[Update, February 26, 2014: Discovery in the DiDonato v. Ung case has been completed, and the matter set for trial in April. There was an interesting and long diversion into insurance coverage law: apparently, during Ung’s deposition, DiDonato’s lawyers told him that he could potentially be covered by his parents’ homeowners insurance
Philadelphia Personal Injury Lawyer
Pennsylvania Injury Lawyers: Don’t Let Insurance Companies Send Settlement Checks To Medicare, Medicaid or DPW!
By Max Kennerly, Esq. on
[UPDATE: Complicating matters, on June 29th, 2011, a Third Circuit panel ruled in the Tristani v. Richman case (PDF) that Medicare / Medicaid has the right to assert liens, and that the default medical expenses apportionment scheme under 55 PA. CODE § 259.2 is appropriate. Expect more litigation and appeals to follow, likely…
Another Falsified Logbook, Another Preventable Truck Accident Death
By Max Kennerly, Esq. on
Posted in Automobile Accidents, Personal Injury
Like with the patient safety violations at Gosnell’s clinic, I hate seeing articles describing tragedies that mirror my cases, tragedies would have been avoided if we simply had better laws or law enforcement.
Like the article in today’s Inquirer:
A truck driver who plowed his 77,000-pound rig into an Infiniti on the Schuylkill
…
Jury Awards Law Professors $5 Million Against West Publishing For Defamatory Pocket Part
By Max Kennerly, Esq. on
[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…
Why Philadelphia Is The Worst Judicial Hellhole In The United States
By Max Kennerly, Esq. on
The American Tort Reform Association’s Annual Report on “Judicial Hellholes” is out again.
Whoops, I mixed up my link — that’s a link to reasonable commentary by the Center for Justice & Democracy. The actual misleading, faux-scientific report is here. My take is similar to The Pop Tort’s ode to the judicial hellholes list:…
In Wrongful Death Cases, “Survivors” Means All Of Them, Even Those Born Posthumously
By Max Kennerly, Esq. on
Over at the WSJ Law Blog:
A factual situation: A woman gets pregnant. Six weeks later, the father is killed in an accident.
The legal question: May the child of the father, who was still very much in utero when the father was killed, later bring a wrongful-death action against his father’s killer?
The…
A Look Behind The Scenes Of A Multi-Million Dollar Personal Injury Verdict
By Max Kennerly, Esq. on
[Update: Judge Massiah-Jackson upheld the verdict and overruled the defendants’ post-trial motions. Now comes the appeal to the Pennsylvania Superior Court.]
[Update 2: The Pennsylvania Superior Court reversed, citing three grounds: an error in the jury instruction, the need for Dr. Booth to produce an expert report before trial, and…
Tort Reform and the Politics of Assumption of Risk at Notre Dame
By Max Kennerly, Esq. on
Readers here are doubtlessly familiar with the tragic death of Declan Sullivan. Unfortunately, Declan’s death was not, in the big sense, unusual: every day, people die in the course of jobs they suspect to be dangerous. The intense media focus on Declan’s case, however, gives us a unique opportunity to explore the serious —…
Pennsylvania Superior Court Decides What It Would Have Decided (Kanter v. Epstein v. Saul Ewing)
By Max Kennerly, Esq. on
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…
Attorney-Client Privilege In Pennsylvania Needs A Refurbishing
By Max Kennerly, Esq. on
Posted in For Lawyers, The Law
[UPDATE: On November 19, 2010, the Pennsylvania Superior Court granted en banc reargument and withdrew the opinion discussed below. Stay tuned.]
[UPDATE II: On February 24, 2011, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court decided Gillard, W. v. AIG Insurance Co., et al., No. 10 EAP 2010, which clarified an unsettled point in …