Area of Practice Focus - Workers Compensation

Using Philadelphia Workers Comp Act (Act), you can be provided with wage-loss compensation benefits and medical expenses. Wage loss benefits can last until you return to the workplace. Death benefits for work-related deaths can be also covered and are usually paid to the person's dependent survivors.

The Pennsylvania Workers' Compensation Act covers almost all Pennsylvanian employees.

Employers must provide workers' compensation coverage to all of their employees this would include part-time and seasonal staff. Nonprofit corporations, not incorporated businesses, and even employers with only one employee, must comply with the Act's requirements.

The law also covers you regardless of where the you were hired and in some cases injury outside of the sate can be covered.

Philadelphia Workers Compensation claims can require depositions, cross examinations by defending attorneys, sworn testimony, more than one court appearance and a vast knowledge of the governing laws that protect you as an employee in the state of Pennsylvania.

Area of Practice Focus - Personal Injury in Philadelphia, PA

Some people have heard the term "Personal Injury", but do not fully understand what it means. "Personal Injury" is all claims resulting in bodily injury, including psychological problems.

There are three types of personal injury:

NEGLIGENCE


The failure to use reasonable care to avoid foreseeable harm to a person, place or thing. People are liable if their unreasonable act or failure to act causes an injury, even if the harm is not intended.

INTENTIONAL HARM


The "malicious" or "intentional" infliction of harm that results in injury. As an example, if a person involved in a heated argument with you purposely hits you with the intention of bodily harm, that person is liable for your injuries.

ABSOLUTE LIABILITY


This occurs when a person is responsible for injuring another person regardless of negligence or intent. Some instances in which the law might apply absolute liability are with regard to product liability, dangerous or hazardous activities and pet owner's liability. For instance, a person may be entitled to compensation after a defective product injures him or her regardless of whether the manufacturer was actually negligent. In other words, the person only has to prove that a product is defective or dangerous and that the defect caused personal injury. It is not necessary to show that the manufacturer was intentionally careless or negligent.

This can also tie in to workers compensation claims. In Philadelphia, PA go about filing a philadelphia workers compensation claim with a philadelphia workers comp attorney as soon as possible.

Drivers Nininger, Dupree sued again in crash

The driver of a tractor involved in the fatal wreck has filed a lawsuit against Tracie Nininger and Jeffrey Dupree for $1.7 million.

By Mike Allen
981-3236

Two people convicted of causing the death of a construction worker in a 2008 drunken driving crash face a new lawsuit stemming from the wreck.

The driver of a tractor involved in the Feb. 20, 2008, chain-reaction crash that killed Richard Slone has sued former real estate agents Tracie Dowell Nininger and Jeffrey Scott Dupree for $1.7 million.

The wreck happened just after midnight. James Harmon was operating a tractor in a construction zone along Electric Road near Tanglewood Mall when Nininger's Hummer H3 struck a blade mounted on the rear of the tractor. Almost simultaneously, Dupree's Chevrolet Avalanche struck the rear of the Hummer.

Harmon's lawsuit, filed last week in Roanoke County Circuit Court, says he sustained serious injuries from the impact, including brain damage.

The Hummer and the tractor blade struck a nearby dump truck, killing Slone, who was standing beside the truck.

A Roanoke County judge found Nininger and Dupree guilty of aggravated involuntary manslaughter and driving under the influence in the fatal wreck and sentenced each to serve two and a half years in prison. Both have filed notices of appeal.

Slone's family filed a $10 million lawsuit against the pair in March. Nininger and Dupree have both requested that the trial be moved because of the intense media attention the case received.

During the criminal trial in October, roanoke criminal defense lawyers claimed that failure on the part of the construction crew to follow regulations caused the accident. Dupree's attorney at the time, Richard Lawrence, even stated in court that Harmon should have faced a criminal charge. The defense claimed that Harmon backed his tractor into the traffic lane in front of Nininger, giving her no time to react.

In that lawsuit, Nininger has filed a response calling the wreck "the result of a sudden emergency and an unavoidable accident." In documents filed by her new attorney, Tennessee lawyer Christopher Owens, she assigns blame for the accident to Harmon and other personnel and companies associated with the construction site and with how the site was set up.

Owens has not yet seen Harmon's lawsuit but said he expects Nininger's response to it would be similar.

Dupree's attorney, Sean Workowski, also said he had not yet seen the suit.

Harmon's attorney, Brent Brown, said Dupree and Nininger have played the blame game. "They don't seem to get it. They don't appear to accept responsibility for their actions. It appears it's not enough that a circuit judge has found them criminally culpable," he said.

Police said Nininger had a blood-alcohol content of 0.19 percent that night. Dupree refused to take a breath test but failed a field sobriety check, according to testimony.

Harmon's lawsuit describes them both as "stumbling drunk" and repeatedly refers to a video from Cornerstone Bar & Grill shown during their trial in which they embraced and fell to the floor.

"We just look forward to bringing some true accountability before a jury of Roanoke citizens," Brown said.