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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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ATLA LAW REPORTER
Research and Preparation Lead to Settlement for Boy Badly Burned in Stove
Jaward v. Hoffman Place Apts., Pa., Phila. County C.C.P., Mar. Term 2000, No. 1388, Sept. 4, 2001.
Abraham Jaward, 5, stepped onto an open gas stove door in his family's Philadelphia apartment. The stove tipped over and a pot of scalding water poured onto the boy's lower body, causing second- and third-degree burns. When his mother removed his pants to douse him with cold water, his skin fell off onto her hands.
Abraham had to undergo almost two years of physical rehabilitation to regain the full use of his legs. His mother, a nurse's assistant, changed his wound dressings daily, which was physically painful to the boy and caused psychological distress to both mother and child. His past medical expenses totaled $55,000. There was no claim of future medical expenses, although there is a chance Abraham may require psychological counseling in the future.
Abraham and his family retained, ATLA members Martin K. Brigham, Eunice Trevor, and Daniel Bencivenga, all of Brigham and Trevor, P.C.,Philadelphia. Abraham was also represented by a guardian ad litem, ATLA member Stewart L. Cohen of Philadelphia. Plaintiffs filed suit against the manufacturer, alleging that the stove was defectively designed. Specifically, plaintiffs asserted that the stove door operated as a fulcrum, allowing the appliance to tip forward when even slight weight was placed on the door.
After receiving assistance from the ATLA Exchange, the attorneys contacted ATLA member Dan Sciano of San Antonio, who has represented many stove tipover victims and generously shared thousands of industry documents he has compiled on this issue. An article on stove tipover cases in the November 2000 issue of TRIAL led them to contact ATLA member Harry Philo of Detroit, who provided crucial accident statistics.
Using this material, plus documents they subpoenaed from the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers, the attorneys demonstrated how the manufacturer explicitly tried to shift responsibility for injury prevention from a safe stove design to relying on the installer of the stove. The documents showed that stove manufacturers had rejected effective design alternatives as "too costly" in favor of providing a floor-mounted bracket as an anti-tipover device. Using the industry documents, withheld from discovery by the defendant, Plaintiffs were able to expose the stove manufacturer's attempted cover up of how pervasive these accidents are and how unsafe their product was. At the close of discovery, Plaintiffs were able to amend their complaint to seek punitive damages.
Plaintiffs also brought a premises liability lawsuit against the estate of the apartment complex's late owner. They alleged that an inexperienced and untrained handyman had installed the stove without attaching the anti-tipover device. Defendant admitted that installing a stove without the device violated various Philadelphia safety codes, as well as standards issued by the National Fire Protection Association.
An important element of plaintiffs' strategy was to preserve, on videotape, evidence of Abraham's condition the first few months after his injury. The boy made such a complete recovery that he spontaneously performed handstands at the medical examination demanded by defendants. But the early videotapes showing the trauma caused by his burns—including the painful dressing changes-and the difficult rehabilitation constituted powerful evidence of the harm plaintiffs had endured.
The videotapes also included interviews with family members and treating physicians, plus a demonstration of the incident using a mannequin to document the splash pattern of the scalding water. This confirmed that the burns were caused by the stove's tipping over rather than by Abraham's pulling a pot off the stove, as defendants claimed.
The parties reached a structured settlement with the manufacturer and the landlord's estate during mediation, three weeks before trial. Abraham, as well as his sister and mother, who witnessed the accident, received a combined payment of cash plus cost of structure of $5 million. The total lifetime benefits are expected to approach $35 million. The amount of each defendant's contribution to the settlement is confidential.
"Abraham has made a remarkable recovery from this accident, but his life will never be the same," said Brigham, who added that he hopes the settlement "will send a message to the industry that more needs to be done on the tipover hazard."
Brigham and Trevor obtained the assurance of the manufacturer's counsel that he would work to ensure that the company provides warnings on the inside of oven doors, alerting users to make sure the anti-tip bracket is installed. The apartment complex has retrofitted its ovens to include the bracket.
Plaintiffs' experts were Megan Bronson, burn survival counseling, Belmont, Michigan; Donald H. Thomas, biomechanics, Coopersburg, Pennsylvania; and Stephen B. Wilcox, human factors; Robert A. Bremner, property management; and Paul M. Glat, burn surgery, all of Philadelphia.
Defendants' experts were Carl Suchovsky, gas appliances, Walton Hills, Ohio; and Jerry L. Purswell, product warnings, Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Documents in Jaward are available through the Court Documents section in the back of this issue, courtesy of Mr. Brigham.
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