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The following is a list of our most recent events. Click on the links for more information or contact us at events@raynesmccarty.com
01/28/2009
Jim Mundy and Gerald McHugh Make "Report 100" List for Third Year in a Row
The Pennsylvania Report, a premier news source on Pennsylvania politics, for the third year in a row listed Jim Mundy and Gerald McHugh among the Top 100 Most Influential People in State Public Affairs....Details >>
12/01/2008
Pennsylvania Superior Court Rules in Favor of Raynes McCarty Client
Mother, who during her pregnancy, was misled by doctors as to the health of her baby, may hold the doctors responsible for the distress caused her by not being emotionally prepared for a child with severe disabilities....Details >>
11/12/2008
Martin Brigham selected as one of the World’s Leading Product Liability Lawyers.
Marty was nominated by a survey of other prominent attorneys to appear in the 2009 Guide to the World’s Leading Product Liability Lawyers....Details >>
10/29/2008
Raynes McCarty paralegal Donna M. Colarulo, R.P. serving on the Board of Advisors for Widener University’s paralegal training program.
As a member of the Board of Advisors Legal Education Program, Ms. Colarulo participates in panel discussions regarding decisions affecting the curriculum for Widener University’s paralegal training programs....Details >>
10/20/2008
Five Raynes McCarty lawyers recognized by Best Lawyers in America
Best Lawyers in America selected Marty Brigham, Roy DeCaro, Harold Goodman, Jerry McHugh and Stephen Raynes for inclusion in its 2009 edition....Details >>
10/20/2008
Jerry McHugh featured speaker at Pennsylvania Association for Justice Masters Series
Raynes McCarty lawyer Gerald A. McHugh, Jr. was the featured speaker at a PaAJ Masters Series continuing legal education program titled Perspectives on the Critical Components of a Trial....Details >>
10/20/2008
Tim Lawn featured speaker at Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Association’s Luncheon Lecture Series
Raynes McCarty lawyer Timothy Lawn will speak at the Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Association’s November 3, 2008 continuing legal education program titled Proving Difficult Medical Malpractice Issues. ...Details >>
09/01/2008
Philadelphia jury awards Raynes McCarty client $950,000.00 for eye injuries caused by defective plastic flying disc.
After a two-day trial, a jury awarded the Raynes McCarty client $950,000.00 for a laceration to his eye caused by a shard of plastic that splintered from a broken flying disc....Details >>
09/01/2008
Philadelphia jury awards Raynes McCarty client $950,000.00 for eye injuries caused by defective plastic flying disc.
After a two-day trial, a jury awarded the Raynes McCarty client $950,000.00 for a laceration to his eye caused by a shard of plastic that splintered from a broken flying disc....Details >>
04/16/2008
Gerald McHugh and wife Maureen Tate were honored by Friends for Effective Education (FFEE) at the Tribute Medallion Award Dinner on April 16, 2008
The Award recognizes McHugh and Tate’s lifelong dedication to community service, while at the same time raising funds for the St. Francis de Sales Elementary School, in keeping with FFEE’s purpose of providing monetary support to schools that exhibit educational leadership....Details >>
03/31/2008
Regina M. Foley appointed to Philadelphia Bar Association Board of Governors.
Regina M. Foley was appointed to serve a one year term on the Board of Governors of the Philadelphia Bar Association by Chancellor Michael A. Pratt....Details >>
03/21/2008
Regina M. Foley spoke April 9, 2008 at Continuing Legal Education seminar.
Ms. Foley updated plaintiffs’ and defense attorneys alike on recent developments in products liability law at The Dispute Resolution Institute’s Personal Injury Potpourri....Details >>
03/20/2008
Jenimae Almquist named co-chair of the Philadelphia Bar Association’s Advancing Civics Education (A.C.E.) program.
Raynes McCarty’s Jenimae Almquist and co-chair Barbara Potts, are leading members of the Bar Association in a program to provide supplemental civics education to Philadelphia area public school students starting in the Fall of 2008.
