“PA/NJ: Insurance Coverage: Faulty Workmanship” - Rawle’s Reports, Vol. 16, No. 6
PENNSYLVANIA/ NEW JERSEY: INSURANCE COVERAGE - FAULTY WORKMANSHIP. by James R. Callan. Commercial general liability policies characteristically include exclusions for liability arising out of the insured contractor’s faulty workmanship. The common exclusions for damage to “your work” or “your product” are generally referred to as business risk exclusions.
Rawle’s Reports, Volume 16, Number 5
PENNSYLVANIA: APPELLATE PRACTICE. by Peter J. Neeson and Carl D. Buchholz, III. Being granted oral argument before the highest court in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is no easy task. In fact, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court grants less than 5% of all petitions seeking allowance of appeal in civil cases.
Rawle’s Reports, Volume 16, Number 4
PENNSYLVANIA: ACCESS TO SOCIAL NETWORK INFORMATION. NOTIFICATION: DEFENDANT HAS SENT YOU A “FRIEND” REQUEST. By: David J. Samlin. With the explosion in the popularity and use of social networking sites, it is becoming more and more likely that information relevant to a personal injury suit may be posted by plaintiff on these sites.
Rawle’s Reports, Volume 16, Number 3
MAJOR CHANGES TO REMOVAL JURISDICTION: Federal Courts Jurisdiction and Venue Clarification Act of 2011. By: James A. Wescoe. While you were busy enjoying the holidays and trying to finish your last-minute shopping, President Obama signed into law the first changes in almost a decade to federal court jurisdiction and general removal procedures.
Rawle’s Reports, Volume 16, Number 2
PENNSYLVANIA: GENERAL CASUALTY. Contractor Not Responsible. By: Catherine N. Walto. Plaintiff, Gail Holmes, filed suit for personal injuries she sustained after allegedly slipping and falling in her employer's parking lot as she was exiting her car on her way into work.
Rawle’s Reports, Volume 16, Number 1
ANNOUNCEMENTS: American College of Trial Lawyers. Fred B. Buck has become a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, one of the premier legal associations in America. His induction took place before approximately 800 attendees at the 2011 Annual Meeting of the College in LaQuinta, California.
Rawle’s Reports, Volume 15, Number 9
PENNSYLVANIA: PREMISES LIABILITY. DEFENSE VERDICT. By: Daniel J. Rucket. Plaintiff was a 59-year-old wheelchair-bound paraplegic. His legs were not functional, but he claimed to have full feeling in his buttocks and legs. He entered Bowling Green Brandywine, a drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility, on February 6, 2006 for alcohol withdrawal and rehabilitation. Plaintiff alleged in his Complaint that he was placed in a shower on a shower chair by a Bowling Green nurse, and the water was turned on and left running.
Rawle’s Reports, Volume 15, Number 8
PENNSYLVANIA: WORKERS' COMPENSATION. By: Claudio J. DiPaolo. Claudio J. DiPaolo, Chair of the Workers' Compensation Group, recently received a favorable opinion from the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania in Brignol vs. Workers Compensation Appeal Board (US Airways and AIG Claims Services, Inc.).
Rawle’s Reports, Volume 15, Number 7
Pennsylvania: 1% Rule Dead! By: Gary N. Stewart. On June 28, 2011, Governor Tom Corbett signed tort reform legislation in Pennsylvania, limiting liability for negligence of defendants in certain civil court cases, such as trucking/motor vehicle actions.
Rawle’s Reports, Volume 15, Number 6
2011 SUPER LAWYERS - Rawle & Henderson LLP is proud to announce that 16 attorneys were named 2011 Pennsylvania Super Lawyers by Law & Politics and the publishers of Philadelphia Magazine.
Rawle’s Reports, Volume 15, Number 5
PENNSYLVANIA - PREMISES LIABILITY - By: Daniel J. Rucket. On January 5, 2007, plaintiff was walking home from making a purchase at a local convenience store. As she walked on the sidewalk, less than one block from her home, she saw a puddle covering a portion of the sidewalk.
