Proper venue is determined by the Pennsylvania Rules of Civil Procedure. For corporations, the rules dictate that litigation can only be commenced in the county where the cause of action arose; the county where the corporation has its principal place...

Litigating in the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is seen by defendants as a risky proposition, especially for personal injury claims. The venue is known for having the most generous jury pool in the Commonwealth and a pro...

The Pennsylvania Legislature is currently considering House Bill 1976 (“HB 1976”) which will significantly limit the list of counties where a plaintiff may bring a personal injury action—although the bill would not affect the venue rules for medical...

On November 9, 2011, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett signed Senate Bill 314 into law, which will ban text messaging while driving. The new law goes into effect in March 2012. The ban is subject to primary enforcement, which allows police officers to...

As anticipated in our previous C&W Journal (when a new bill had only just been placed on the Pennsylvania House agenda), the “Fair Share Act” is now law in Pennsylvania, having been signed by Governor Corbett this week. The following is a brief...

On March 15, 2011, the New Jersey Supreme Court decided the case of Tina Kieffer v. Best Buy, 203 N.J. 93 (2011), which will impact parties who enter into indemnification agreements with vendors that provide premise maintenance services. ...

I. Present Responsibility of Defendants ...

Title VII of the Civil Rights of 1964 prohibits an employer from engaging in discriminatory employment practices on the bases of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. The United States Supreme Court issued a decision in Lewis v. City of...

Under 42 U.S.C.§ 1988, a prevailing party in a civil rights lawsuit brought pursuant to 42 U.S.C.§ 1983 may seek a reasonable amount of attorney’s fees, as well as costs of litigation. The Supreme Court has held that this rule applies to prevailing...

The Employer’s Role in Settling Claims In 1996, the Pennsylvania Legislature passed Act 57. The legislation has had a dramatic effect on how workers’ compensation cases are handled. One of the major changes instituted by Act 57 was the ability of the...

C&W is pleased to report a major success in its appeal to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court on behalf of its resort client in a personal injury action brought by a skier who fell while boarding a ski lift. The issues before the Court were whether a skier...

Cipriani & Werner, P.C. successfully defended an appeal to the Commonwealth Court arising out of the trial court’s denial of Plaintiff’s Post-Trial Motion. In the case of Tucker v. Bensalem Twp. School Dist., 2009 WL 4877767 (Dec. 17, 2009)(Leavitt, J...

In this case, the Claimant sustained an eye injury sometime in 1979 or 1980. Claimant was a nurse cleaning the tracheotomy of a patient with herpes simplex virus (“HSV”). The patient coughed causing sputum to spray into Claimant’s left eye. The injury...

One of the greatest pitfalls in mitigating indemnity exposure occurs where the employer fails to make a legally sufficient job offer that will hold up in litigation. In the most common real world scenario, an injured worker will call or report back to...

In Bowlaway Lanes, the Claimant sustained a work-related injury in 1975 while employed by Eleventh Frame Lounge. The injury resulted in the replacement of Claimant’s hip with a prosthesis. Claimant subsequently became employed by Bowlaway Lanes, where...

In order to obtain a remedy under Title 42 U.S.C.§1983, a plaintiff must assert the violation of a federal right, not merely the violation of a federal law. Whether a federal statute creates such a right, which is enforceable by an action for damages,...

Unless a shipper and carrier have a contract which excludes the Carmack Amendment, the federal statute provides the exclusive remedy for loss or damage to goods arising from the interstate transportation by a common carrier. A trucking company is a...

In the most recent appellate case addressing the new way of litigating UM/UIM matters in Pennsylvania, the Superior Court upheld the venue clause requiring that consumers file suit in the county in which he or she lives. A three-judge panel in the...

The Pennsylvania Legislature has significantly changed its rules relating to the reimbursement of Department of Public Welfare (DPW) liens for Medical Assistance (MA) payments from recoveries by or on behalf of MA recipients. The changes place new...

For as long as most claim professionals have been in practice, all UM/UIM have been subject to the Pennsylvania Insurance Department’s mandatory arbitration requirement, forcing every unsettled UIM/UM claim in Pennsylvania to be resolved by...