...Details >>
02/08/2008
Jim Mundy and Gerald McHugh Make Pennsylvania Report 100
The Pennsylvania Report, a premier news source on Pennsylvania politics, for the second year in a row listed Jim Mundy and Gerald McHugh among the Top 100 Most Influential People in State Public Affairs....Details >>
01/29/2008
Jenimae Almquist serves on Philadelphia Bar Association panel on work-family balance.
Raynes McCarty attorney Jenimae Almquist spoke at the program titled “How to Have It All - The Career and the Family,” organized by the bar association’s Women in the Profession Committee.
...Details >>
01/24/2008
Roy DeCaro Speaks at Philadelphia Trial Lawyers
On January 24, 2008, Roy DeCaro spoke to fellow trial attorneys about the steps he took to help secure the $5,000,000.00 verdict his client received in a recent product liability trial. ...Details >>
11/28/2007
Jury Awards $2.9 Mil. for Death Stemming from Blood Clot
A Philadelphia jury awarded $2.9 million to the wife of a bariatric surgery patient who died from a blood clot that traveled to his lungs after his post-surgical leg blood clots allegedly went untreated for 10 days. The verdict was in the Legal Intelligencer’s list of the Top 50 Verdicts and Settlements of 2007....Details >>
11/06/2007
$5 Million Verdict Upheld in Phila. Infant Tylenol Case
A Philadelphia judge has upheld a $5 million verdict rendered over a 1-year-old’s death allegedly due to liver failure from an overdose of Infants’ Tylenol....Details >>
09/12/2007
Raynes McCarty Distinguished Lecture in Health Law scheduled for October 9, 2007
Professor Michele Bratcher Goodwin, visiting professor of Law at the University of Chicago, will be the featured speaker at the Raynes McCarty Distinguished Lecture in Health Law which is jointly sponsored with Widener University School of Law.
...Details >>
09/10/2007
Best Lawyers ranks Raynes McCarty #1 In Philadelphia Personal Injury Litigation Firms
Best Lawyers in America is the oldest and most widely respected peer-review publication in the legal profession. It has announced its results for 2008, ranking Raynes McCarty as the Number 0ne personal injury litigation firm in Philadelphia, PA. Recognized for individual inclusion in Best Lawyers were: Marty Brigham, Roy DeCaro, Harold Goodman, Jerry McHugh and Stephen Raynes....Details >>
09/09/2007
Marty Brigham presenting at Visual Legal Advocacy Roundtable at Penn Law on October 19, 2007
Marty Brigham will be a featured speaker at the "Visual Legal Advocacy Roundtable" being held at Penn Law School. Marty will discuss his pioneering work on videotape settlement presentations....Details >>
05/04/2007
Federal Judge Lauds Firm’s Donation to Support Center for Child Advocates
Describing it as “an example of our Bar at its best”, United States District Court Judge, Stewart Dalzell commends Raynes McCarty’s $10,000.00 donation to the Support Center for Child Advocates....Details >>
05/01/2007
Marty Brigham honored in world-wide survey
The Legal Media Group ("LMG"), based in London, England, has just announced the selection of Raynes McCarty's Marty Brigham for inclusion in its "2007 Guide to the World's Leading Product Liability Lawyers." ...Details >>
03/15/2007
3rd Circuit Affirms $7.4 Mil. Verdict in Suit Against VA
The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a $7.4 million verdict obtained by Raynes McCarty's Jerry McHugh and Regina Foley against the Department of Veterans Affairs stemming from its decision to expel a Delaware County man who suffered from “rage disorder” and just one day later murdered two of his children and two of their friends.
