Hi I’m Brian Wiklendt with Garfinkel Schwartz.
I’m coming to you today from our Maitland Florida office which is a suburb of Orlando.
We also have offices in Titusville Florida on the space coast.
But we do travel all across the country to help people wherever they may be.
This is a federal law that we deal with called the Longshore Act also the Defense Base Act
and what I’m coming to you today to try to stress to family members of overseas contractors
to get involved and help with a family member that may be overseas and that got injured.
And the reason that I’m doing that is that over the years throughout my experiences with
colleagues and clients I understand that certain circumstances could cause the person that’s
actually injured overseas to hesitate to call a lawyer or even a doctor because their contracts
are very unstable from what I gather.
Meaning that they have a company computer, company phone if something happens and someone
finds out they’re contacting a lawyer or a doctor from stateside they may just be fired
from their job and lose their benefits from the job and just get sent home for any apparent
reason.
A lot of these contracts are very self-serving to the employer a person can be let go at
any time.
They can come back from work on say in Afghanistan one day and the next day they’re on a plane
home because the contract has been expired or they just say, “we don’t need you anymore
or we found out you’ve been contacting people or spreading rumors.
There’s all kinds of different examples why an injured person may want to keep quiet
and not get the help they deserve under the law.
So what I’m doing is I’m trying to urge family members of people that are overseas
that may or may not be injured in the future, to have resources that are available to them
in case something bad happens.
In case a family member is involved in a bomb, or they were shot or they run over an IED
or they’re they slip and fall in you know hazardous conditions, or they could have trouble
breathing because of sand storms.
Those type of people need to be helped with resources that can be done in advance before
the bad thing happens, so preparation for family members is a key item.
And if you go to our website at www.DefenseBaseActLaw.com you’ll see Resources for family members
and support groups and things that can happen ahead of time assuming the worst.
If you assume the worst and you already have certain doctors in place in case something
happens, or you have my name in case the insurance company doesn’t want to pay for certain
damages and items that you’re entitled to.
You’d have my name on hand, you’d have doctors names on hands.
And you’d have support groups on hand, through our website.
Namely PTSD support groups, brain injury support groups.
Lung capacity specialists that will help you get through the breathing that may occur and
a variety of other circumstances that you can be armed with.
Almost kind of like, I live in Florida and we’re always worried about hurricanes.
So on my refrigerator, even though a hurricane hasn’t hit in a while I have numbers.
I have hurricane evacuation phone numbers, I have the fire department, I have my insurance
company in case a tree blasts down hits my house and floods my house.
But you never know and so the same thing happens.
If a person you know goes in harm’s way that’s a family member you want to use the
resources on our website and be prepared just in case the worst scenario happens.
And the worst scenario that happens in a war zone is that you’re injured as a casualty
of war and it happens more likely than not especially in this type of atmosphere that
we have right now.
And in terms of the strife that’s going on that we’re going to have to support.
So thank you so much for listening to me, these are for the wives and spouses and brothers
and sisters of the people that serve our country that are shadow warriors that are not a part
of the military but they should be acknowledged as heroes.
That’s what I do for a living, that’s what I try to help and I’m here 24 hours
a day to do what I can do to help you.
So I hope you call me, if you don’t call me and look at my website, go on line and
look at somebody else’s and get yourself prepared just in case the worst case scenario
happens and you get the phone call that says, “I was bombed,” or I just got shot or
I fell out of a helicopter or whatever that may be.
So protect your family we’re here to help protect your family.
I hope that you take heed and get prepared for the worst because more likely than not,
something bad is going to happen at some point when you’re in a war zone overseas in the
middle of it.
Thank you for your time thank you very much for the service of your spouse or your loved
one in helping the government I know that it’s, when you volunteer to do something
like that, that’s a pretty big deal so I appreciate your time.
Thank you thank you very much.
This is Brian Wiklendt for Garfinkel Schwartz.
We’re longshore and defense base act attorneys and that’s all we do and we travel around
the United States to help people that are not getting the benefits that they deserve.
Thank you very much.