- Business Transactions
- Limited Liability CompaniesAddressing a peripheral registration-related topic, over these many years we’ve seen an uptick in the use of LLC’s (Limited Liability Companies) as a legal ownership entity of choice for aircraft purchasers. Many current or prospective owners seem to think that owning an airplane in an LLC provides absolute protection against all manner of liability. It does not. An LLC offers
- Personal InjuryAs any flight instructor will be quick to tell you, it is not the most financially rewarding profession in the world. While we have in this country a tort system that many believe is out of control, the plaintiff lawyers who handle death and personal injury cases only go after the "deep pockets." They typically handle these cases on a contingent-fee basis--if there is no recovery, the lawyer gets no fee; if there is a recovery, the lawyer gets a percentage as a fee. The lawyers are not about to take cases in which there is not a promising prospect that they will be well paid for their time and trouble.
- Social Security DisabilityHere is a more current example. Beginning in July of 2003, the Department of Transportation (that includes the FAA) and the Social Security Administration initiated a joint effort to identify the misuse of Social Security numbers by pilots. Somehow that effort got derailed into a record matching that identified a number of pilots with current medical certificates who were receiving Social Security disability benefits (an obvious “beneficent purpose”). They then narrowed their review to the 40,000 pilots residing in the northern half of California (that’s probably all if not most of them), identified 3,220 who were collecting benefits (some disability benefits), and then selected the 45 worst cases for criminal prosecution. In 14 cases the FAA issued emergency orders immediately revoking their pilots licenses and medical certificates. As best as we can tell, the 40,000 pilots (overwhelmingly innocent and law abiding) were not notified that their FAA records were being computer matched against Social Security computer records.
- Estate PlanningRay Speciale is a lawyer and a Certified Public Accountant. His areas of specialty are aviation, taxation, estate planning, and administration, as well as commercial transactions. He is an FAA certified commercial pilot and flight instructor. In recent years he’s authored two books published by McGraw-Hill and several law review and journal articles. His research and writing typically focuses on aviation-related legal and tax matters.
- BankruptcyAnd what about the original Hawker jet seller? As John Yodice’s article relates, the seller sought dismissal of the plaintiff-buyer’s breach of warranty claim. The district court denied the motion pending either a stay or termination of the seller’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding. As far as we know, no further action was ever taken by the court.
- Tax Law