Philadelphia has a long and storied legal tradition. The two guiding documents of American law, the Declaration of Independence and The Constitution of the United States, were drafted and approved at the Pennsylvania State House in Philadelphia, now know as Independence Hall.

Photo by Dan Terzian

The reputation of the “Philadelphia lawyer” has waxed and waned over the years. In colonial times, a “Philadelphia lawyer” was “a lawyer knowledgeable in the most minute aspects of the law,” owing to the reputation of Andrew Hamilton and his successful defense of John Peter Zenger in 1735, the defamation lawsuit that established truth as an absolute defense to libel. By 1937, Woodie Guthrie sang Philadelphia Lawyer over the old folk ballad, The Jealous Lover, describing us in much lower terms.

These days, Philadelphia should be synonymous with efficient and fair court systems: the First Judicial District of Pennsylvania, the formal name for our courts, is one of the few urban court systems in the nation without a severe backlog of cases. Its Complex Litigation Center for mass torts cases has an unparalleled reputation for moving cases to a speedy, but fair, settlement or trial. Nonetheless, corporate and insurance-funded public relations specialists have spent millions of dollars to tarnish the City’s reputation, attacking judges and polluting the jury pool with misconceptions about Philadelphia personal injury lawyers and accident lawsuits.

Since 1958, The Beasley Firm has set the standard for personal injury representation in Philadelphia. In 1990, for example, firm founder James E. Beasley set the nationwide record for a defamation verdict — $34 million — in the Philadelphia courthouse. In 2008, as co-counsel, I helped set the record for punitive damages in a Pennsylvania medical malpractice trial — $15 million — in the Philadelphia courthouse. Read about more of our personal injury verdicts and settlements.

We know Pennsylvania law and we advise other Philadelphia personal injury lawyers on their practice: in 2010, Jim Beasley, Jr., and I were invited by LexisNexis to write their Pennsylvania Civil Discovery guide for other lawyers. Below are some of the more popular law blog posts on my site about Philadelphia lawyers and lawsuits in Philadelphia:

If you’ve been injured in an accident or as the result of malpractice, contact the Philadelphia personal injury lawyers at The Beasley Firm using the form below or the phone number on the right. Since 1958, our clients have been awarded over $2 billion through hundreds of verdicts and settlements in excess of $1 million.