...Details >>
02/16/2007
Top 100 Most Influential People in State Public Affairs
Two Raynes McCarty Attorneys Identified as Top 100 Most Influential People in State Public Affairs...Details >>
02/07/2007
$1,750,000.00 Civil Rights Settlement for Widow of Undercover Officer Killed by Fellow Policeman
On February 2, 2007, Judge Stewart Dalzell approved a settlement by the City of Reading in a civil rights law suit filed by Gerald McHugh on behalf of the widow of a Reading police officer. The undercover officer - Michael H. Wise, II - died on June 4, 2004, when he was struck by a bullet fired by a fellow member of the Reading police force. ...Details >>
01/08/2007
Roy DeCaro and Stephen Raynes selected to be among 500 Best Plaintiff Lawyers
Roy DeCaro and Stephen Raynes were named as being among the 500 Best Plaintiff Lawyers in the United States by the Publication "Lawdragon."...Details >>
12/01/2006
$5 million verdict for child who died from liver damage caused by Tylenol
Roy DeCaro was the lead trial attorney for the family of a one year old child who died from liver failure caused by Tylenol. Mr. DeCaro convinced the jury that the drug company provided misleading and inadequate warnings about the concentration and toxicity of Infants’ Tylenol. The jury awarded the family $5,000,000.00 for the loss of their child. Recently, the trial court rejected the drug company’s request to overturn the verdict. ...Details >>
10/17/2006
Martin Brigham Honored
Martin Brigham received a lifetime achievement award from the Philadelphia area Occupational Safety and Health Project...Details >>
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11/28/2007
Jury Awards $2.9 Mil. for Death Stemming from Blood Clot
Joseph Traina, 30, died from a pulmonary embolism Feb. 3, 2003, following his gastric bypass bariatric surgery Jan. 21, 2003, according to court papers. Traina’s widow Donna and his estate argued in Traina v. The University of Pennsylvania that Traina had blood clots in his leg veins, or deep vein thrombosis (DVT), which were a risk factor for Traina because of his weight and his recent surgery, and that he would not have died if the DVT had been diagnosed and treated with blood thinning, anticoagulant medicines. Traina, despite seeking treatment for the pain in his legs caused by the clots at two hospitals, the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP) in Philadelphia and Mercy Suburban Hospital in Norristown, Pa., died because the clots in this calves broke away, traveled to his lungs, starved his brain of oxygen and caused cardiac arrest, the plaintiffs’ pre-trial memorandum said. A pulmonary embolism is a “horrible way to die,” said Timothy Lawn of Raynes McCarty, who represented Traina’s estate. “The heart is pumping blood but it’s not oxygenating the blood, but your heart starts pumping faster because your brain is saying it’s not getting oxygen. It’s a terrible way to die. Your body is being starved of oxygen.”
In pre-trial memorandums, the defendants – two hospitals and three physicians – claimed that their care of Traina was within standards of care and that giving Traina anticoagulant medicines carried other significant risks.
“The concern for DVT is for clot above the knee, and thus visualization of the calf veins in these studies was not necessary,” the HUP pre-trial memorandum said. “There was no indication for performance of further studies or to continue the patient on anticoagulation, which would have carried a significant risk of bleeding in a patient so soon after surgery.”
Philadelphia Common Pleas Judge Nitza I. Quinones Alejandro presided over the seven-day trial. The jury rendered its verdict Nov. 15 after close to 10 hours of deliberation, Lawn said. The two hospitals named in the lawsuit were found negligent, but the physician defendants were not found negligent, according to the court docket and involved attorneys. The jury found HUP 60 percent negligent and Mercy Suburban 40 percent negligent. The jury found Dr. Noel Williams, Traina’s gastric bypass surgeon at HUP, Dr. Dominic Bontempo, a general and vascular surgeon at Mercy, and Dr. Lee Konecke, an internist and cardiologist, not negligent. Other medical personnel named in the lawsuit were dismissed before the trial started, court records show.
The jury awarded $1.2 million for the wrongful death claim and $1.7 million for the survival action claim, including $300,000 for pain and suffering and $1.4 million in lost wages, according to court papers. The plaintiffs demanded 44 million before trial and received an offer of $750,000 from HUP, Lawn said. Lawn will file a petition for delay damages that he estimated range from $300,000 to $400,000.
