Helmer, Nicole M.

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, NPR, 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.