I’m a trial lawyer for injured people and businesses at The Beasley Firm. Founded in 1958, we have recovered over $2 billion for our clients through hundreds of verdicts and settlements in excess of $1 million. We’re listed in Super Lawyers, Best Lawyers in America, U.S. News’s Top Lawyers, [...]
Philadelphia and Pennsylvania’s Medical and Regulatory Establishments Failed Gosnell’s Patients
Last week a Grand Jury in Philadelphia County returned its report on Kermit Gosnell, M.D., recommending he, and several of his employees, be charged criminally with multiple counts of murder (including murdering an adult patient through excessive anesthesia and obstructing emergency treatment), infanticide, violations of the Controlled Substances Act, obstruction of justice, perjury, illegal late-term abortions, violations of the Abortion Control Act, abuse of corpse, theft by deception, conspiracy, corrupt organization, and corruption of minors. The arrest and indictment have touched off old debates on the politics of abortion, debates I do not intend to enter here. But I have ... Continue Reading
Jury Awards Law Professors $5 Million Against West Publishing For Defamatory Pocket Part
[UPDATE: Law Librarian Blog and 3 Geeks and a Law Blog both have detailed coverage of the case and what it means for the publishing industry, and Jonathan Turley has background on the Campbell punitive damages case.] [UPDATE II: As The Legal Intelligencer reported, and as I predicted below, Judge Fullam cut the punitive damages verdict, holding "the constitutional limit in this case should be set at $110,000 for each plaintiff. When combined with the compensatory damages, this would result in a recovery of $200,000 for each plaintiff." That's roughly a 1:1 ratio of compensatory:punitive damages, which is low under recent precedent, ... Continue Reading
A Look Behind The Scenes Of A Multi-Million Dollar Personal Injury Verdict
[Update: Judge Massiah-Jackson upheld the verdict and overruled the defendants' post-trial motions. Now comes the appeal to the Pennsylvania Superior Court.] As The Legal Intelligencer hinted last night: A Philadelphia jury returned a $27.6 million verdict Monday in favor of a woman and her husband who said she was injured while taking part in a promotional video for an artificial knee implant. Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge Frederica A. Massiah-Jackson presided over the trial in Polett v. Public Communications Inc. The judge confirmed that the jury awarded $26.6 million to plaintiff Margo Polett and $1 million to plaintiff Dan Polett ... Continue Reading
Pennsylvania Superior Court Decides What It Would Have Decided (Kanter v. Epstein v. Saul Ewing)
More than a year ago, I blogged in Legal Malpractice Case Sends Dismissed Appeal Back To Appellate Court To Say What It Would Have Done about the malpractice case which came about in the wake of Kanter v. Epstein. The whole thing was, in a word, ugly. Kanter v. Epstein was a bare-knuckled affair (I suppose that's to be expected when all of the parties are themselves lawyers, most of them Philadelphia litigators) which ended only when the Superior Court threw out the defendants' appeals entirely for raising too many issues on the post-trial level and thereby failing to preserve any ... Continue Reading
Does The Philadelphia Housing Authority Owe Carl Greene Over $600,000?
When I first saw the headline in The Philadelphia Inquirer — "Greene suit says PHA ruined reputation" — I thought: has Carl Greene lost his mind? I interpreted the "ruined reputation" as referring to a defamation claim, and I could not see how Greene could possibly sue the Board of the Philadelphia Housing Authority for defamation. The primary allegations are indisputable: Greene was accused of several instances of sexual harassment, the accusers brought suit, and Greene authorized the PHA and their insurer to settle those cases. The PHA Board is now investigating how those claims were handled and has not reached ... Continue Reading
Walking The Line In Medical Malpractice Cases: New Jersey Appellate Division Vacates $19 Million Birth Injury Award
A recent medical malpractice case from the bought-yourself-an-appeal department: Citing multiple trial errors, a New Jersey appeals court has reversed an $18.9 million verdict against an obstetrician whose delay in ordering a Caesarean delivery a jury found to have caused cerebral palsy in the child. The panel found that Monmouth County Superior Court Judge Louis Locascio failed to limit the testimony of a labor-and-delivery nurse, to issue the jury a contemporaneous limiting instruction on the nurse's testimony and to allow the defendant to admit into evidence a report that had exculpatory value for the obstetrician. ... Zeh, the nurse on duty ... Continue Reading
E.D.Pa. Shoots From The Hip In Assessing Value of Medicaid / Medicare Lien In Personal Injury Settlement
One of the big issues that's been floating around the personal injury / wrongful death world over the past few years is the extent to which states can recoup the money they spent on an injured person's care if that person later sues the person who caused the injury and obtains a settlement. The Supreme Court gave us a partial answer in Arkansas Dept. of Health and Human Servs. v. Ahlborn: There is no question that the State can require an assignment of the right, or chose in action, to receive payments for medical care. So much is expressly provided ... Continue Reading
The Economic Damage Caused By Medical Malpractice Dwarfs The Cost Of Lawsuits
I've posted many times before about the economic realities of medical malpractice liability. Via The Pop Tort, a new study commissioned by the the Society of Actuaries has revealed the economic cost of medical malpractice in America: SCHAUMBURG, Ill., (Aug. 9, 2010)–Findings from a new study released today estimate that measurable medical errors cost the U.S. economy $19.5 billion in 2008. Commissioned by the Society of Actuaries (SOA) and completed by consultants with Milliman, Inc., the report used claims data to provide an actuarially sound measurement of costs for avoidable medical injuries. Of the approximately $80 billion in costs associated ... Continue Reading
Blog Defamation And The Discovery Rule: Do Plaintiffs Have Constructive Knowledge Of The Entire Internet?
As The Legal Intelligencer reported Friday: Aviation lawyer and seasoned pilot Arthur Alan Wolk knows quite a bit about the stratosphere and the troposphere, but he may have learned something new this week about the blogosphere when a federal judge tossed out his libel suit against the bloggers at Overlawyered.com. As U.S. District Judge Mary A. McLaughlin sees it, a blog is legally the same as any other "mass media," meaning that any libel lawsuit filed against a blog in Pennsylvania must make its way to court within one year. Wolk was hoping for a break on the strict time ... Continue Reading
SEPTA Files Questionable Trademark Infringement Lawsuit Against Personal Injury Law Firm
You know those ads for personal injury lawyers on the backs of SEPTA buses offering BIG CASH SETTLEMENTS!!!? Have you ever been "confused" or "mistaken" as to whether those lawyers work for SEPTA? Me neither. (Then again, I'm a lawyer who sues SEPTA.) How about a law firm website that shows a picture of a SEPTA bus while discussing how they represent people with claims against SEPTA? Would that "confuse" you into believing that SEPTA was offering to help you sue it? As The Legal Intelligencer reports: Personal injury lawyers have received their fair share of comments within the profession over advertising methods, ... Continue Reading