Traina worked as a project manager for Ikon Services, a document services company, and he had an 8-year-old daughter and 6-year-old son in whose lives he was active, the plaintiffs’ memorandum said. Traina weighed close to 400 pounds, Lawn said. Traina first sought treatment at Mercy Suburban’s emergency room on Jan. 25, 2003 – the day after his discharge from HUP – for the pain in his calves, and Traina was transferred by Mercy to HUP Jan. 26, 2003, to rule out DVT, the plaintiffs’ memorandum said. At HUP, an ultrasound was performed on the left leg from Traina’s knee to groin on Jan. 26, 2003, and an ultrasound duplex scan was performed on Jan. 27 on both legs but did not assess the blood vessels below the knee. HUP excluded DVT as the cause of Traina’s symptoms and sent him home. The pain continued to the point that Traina was barely able to get out of bed, and his family took him to Mercy Suburban’s emergency room a second time on Sunday, Feb. 2, 2003, the plaintiffs’ memorandum said. Mercy Suburban did not have a technician on weekend duty to conduct the vascular studies needed to rule out DVT, and while Traina was admitted to the hospital by Konecke, no anticoagulation medicine was given, the plaintiffs’ memorandum said. An ultrasound duplex scan was arranged for 2 p.m. Monday, Feb. 3, 2003. Traina suffered from cardiac arrest during the scan. “None of the defendants diagnosed Joe’s DVT until literally, it was killing him,” the plaintiffs’ memorandum said.
William Pugh V, of Kane Pugh Knoell Troy & Kramer in Norristown, who represented Mercy Suburban, said that Traina’s estate had insufficient evidence to prove a claim against the hospital. Plaintiffs’ experts focused on what should have been done to take care of Traina, but the experts did not address that the necessary test was not performed until 2 p.m. Feb. 3, Pugh said. “The jury was persuaded. This was a very sympathetic case,” Pugh said. “The Trainas were a very nice family, and the fact that he experienced the pulmonary embolism during the test was something the jury grabbed onto.” The Mercy Suburban defense pretrial memorandum argued that Traina likely had DVT already when he was seen in the Mercy Suburban emergency room a second time, that DVT was considered a possible diagnosis by Mercy Suburban physicians despite a negative work-up at HUP, that Traina was complaining of abdominal pain more than leg pain and that Traina’s care by Mercy Suburban emergency room personnel was within the standard of care. Konecke’s defense pretrial memorandum argued that Konecke held the anticoagulant because Traina had abdominal pain and because HUP’s work-up had not found any DVT. Mercy Suburban will be filing an appeal, Pugh said. Pugh also said that Lawn did an excellent job in the case. James Young of Christie Pabarue Mortensen & Young, who represented HUP and bariatric surgeon Dr. Noel Williams, said he would file “meritorious” post-trial motions. His clients’ defense theory was that Traina received appropriate medical care at HUP, Young said. “We think Mr. Traina’s care at HUP was appropriate,” Young said. “We really think the verdict was disappointing under that circumstance.”
Michael McGilvery of Young & McGilvery, who represented Bontempo of Mercy Suburban Hospital, was pleased that his client was not found negligent in the suit. Bontempo was called in to evaluate Traina’s abdominal pain and not his leg pain. Lawn said Bontempo was named in the suit because he also didn’t start the anticoagulants that might have saved Traina’s life. McGilvery also found it notable that the hospital and not their agents were found negligent. “It was a tragic case involving a 30-year-old father of two,” McGilvery said. “Clearly the jury struggled with how to assess fault because they found the physicians in charge of his care not negligent and still awarded $2.9 million.”
James Kilcoyne, of Kilcoyne & Associates in Plymouth Meeting, Pa., and who represented Konecke, did not respond to a phone call.
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