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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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11/06/2007
$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, in part because the judge said the makers of the over-the-counter drug filed a 29-point statement of matters in violation of Rule 1925(b). McNeil-PPC Inc. has appealed Judge Annette M. Rizzo’s decision in Dunson v. McNeil-PPC Inc. to the Pennsylvania Superior Court. Rizzo said the appeal should be quashed because the defense violated Rule 1925(b).
“Appellant has attempted to overwhelm this court by filing a Rule 1925(b) statement that contains an excessive number of issues that could not possibly be raised on appeal due to briefing constraints of Pa.R.A.P. 2116,” wrote Rizzo in her Sept. 12 decision. “The five-page, 29-issue length of the instant statement of matters, unless significantly reduced, will surely result in a violative statement of questions involved. ... Appellant’s conduct with respect to the statement of matters breaches the duty of good faith and fair dealing with the court.” She said the defendant made “very little effort” to refine the issues rased on appeal. “Appellant’s conduct with respect to the statement of matters breaches the duty of good faith and fair dealing with the court and constitutes a course of misconduct,” designed to undermine the appellate procedural rules, Rizzo said.
According to the opinion, Marquis Dunson died March 2002 after being administered Infants’ Tylenol for three days to treat his cold symptoms. The plaintiffs argued that Dunson died from acetaminophen toxicity and that the warning labels and directions on the Infants’ Tylenol label were not clear that an overdose from acetaminophen, Tylenol’s active ingredient, can lead to liver toxicity. McNeil countered that Dunson’s death was from an unrelated viral hepatic injury and that the parents had failed to follow the medicine’s instructions and warnings.
The Philadelphia jury sided with the plaintiffs’ argument in its July 2006 verdict that the Infants’ Tylenol warning labels were defective and contributed to Dunson’s death. Dunson’s parents, Martin and Lisa, testified they would not have given the medicine to their son if it included a warning that it could cause liver damage or death, Rizzo said. According to Rizzo, the defense failed to preserve at trial or in its motion for post-trial relief whether she erred in allowing the plaintiffs to pursue a strict liability theory, rather than a negligence theory, among other issues.
McNeil-PPC Inc., owned by Johnson & Johnson, renewed the argument in their appellate brief filed last week that Rizzo erred in ruling that federal law did not preempt the claim in the case, in allowing the plaintiffs to assert a strict liability theory rather than a negligence theory, in ruling that the lack of use of example warnings offered by the plaintiffs had “proximately caused the injury” and ruling that plaintiffs had sufficiently established for the jury to find that Infants’ Tylenol is “unreasonably dangerous, “ among several other issues. McNeil argued in its brief that it preserved the issues raised on appeal. “McNeil first raised the insufficiency of plaintiffs’ proof of causation as to each of their warning theories in a motion in limine and its motions for nonsuit. ... McNeil also asked the court to determine that Infants’ Tylenol is not unreasonably dangerous in its motions for nonsuit,” the brief said. “McNeil argued that negligence, rather than strict liability, standards should be applied to the case. ... McNeil preserved its challenge to the court’s exclusion of evidence of the conclusions of the [Federal Drug Administration] by identifying the testimony and opposing plaintiffs’ pre-trial motion to exclude this evidence.” Bruce Clark, one of McNeil’s attorneys from Dechert LLP, deferred comment to Johnson & Johnson in-house attorney John Kim. Kim did not respond to a phone call Friday afternoon.
During the trial McNeil argued Dunson’s liver problems were caused by a virus, but during closing arguments the defense shifted to arguing that Dunson’s parents also administered other cold remedies to their son and that combined use of other drugs with Infants’ Tylenol caused him unintended harm, Rizzo said.
A. Roy DeCaro of Raynes McCarty, a plaintiffs attorney for the parents, praised Rizzo’s opinion and said that the defense shifted their legal theories both in the trial court and now at the appellate level. “I always think it’s a mistake to do a shot-gun appeal,” DeCaro said. “They did it before the trial judge and now they’re doing it again before the Superior Court.”
Rizzo said in her opinion ruling against McNeil that negligence concepts are firmly prohibited in products liability matters; that the defendants did not present any evidence that the FDA considered failure to warn claims to be preempted by federal law; and that he plaintiff theories of liability were supported by the introduced evidence. “Evidence was presented, however, to support appellee’s other theories of liability – that the Infants’ Tylenol was defective because it lacked any one of the following warnings that the use of the product could cause death; that use of the product could cause liver damage, and that the product was three times as potent as Children’s Tylenol. Said evidence, which was considered by the jury in its finding of both a defect and causation, was sufficient as to those specific theories which were submitted to the jury,” Rizzo said.
The case is indicative of the trend of some drugs for infants being pulled off the market, DeCaro said. “Parents need to know about these baby and children’s drugs,” the plaintiff’s attorney said.
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