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Unanimous Defense Verdict for Radiologist and Radiology Practice
On July 20, 2022, Jack Shusted and Garrett Field obtained a unanimous defense verdict on behalf of their clients, a radiologist and radiology practice, after an eight-day trial in the Lackawanna County Court of Common Pleas in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
The trial centered on Plaintiff’s allegations that the radiologist failed to identify a pancreatic head mass on a MRI. The defense maintained that the radiologist interpreted the MRI and reported the findings in accordance with radiological standards of care. Mr. Shusted and Mr. Field were able to demonstrate that the radiologist’s MRI report met all standards of care and that no action or inaction on the radiologist’s part caused the Plaintiff’s injury.
Big Changes Coming to the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board
The Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board recently amended its rules in a way that will significantly change appellate practice before the Board. The new rules take effect July 11, 2022 and should significantly expedite the resolution of appeals to the Board. However, because the changes to the rules are so significant, workers’ compensation practitioners should be wary regarding certain pitfalls regarding the new deadlines contained in the updated rules. There are two significant changes: expansion of virtual hearings and changes to the timing for submission of parties’ briefs.
Currently, a party appealing a decision from a Workers’ Compensation Judge has 20 days to file an appeal. Once the appeal is received, a hearing is scheduled for a hearing at which the appellant’s brief will be due. The Board schedules hearing dates at a number of locations throughout the Commonwealth and travels as a body to each location to hear cases, once per month at each site. After the hearing his held, the appellee then has 30 days after the hearing date. Under this current system, it takes an average of 72 days after the appeal to hold a hearing and 102 days to have the appeal submitted for decision. Appeals are taking over 180 days after a Judge’s decision to resolve.
Cosmetically, the new rules change the designation of the parties to Petitioner and Respondent from Appellant and Appellee.
The new rules change this in several important ways. First, the Board now has explicit authority to conduct hearings via teleconference and is changing its schedule and practice to take advantage. Traditional in-person hearings will now be held only every other month in each location. Virtual hearings will be held much more frequently and will be accessible regardless of the parties’ location. The Board’s previous practice of “riding circuit” around the Commonwealth and hearing only cases from a specific area on each day will be curtailed. Virtual hearings will allow the Board to hear cases from anywhere, on a first come, first served basis. The Board expects this will result in significant savings of both time and money in holding hearings.
Parties can still choose an in-person hearing, and in the event of a conflict between the parties over holding a hearing in person or virtually, an in-person hearing will be the default. In addition, disfigurement cases will always be held in-person.
More significantly, there will be changes to how the Board accepts the Parties briefs and the deadline for submission of those briefs. As it stands now, a Petitioner/Appellant has until the date of the hearing to submit its brief, currently running to an average of 72 days. Under the new rules, the brief will be due before the hearing, 30 days after the appeal is accepted by the Board. Thus, the Petitioner must be ready with its brief well in advance of the hearing and about 40 days earlier than current practice.
The Respondent must also submit its brief prior to the hearing date, now 30 days after the Petitioner’s brief is submitted. Note that this is a floating deadline – the Respondent’s due date will depend on submission of the Petitioner’s brief. Once Petitioner submits, Respondent’s clock to submit its brief starts ticking. This shifting deadline may prove a trap for unwary or inattentive counsel who calculate the deadline from the due date of their opponent’s brief.
The Board is shifting to hard deadlines through WCAIS as well. Parties will not be able to submit a brief past the due date and will be locked out of submitting briefs in WCAIS. Extensions can be requested, but only prior to the due date. Parties will be unable to request a last-minute extension via WCAIS on the due date of the brief.
Cases with cross appeals will generate duplicate briefing schedules. With each party having the briefing schedule of both a Petitioner and Respondent, with the deadlines appropriate to each. Parties may submit separate briefs on the cross appeals or waive briefs on one and submit a consolidated brief for both.
These changes should speed up the resolution of appeals before the Board. Instead of having 70 to 100 days before an appeal is fully submitted, briefs should now be submitted no more than 60 days from when the appeal is filed. Increased virtual hearings should also result in more efficiency and earlier hearing dates, meaning appeals to the Board should be resolved much earlier than they are now. How much remains to be seen, but the judicial economy of the new practice seems obvious.
The new rules also require submission of a one page summary of argument separate from the brief itself. This summary can be either uploaded by itself or copied into a provided box in WCAIS when the brief is submitted. In addition, when the brief is submitted via WCAIS, the party must choose its hearing preference, either virtual or in-person. Waiving oral argument is also an option.
These changes are effective July 11, 2022 and are some of the most extensive in the Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board’s 50 year history. While there will be undoubtedly be some issues and growing pains with the new practice, they should work to shorten appellate decision times and provide parties with additional certainty and review of Judges’ decisions.
