It’s always nice to report trial success. Joel S. Rosen, whose office is next to mine at the new Cohen, Placitella and Roth offices, had a significant win yesterday, in the Lehigh County Common Pleas court. This result was picked up by the Associated Press and reported in the Philadelphia papers. It wasn’t the typical negligence case:
Philadelphia Inquirer | 09/09/2006 | Woman injured by hunter’s stray bullet wins lawsuit

ALLENTOWN – A woman injured by a stray bullet when she was pregnant nearly two years ago has won a civil lawsuit she filed against the hunter who allegedly fired the shot. A Lehigh County jury yesterday decided that Casey Kantner, 20, deserves compensation for her injuries. Kantner was shot in the head and critically wounded on Nov. 20, 2004, as she sat in a car outside her home.

Without getting into some of the strategy we discussed during the week (since the case is ongoing), there’s some larger issues that arise from this case.

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Lawyers who bring medical negligence claims have good reason to worry that the “tort reform” campaign has unduly influenced potential jurors, and struggle with ways to make sure jurors have not been swayed. This report shows how a courageous judge in Scranton responded to a particularly blatant and direct attempt to instill such bias. Pennsylvania Law Weekly: A Poison Pen Letter

A letter to the editor of a local newspaper promoting medical malpractice tort reform published by a doctor’s wife at the start of her husband’s trial proved to be a costly and ultimately unsuccessful tactic for influencing a jury.
Lackawanna County Common Pleas Judge Trish Corbett took a dim view of the move last year, ordering Dr. Davis J. Caucci to pay $13,286 in legal expenses to plaintiffs Lawrence and Louise Mekic after finding the letter had likely tainted the jury.

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