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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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The Legal Intelligencer
$7,400,000 verdict against VA for discharging patient who then killed family
September 8, 2005
By Shannon Duffy
U.S. Courthouse Correspondent
After finding a Delaware County man’s murder of his two children and two of their friends was the result of the U.S. Veterans Administration’s “gross negligence,” a federal judge has awarded more than $7.4 million to the mothers of the murdered children.
U.S. District Judge Paul S. Diamond concluded that VA officials should have known that the decision to expel Alejandro DeJesus from a treatment center and fire him from his job there would trigger his “rage disorder” and put his family in danger.
According to court records, on March 23, 1999, DeJesus, 49, shot and killed his children, Alejandro Jr., 22, and Felicia, 7, and their friends, Michael Faulk, 16, and Aaron Faulk, 14, and then committed suicide.
The Veterans Administration Medical Center in Coatesville had been treating DeJesus since 1997 for severe mental problems - including “intermittent explosive disorder,” drug addiction and domestic abuse.
Diamond found that the VA’s medical records showed that DeJesus was “a severely disturbed, unstable individual who was likely to commit acts of domestic violence when frustrated or unemployed.”
Just one day before the murders, Diamond found, the VA expelled DeJesus from its transitional residence and fired him from his job there because he had attacked another resident with a knife.
“Remarkably,” Diamond wrote, “the VA agreed to the expulsion even though DeJesus’ primary therapist wanted him first to be evaluated by a psychiatrist because she feared his expulsion might provoke him to an act of domestic violence.”
Attorneys Gerald A. McHugh, Jr. and Regina M. Foley of Raynes McCarty filed suit on behalf of the mothers of the murdered children - Camille DeJesus and Cheryl Faulk - alleging that, in light of DeJesus’ severe mental illness and his violent, abusive history, the VA was grossly negligent in discharging him or in failing to treat, detain or commit him after the knife incident.
After a nonjury trial, Diamond handed down an opinion on July 26 in which he held the VA liable.
Now, in a separate opinion, Diamond has awarded each of the mothers more than $3.7 million.
In his July opinion, Diamond explained why the VA was responsible for the murders.
“Had the VA competently performed its duties to review and share information and to understand the law, it would have discovered that Mr. DeJesus: (1) was a severely troubled individual with intermittent explosive disorder, who needed psychotropic medication...to control even his day-to-day aggression; (2) had a history of domestic violence, which he connected to homelessness and frustration; (3) was losing his family - the most important thing in his life; (4) had recently purchased a gun; (5) had experience using guns; (6) was showing clear signs of ‘regression’ and suicidal ideation; (7) had tried to kill himself once before; and (8) presented a plain threat that he would violently harm his family or himself,” Diamond wrote.
As a result, Diamond concluded that “the VA should have realized that by discharging Mr. DeJesus, it was ‘triggering’ his rage disorder, and that he would again attack his family or himself.”
The VA’s decision to expel DeJesus, Diamond said, “therefore directly and substantially caused the children’s murders.”
After ruling in favor of the plaintiffs on the issue of liability, Diamond conducted a four-day nonjury trial on the issue of damages.
McHugh and Foley sought damages for the two mothers on four grounds - the economic losses incurred as a result of their children’s deaths; the children’s pain and suffering; wrongful death damages, such as funeral expenses; and the harm Camille DeJesus suffered as she heard her children being murdered.
In court papers, the plaintiffs’ lawyers urged Diamond to award more than $11.6 million.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Joel M. Sweet argued in his post-trial brief that the entire award should be about $1.75 million.
Now Diamond has handed down a 19-page opinion announcing his awards to the two mothers.
Significantly, Diamond concluded that several of the murder victims deserved to be compensated for the emotional distress they suffered just prior to being shot.
“I anticipate that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court would allow recovery for the dread and fright the decedents experienced immediately before they were murdered,” Diamond wrote.
The opinion consists of a series of awards.
Diamond awarded Camille DeJesus more than $1.9 million on her survival and wrongful death claim for the loss of Felicia DeJesus.
Because Felicia suffered no head wound, Diamond said, “it is likely that she remained conscious and experienced severe pain for some period after being shot. She also witnessed her father shooting Michael Faulk and anticipated her own injuries.”
As a result, Diamond awarded her estate $150,000 compensation for the pain and suffering associated with her death, and $50,000 for her anticipation of death.
Camille DeJesus also was awarded more than $1.2 million on her survival and wrongful death claims for the loss of Alejandro DeJesus, Jr.
One component of that award was disputed. Government lawyers argued that because Alejandro Jr. Suffered from cerebral palsy, he had no economic damages since he would never be regularly employed.
But plaintiffs’ lawyers argued that Alejandro Jr. would likely have obtained an associate’s degree and urged Diamond to award more than $1.5 million in economic damages.
Diamond sided mostly with the plaintiffs and concluded that the award should be “in the higher range, both because of Alejandro’s aspirations and his family influences.” But because of his disability, Diamond concluded that an award of about $1 million was proper.
Cheryl Faulk was awarded more than $2.2 million on her survival and wrongful death claims for the loss of Michael Faulk and more than $1.4 million for the loss of Aaron Faulk.
In the final section of the opinion, Diamond awarded $500,000 to Camille DeJesus for her own emotional distress.
“I have found that Camille DeJesus heard her husband shoot and kill her children....
The grief and horror she has suffered were painfully obvious. Hearing the murder of her children has caused Mrs. DeJesus to suffer stress, anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder,” Diamond wrote.
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