Jacob C. Lehman Co-Chairs at the ALFA International 2022 Insurance & Professional Liability Seminar
Jacob Lehman served as Co-Chair of ALFA International’s 2022 Insurance and Professional Liability Seminar held at the Logan Hotel in Philadelphia June 22-24th. Entitled “In the Eye of the Beholder: Viewing Professional Liability and Insurance Issues from Modern Perspectives” the conference featured ALFA International member firm attorneys and clients from a wide range of insurance companies and corporations speaking on a variety of timely topics in the insurance and professional liability fields. For more information please reach out to Mr. Lehman at lehmanj@ggmfirm.com.
Jacob Lehman Presents at ALFA International’s Product Liability and Complex Torts Seminar
GGM Partner Jacob Lehman served as the moderator of the opening session at ALFA’s Bi-Annual Product Liability and Complex Torts Seminar held at the Fairmont Grand Del Mar Resort in San Diego, CA, June 1-3, 2022. Mr. Lehman’s panel, entitled Dissecting the Frankenstein, a Product Liability Play in Three Acts, focused on key behind the scenes strategies and tactics in the defense of product liability litigation. Through a fictional and entertaining fact pattern, including a pre-produced product informercial, Mr. Lehman, along with fellow ALFA attorneys and client speakers explored important issues including early case management, emails, e-discovery and corporate witness issues. For more information, reach Mr. Lehman at lehmanj@ggmfirm.com.
Andre J. Webb presents at the ALFA International 2022 Insurance & Professional Liability Seminar
Andre J. Webb will present at the ALFA International 2022 Insurance & Professional Liability Seminar on Friday, June 24, 2022. The presentation is entitled “Jury Verdict Trends in the Midst of a Pandemic”.
GGM is pleased to announce its newest Litigation Associate Elana D. Schnall
GGM is pleased to announce the addition of a new litigation associate, Elana Schnall. At GGM Elana will focus her practice on the defense of medical professional liability, product liability and general litigation matters. Before joining GGM, Elana practiced in Central Pennsylvania concentrating on municipal law and general litigation, including representing municipal entities in a broad range of civil, appellate, and administrative matters. She also has prior experience defending healthcare and long-term care providers in malpractice actions.
Elana graduated cum laude from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. While in law school she served as Senior Management Editor of the Journal of Environmental and Public Health Law and as a judicial intern for the Honorable Jill Rangos in the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas.
Jury Verdict Trends In The Midst of a Pandemic
Before the pandemic, jury verdicts were already trending upwards, often surpassing traditional expectations. These upward-trending jury verdicts sometimes reach dollar amounts so high and unexpected, that they become colloquially referred to as “nuclear verdicts.” Although often cited through the lens of personal injury cases, the trend of increased jury verdicts and occurrences of nuclear verdicts are not exclusive to any one industry or jurisdiction.[1]
[1] Top Verdict’s 2020 Edition of Top 50 Plaintiff’s Jury Verdicts Obtained in the United States in year 2020
GGM is proud to announce its newest Litigation Associate Anwar Abdur-Rahman
German Gallagher & Murtagh is pleased to announce its newest Litigation Associate, Anwar Abdur-Rahman, who joined the firm on Monday, May 2. Anwar’s previous experience includes defending workers’ compensation cases at varying stages of litigation, making court appearances, drafting motions, and assisting in the development of litigation strategy. Prior to that, Anwar was an Associate Fellow at Rutgers Law Associates, where he worked on numerous cases ranging from personal injury defense, family law litigation, landlord/tenant, and estate law.
While in law school, Anwar won the Greg Lastowka Writing Competition and was recognized with the Pro-Bono Award for Significant Service upon graduation.
GGM Announces 2022 Super Lawyers and Rising Stars
GGM is pleased to announce that Dean F. Murtagh, Gary R. Gremminger, John P. Shusted, Gary H. Hunter, and Jeffrey D. Laudenbach have been named Pennsylvania Super Lawyers, and Jacqueline E. Campbell, Jacob C. Lehman, and Andre J. Webb have been named Rising Stars for 2022.
A Thomson Reuters business, Super Lawyers is a rating service of lawyers from more than 70 practice areas who have attained a high degree of peer recognition and professional achievement. Each year, no more than five percent of the lawyers in the state are selected for this honor. The selection process is multi-phased and includes independent research, peer nominations, and peer evaluations.
GGM Attends the 91st Radnor Hunt Races
Our GGM family came together for the 91st Radnor Hunt Races, benefiting the open space and clean water programs at Brandywine Conservancy.