Rawle’s Reports, Volume 15, Number 4
PHILADELPHIA - JUDICIAL HELLHOLE - By: Nigel A. Greene. The ninth annual survey conducted by the American Tort Reform Association (ATRA) ranked Philadelphia first on its list of "judicial hellholes." The ATRA released the list online in December 2010. The full list can be found at www.judicialhellholes.org.
Rawle’s Reports, Volume 15, Number 3
PENNSYLVANIA - PREMISES LIABILITY - Contractor Not Responsible - By: John H. McCarthy and Suzanne Curran Murphy. On January 30, 2009 at approximately 12:00 pm, plaintiff, Nancy McNeely, was picking up her children in the parking lot of St. Albert the Great School in Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania. There had been a snowfall two days earlier.
Rawle’s Reports, Volume 15, Number 2
TOXIC TORT - IN A CLASS ALL BY THEMSELVES - By: Elizabeth Johns. Are all toxic exposures at any level harmful? Is each and every breath of a toxin potentially a substantial contributing factor to the development or progression of a disease in the future? If so, is a person entitled to medical monitoring for such exposure and can groups of people qualify for class status in state and federal courts?
Rawle’s Reports, Volume 15, Number 1
2011 NEW PARTNERS - Rawle & Henderson LLP is pleased to announce Scott F. Griffith, Valerie Kellner and George T. Lees III have been elected partners in 2011.
Rawle’s Reports, Volume 14, Number 10
COMMERCIAL MOTOR VEHICLE - CONNECTICUT - IN THE RECORDS - By: Gary N. Stewart. On June 4, 2005 at about 5:00 a.m., Rolando Vega was returning home with his family from a night at a casino. The weather was clear and alcohol was not a factor.
Rawle’s Reports, Volume 14, Number 8
2010 Rising Stars - Rawle & Henderson LLP is proud to announce that two of its attorneys were named 2010 Pennsylvania Rising Stars by Law & Politics and the publishers of Philadelphia Magazine.
Rawle’s Reports, Volume 14, Number 7
2010 SUPER LAWYERS - Rawle & Henderson LLP is proud to announce that fifteen (15) attorneys were named 2010 Pennsylvania Super Lawyers by Law & Politics and the publishers of Philadelphia Magazine.
Rawle’s Reports, Volume 14, Number 6
RECENT DEVELOPMENTS - DISCIPLINARY BOARD - Carl D. Buchholz, III, Chair of the Firm's Appellate and Maritime sections, has been appointed Chair of the Disciplinary Board of Pennsylvania by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.
Rawle’s Reports, Volume 14, Number 3
Maritime - Defense Vertict - By: Carl D. Buchholz, III, After a four day jury trial in New Jersey federal court involving a lawsuit filed by longshoreman Raymond Evans and his wife against the owners of the LOMBOK STRAIT for injuries Evans allegedly sustained while loading containers aboard the LOMBOK STRAIT, Carl D. Buchholz, III obtained a defense verdict in favor of the shipowner.
Rawle’s Reports, Volume 14, Number 1
2010 NEW PARTNERS - Rawle & Henderson LLP is pleased to announce that Claudio J. DiPaolo and Michael G. Sabo have been elected partners in 2010.
Rawle’s Reports, Volume 13, Number 10
PRODUCT LIABILITY: DEFENSE VERDICT. By: John J. Snyder and Tara Gill Nalencz. John J. Snyder and Tara Gill Nalencz, recently obtained a defense verdict in an eleven day product liability trial before the Honorable Nitza I. Quinones Alejandro in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas.
Rawle’s Reports, Volume 13, Number 7
On January 17, 2009, significant changes went into effect in New York's Insurance Law that will effectively remove some of these protections and will have a major impact on insurers' ability to disclaim untimely claims.
Barrett, Montgomery join Rawle & Henderson
Rawle’s Reports, Volume 10, Number 12
TOP TEN MISTAKES BUSINESSES MAKE WHEN DRAFTING AND NEGOTIATING CONTRACTS. By: David Ira Rosenbaum. As commercial litigators and transactional attorneys, we often see that businesses make recurrent and critical mistakes while drafting and negotiating contracts – mistakes that later give rise to costly and expensive litigation. While litigating the resulting disputes, we (and our clients) often wish that the clock could be turned back so that a sentence or two could be inserted into an agreement that would have avoided the ensuing litigation.