C&W Journal

March 26, 2015

Restructuring Pennsylvania’s Powers Of Attorney

In response to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s decision in Vine v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, State Employees’ Retirement Board, 607 Pa. 648; 9 A.3d 1150 (2010), the Pennsylvania legislature made significant amendments to Pennsylvania’s Powers of Attorney (POA) that involve financial and property transactions. While some of the amendments took...

March 26, 2015

Driveway Immunity Exceptions

A little known section of Pennsylvania law, the Driveway Immunity Provision, 35 P.S §7210.502 (b)(4)(i) of the Construction Code Act, and 53 P.S.§10508(6) of the Municipalities Planning Code, may...

January 30, 2015

New Form of Indemnity Identified in Non-Precedential Decision

The Superior Court, in a non-precedential opinion, recently acknowledged the doctrine of intermediate form indemnity. In Bracken v. Burchick , (October 10, 2014), a general contractor entered into...

January 30, 2015

Break Time Injuries Still Compensable

Recently the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board upheld a case where a claimant who was on his regular shift took a cigarette break while on the premises of the employer and was bitten...

January 30, 2015

State of Product Liability Law Significantly Altered in Pennsylvania

This past November, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court issued its long-awaited decision in Tincher v. Omega Flex . The court overruled Azzarello v. Black Brothers , yet declined to replace it with the...

January 30, 2015

Pennsylvania Supreme Court to Decide Use of Informed Consent...

The issue of whether the Superior Court erred in applying a blanket prohibition of evidence of a plaintiff’sconsent to surgeries and knowledge of the risks associated with the plaintiff’s...

January 30, 2015

Work Effort and Personal Risk Factors: Making Sense of...

In Renner v. AT&T (A-71-11) (068744), the petitioner was a telecommuting employee permitted to work from her home three (3) days a week. She worked for AT&T for 25 years. On September 24,...

January 30, 2015

Workers’ Compensation “Exclusivity” Provision May Not Be So...

Under the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act, an employer’s liability to an employee, legal representative, husband or wife, parents, dependents, next of kin, or anyone otherwise entitled to...

January 30, 2015

Commonwealth Court Ruling Highlights Exception to “Coming and Going...

For those who deal in workers’ compensation matters, it is generally thought that a person who is injured while traveling to or from work is not entitled to workers’ compensation benefits. Indeed,...

November 21, 2014

What Does MMI Really Mean in the Context of Impairment Rating...

Simply by being in the workers’ compensation arena allows most everyone involved to have a general understanding of maximum medical improvement (MMI). In Pennsylvania, MMI does not hold as much...

November 21, 2014

Can a Defendant in a Professional Liability Case be Asked for His...

For those of us who practice in the area of professional liability defense, there remains the question of whether to designate a client as an “expert.” This is true whether the defendant is an...

November 21, 2014

What to Do When an IRE and Review Petition Cross Paths

In Pinder v. WCAB (Lucent Technologies), (No. 23 C.D. 2014,) submitted July 18, 2014, the parties were litigating Termination and Review Petitions when the employer requested that the claimant...

September 29, 2014

Supreme Court Weighs in on Employer’s Burden of Proof Regarding...

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court recently addressed the burden of proof between an employer and a claimant regarding the claimant’s legal eligibility to work under Federal immigration law whenever...

September 28, 2014

Unilateral Suspension or Modification Upon a Return to Work

The unilateral Notification of Suspension or Modification was allowed in amendments to the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act in 1996. It is a very valuable tool for Pennsylvania workers’...

September 28, 2014

A Warning Regarding the Application of the Cy Pres Doctrine

Lovate Health Sciences USA Inc. agreed to settle a class action lawsuit alleging it made false and misleading statements in its labeling and advertising regarding the effectiveness of its...

September 28, 2014

Superior Court Sides With Insureds on Stacking Issue

The Superior Court’s June 6, 2014, decision in Bumbarger v. Peerless Indemnity Insurance Company, 93 A.3d 872 (Pa.Super. 2014)affirmed an order granting summary judgment thereby entitling an...

July 01, 2014

The Clock Does Not Stop Ticking: NJ Appellate Division Upholds...

In a recent decision from the New Jersey Appellate Division, the court determined that the Law Division does not have the authority to transfer the matter to the Workers’ Compensation Division. In...

July 01, 2014

Pennsylvania Supreme Court Reaffirms Statutory Employer Defense

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court recently reaffirmed the statutory employer defense, resulting in the invalidation of a $1.5 million jury verdict. In Patton v. Worthington Associates, Inc. , 2014 Pa...

July 01, 2014

Split Decision Results in Protection of Attorney-Expert Communications

On April 29, 2014, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, in a split decision, handed down the much anticipated opinion of Barrick v. Holy Spirit Hospital , which addresses the discovery of...

May 28, 2014

Employers Now Subject to Civil Liability for Latent Occupational...

In a dramatic shift from precedent, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in Tooey vs. AK Steel et all., No. 21 WAP 2011, 2013 WL 6150887 (Pa. Nov. 22, 2013), held that the Pennsylvania Workers...

May 28, 2014

Supreme Court Makes It More Difficult To Sue Companies in Any...

This past January, the United States Supreme Court issued a significant ruling that will limit where companies may be sued for claims that do not relate to business they conduct in a particular...

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