Results

We obtained a favorable decision dismissing all claims and cross-claims brought against a car rental company in a motor vehicle accident case in Philadelphia. The plaintiff’s complaint alleged several injuries, and she sued several defendants, including our client, the rental car company that owned one of the vehicles involved in the accident.

The claimant was hit by a forklift while operating a forklift, and alleged the accident caused a back injury. Through employer witness testimony and medical testimony, we showed that the claimant did not sustain a back injury, and that her medical issues were pre-existing and unrelated to the accident. The judge found that the evidentiary evidence presented by the employer established that, even though the claimant was involved in a forklift incident, the claimant did not sustain a work injury, and her ongoing medical issues are unrelated to the forklift accident. 

The decedent died of a heart attack after a three-day, over-the-road run for the trucking company. The decedent’s dependents argued that the heart attack was caused by the rigors of the job. Although the decedent died as he was about to execute paperwork denoting his employment status as an independent contractor—he never signed the document. The case, therefore, proceeded to litigation in the Workers’ Compensation forum. Expert evidence was presented on the issue of whether the decedent’s job duties had any contribution to the death.

The petition was filed by the claimant before an administrative judge. The claimant alleged he was entitled to reinstatement of indemnity benefits after he voluntarily stopped working due to hand pain. We argued the light-duty position available and offered to the claimant was a one-handed position, and presented employer fact witness testimony and video of the light-duty job in rebuttal.

The parties were litigating a motion for medical treatment in which a physician was recommending an additional spinal surgery. The physician moved forward without authorization and performed spinal surgery on the petitioner. In order to complete the surgery, the physician brought in several ancillary services, including a vendor to perform diagnostic monitoring during the surgery. Following the surgery, the medical provider submitted its bills to the carrier, which were rejected based upon the lack of authorization.

We won a favorable decision from an Administrative Law Judge on a Federal Black Lung claim. The judge credited the claimant with 11 years of qualifying coal mining employment, but found that the claimant had failed to prove a totally disabling respiratory impairment and, therefore, denied the claim. We presented evidence from our medical expert that the claimant did not contract coal workers’ pneumoconiosis as the result of his work in the coal mines, and that he was not disabled by a respiratory impairment.

We successfully disposed of a defamation action via preliminary objections. The plaintiff brought a defamation action against a public school district and certain district officials, alleging that he was defamed through a series of internal text messages exchanged between an elementary principal and another parent. The defense raised several procedural violations that occurred in the pro se plaintiff’s filings, and also argued legal insufficiency by way of demurrer.

We successfully obtained dismissal with prejudice of federal civil rights claims brought against an Assistant District Attorney. The plaintiff alleged he entered an involuntary guilty plea to murder following a defective plea colloquy with a judge, who now sits on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. The plaintiff alleged the transcript evidence of the colloquy was improperly altered by our client during his first post-conviction collateral proceeding, thereby resulting in violations of his Fifth, Sixth and Fourteenth Amendment rights.

Claims were brought against the state police organization and eight individual defendants (current and retired members of the state police). The plaintiff, a female State Trooper, alleged she was retaliated against for raising complaints about how male members of the State Police were treating other female employees and that her supervisors failed to take appropriate actions once her initial complaints were raised. She alleged she was denied promotion and transferred against her wishes in retaliation for making these complaints.

We were granted summary judgment in a case involving a dispute between a religious denomination (our client), and one of its local churches. The client invoked its judicial process, allowing it to assume control of a local church due to declining membership. The pastor of the local church refused to vacate the parsonage. The local church asserted the denomination lacked the authority to assume control over it and argued that it was never actually part of the larger denomination.