Hi my name is Rebekah Brown and I'm a journalist in Winter Park Florida. I'm here today with
Brian Wiklendt he is a defense base act and longshore act attorney in Maitland Florida with
the law firm Garfinkel Schwartz. The reason I'm talking to Brian is that he gave me some
alarming information today after receiving a call from overseas which are
you sure it's often does. Garfinkel Schwartz helps people around the world
receive their benefits from the Defense Base Act law and Brian thanks for
talking with me today.
My pleasure thanks for having me. Explain to me what and who is hiring who. If we
would start at the top.
It's the United States Department of Defense. And they go and they hire
subcontractors and contractors, companies from the United States, Europe, India, from
Asia, from Africa, South America, Central America. It's those contractors who are
sometimes called Subs. They have to go and then find staffing to go and work in
these war zones including Iraq and Afghanistan. When they are hiring people
they're hiring people to do manual labor and technical jobs they need working on
U.S. military bases or for the military in various capacities. Whether it's
providing food service, water, transportation. They could be working on
the weaponry. They could be building and constructing in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Most of the clients that that I talk to or potential clients that I talk to
that have been injured or killed. The biggest conflict arose between say 2004 and
2011 and then
the troops withdrew from Iraq in 2011. That doesn't that doesn't mean that the
contractors did. So these things happen on a daily basis. I have calls to come in
a person was injured last week and in Afghanistan and they came back
and they called. So it's sort of a step away. And if I'm a mother and I've lost my son
who was in Turkey, who was hired by a subcontractor to go to Iraq or
Afghanistan. And that subcontractor let's say he or she is from Ireland or
from the Philippines or from Africa, there's a disconnect. And how would they
know how to find who's responsible for their son's death. They just know that their son has died.
Is that what's happening? That's what happening and the good part about the law is
that there is a normal statute of limitations that you know if a person
dies or you're injured severely and you know you can't work, there's a one-year
statute of limitations that applies if you don't notify the Department of Labor
by that time
your your barred. However there's a presumption in the law that that your
your claim is timely. From the point when you knew that you actually had or you should have known that you had actually
had benefits under this law. And if the employer does not report it to the Department of Labor
within one year and the employer doesn't explain what the situation is that you
may have rights under American law, many judges will will make that leap and say
this person should not be held to this to this limitation because there's no
way to get there have actually found out about this until recently and if the
employers and the insurance companies have a duty to notify people of a death under
their watch including all subcontractors. And they don't do it. So to be clear
we're not pointing fingers. I mean this is a war. There is going to be losses and
that's a horrible thing, but we're not saying that there is
necessarily a deception. But that there is a whole group of people who are not
being compensated and cared for after serving the needs a larger group who's
fighting a war. Is that correct? I wouldn't say its decision necessarily it's just
there's there's no mechanism in place overseas that forces a subcontractor
to tell an injured person or a dead person's family what their rights are
under the Defense Base Act. There's no mechanism place that forces them to do
that other than their supposed to file a claim within one year when they find out
about a death. They don't do any of that. So it's more it's more an act of silence. It's
simply a subcontractor
may not even know if the general contractor doesn't tell them. So there I mean these other
foreign companies may not even know to tell the people their rights. So it may not
be deception maybe it's completely ignorance. But whatever it is these people are covered
under this law and they don't know about and they'll never find out about it unless it's
someone like me or someone that's interested like these gentlemen they
were hoping they're helping turkish families on their own by people and explain
to them and say, 'where did you work? How did how did this happen to you?' What were
you doing at the time in Iraq or Afghanistan? And then once that diatribe
comes out we can then figure out if they're actually covered and they
usually they usually are. So if I'm a family member of somebody who has died and
I live in the Philippines, or in Pakistan or India, or any other countries where there are
subcontractors how would I get in touch with an attorney like yourself? That's
difficult because a lot of people aren't Internet savvy and they aren't
necessarily you know capable of finding my website. Do they have internet access? That's always the question.
If they have Internet access and they put in Defense Base Act law hopefully
sooner or later my name will pop up in my face up up and they'll be able to
contact me. If it's an issue of not being able to speak English we have
translators we can help. If that's what I've been trying to do for a long time
now to try to touch these people that had no idea what their rights are and
they're hard to find. Because what happens is they get injured. They get
sent back to where they came from.
Hopefully they can get back into their country which sometimes is an
issue and then they're just forgotten about. And so they get a ticket home hopefully they
can go back home. They get a ticket somewhere away from Afghanistan or Iraq
where they got injured after they get out of the hospital and they just say
goodbye. And there's data they don't know what to do after that. They just figure I
was unlucky I got hurt and I was going back home. Hopefully they'll hire one of my family members in my
place that's about all they they can think to do. So if somebody wants to contact
Garfinkel Schwartz they can write a letter. There's an address on the website and we'll post that address
here as well. There's
email. I understand that you'll Skype or video conference if possible. If we're talking a
remote village or town or city no matter where it is in the United
States at some point maybe there is a mail system so we'll make sure that the
addresses for Garfinkel Schwartz law firm in Florida is left available to people. But thank
you Brian for talking with me today and thank you for your work in in helping
these people.
Well, thank you for caring because this this is something that just helps families
across the world that need the help and the benefits are there and it's just a
connection between getting the benefits and finding the people that they are
entitled to them so thank you.