Here is a LINK to my article that appears in the current January/February edition of the Pennsylvania Lawyer magazine entitled “Hone Your Courtroom Performance and Trial Skills.” The article confirms how serving as a juror in the High School Mock Trial Competition put on by the Young Lawyers’ Division of the PBA, and run by most county Bar Associations, can improve any attorney’s skills as a litigator in the Courtroom. Please support the Mock Trial…

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In the case 4431, Inc. v. Cincinnati Ins. Co., No. 5:20-CV-04396 (E.D.  Pa. Dec. 3, 2020 Leeson, J.), the court dismissed a Plaintiff’s Complaint for failure to state a claim in a case where the Plaintiff was seeking insurance coverage for COVID-related business income losses.  The court found that there was a lack of evidence of any direct “physical loss” required to implicate the coverage provisions of the policy.    Judge Joseph F. Leeson, Jr.E.D. Pa.…

In the case of Greene v. Pennsylvania Power Co., No. 10336 of 2020, C.A. (C.P. Lawr. Co. Oct. 29, 2020 Hodge, J.), the court overruled the Defendant’s Preliminary Objections attacking a Plaintiff’s negligence Complaint primarily under arguments of a lack of sufficient specificity on the elements of a causation of negligence. According to the Opinion, the decedent died as a result of an accident that occurred when he reported to work as a bus driver…

In the case of Barnes v. Williamsport Petroleum, Inc., No. 20-0092 (C.P. Lycoming Co. Oct. 22, 2020 Linhardt, J.), the court sustained a Plaintiffs’ Preliminary Objections asserted against a Defendant’s affirmative defenses listed in a New Matter as such defenses were pled without any factual support.  The court allowed the Defendants to file an amended pleading to contain factual allegations rather than a boilerplate listing of defenses in the New Matter. This matter arose out…

  There’s a saying — “Skiing….the only sport where you spend an arm and a leg to break an arm and a leg.” Here is a LINK to my recent article entitled “Mixed Results in Recent Ski Resort Liability Cases” which was published in the December, 2020 edition of Counterpoint, the newsletter for the Pennsylvania Defense Institute. If you wish to review any of the decisions noted in the article, please go to www.TortTalk.com and…

In the case of Hand v. DiMauro, No. 15-CV-4470 (C.P. Lacka. Co. Dec. 22, 2020 Nealon, J.), the court addressed several notable issues in a rear-end collision case involving a tractor trailer.  According to the Opinion, the Defendant driver and his employer filed motions seeking to preclude the trucking safety expert’s opinions pursuant to Pa. R.E. 702(c) and Pa. R.C.P. 207.1 on the grounds that the expert’s methodology was allegedly not generally accepted in the…