Insights and analysis from our attorneys
A recent trip to the Appeal Board led me to write this article. While in attendance on a different matter, I learned of a case where the trial judge awarded a penalty for violation of the Special Rules of Administrative Practice and Procedure before Workers’ Compensation Judges, specifically Section 131.59(b) for failure to have requisite...
In the case of Estate of Denmark, v Williams , (Pa. Super. April 28, 2015), a three-member panel of the Superior Court reversed a trial court’s entry of summary judgment for a defendant-hospital...
Pennsylvania’s Child Protective Services Law (CPSL) was amended in 2014 to include substantive changes to the requirements for the mandatory reporting of child abuse and neglect. The new law...
Plaintiff Robert Occhifinto (Occhifinto) filed suit against defendant Robert S. Keppler Mason Contractors, LLC (Keppler) and others, seeking damages for alleged defective construction of an...
In Rodriquez v. Kravco Simon Company, A.2d, 2015 Pa. Super. 41 (2015), the Superior Court reversed the trial court’s decision granting summary judgment in favor of the defendant property owner in...
Before leaving office, Governor Tom Corbett signed Act 184 (previously House Bill 1846) on October 27, 2014, which took effect December 26, 2014. Act 184 includes a number of provisions regarding...
The 2015 West Virginia Legislative Session recently concluded. Multiple bills were passed during the session that will significantly impact the future of West Virginia’s legal system. These newly...
In November 2014, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court issued the much anticipated opinion of Tincher v. Omega Flex . While the state of product liability law was significantly altered in the...
A daylight accident involving an open and obvious “trivial” defect is the best that one could hope for, short of a freshly poured, pristine sidewalk, when defending the typical sidewalk claim...
The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania recently decided a fascinating case, involving what was described as a “frivolous” appeal filed by the claimant. The most stunning element of the decision...
In a May 12, 2014, Memorandum Opinion, the Superior Court affirmed a multi-million dollar verdict in a trucking case where more than one million dollars in punitive damages was awarded. In so...
Judge Nelson C. Johnson, a New Jersey State Court judge, recently barred testimony of the plaintiffs’ two general causation experts, Dr. Arthur Kornbluth and Dr. David Madigan, in the state’s...
Workers’ Compensation benefits can be suspended when there is a wage loss due to economic conditions. Recently, the Commonwealth Court affirmed an employer’s petition to suspend wage loss benefits...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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,...
In November 13, 2013, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a proposed rule on labeling changes for approved medicines to establish “parity” between Abbreviated New Drug Application ...
