Legal Information and Resources

Partner Marc P. Weingarten has been extremely active in lecturing internationally to various groups of lawyers and asbestos victims. Last November, he lectured at the Occupational Disease Conference of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) in Manchester, England. Marc spoke to them about Lung Cancer Attribution Without Asbestosis. (more…)

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) with co-sponsorship from Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Al) and Senator Richard Durbin (D.Il) introduced legislation in the United States Senate to reduce the substantial problems involved in obtaining service of process on foreign manufacturers and then obtaining jurisdiction over them in American state or federal courts. (more…)

Thomas L. Gowen, a partner at the Locks Law Firm in Philadelphia, and a resident of Ardmore, Pennsylvania testified on Monday, May 18th before the Judiciary Committee of the United States Senate on the problems involved with bringing claims against foreign corporations who market dangerous and defective products in the United States.
In a hearing chaired by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, Mr. Gowen explained that foreign imports of consumer goods have tripled over the past decade and are expected to triple again by 2015. (more…)

Partner, James J. Pettit, was the Moderator of a panel of New Jersey Mass Tort Judges on May 14, 2009 at the Annual Meeting of the New Jersey State Bar Association. Mr. Pettit recruited Judge Carol Higbee, Judge Ann McCormick and Judge Jamie Happas to speak on the issues of federal preemption, legal presumptions and punitive damages in the mass tort arena. The judges provided sophisticated insights and a wealth of experience in such mass torts as Vioxx, Asbestos, Prempro HRT, Fosamax, Accutane and many other mass torts assigned to them in their roles as New Jersey Mass Tort Judges. In addition to the judges’ formal presentations, there was a lively discussion between the mass tort lawyers in the audience and the panel of judges.

Partner Jim Pettit made a presentation to lawyers interested in complex pharmaceutical litigation on April 2, 2009. Mr. Pettit’s presentation involved motion practice in pharmaceutical litigation. (more…)

Marc P. Weingarten, a Partner in the Philadelphia and New York offices recently made a presentation to a joint meeting of the Kentucky Justice Association (formerly known as the Kentucky Academy of Trial Attorneys) and the Kentucky Defense Counsel. Marc made his presentation, which was entitled “Strategy of Direct and Cross-Examination of Expert Witnesses” on May 16, 2008 in Louisville, Kentucky and it will be presented again on May 30, 2008 in Lexington, Kentucky. Marc’s presentation was part of a day-long seminar to teach lawyers how to try cases. The seminar was called “Trial Strategies and Techniques From Both Sides of the Bar. The concept of this program was unique in that it is one of the few education courses for trial lawyers which is sponsored by both the plaintiff bar as well as the defense bar. Marc used a PowerPoint presentation which was prepared by Philadelphia paralegal Leah Min which included numerous slides as well as a video clip from the movie “My Cousin Vinnie” to demonstrate advanced techniques of direct and cross-examination of expert witnesses. (more…)

New Jersey partner, Jim Pettit, was asked by the State Bar Association Products Liability Section to give a lecture to a group of lawyers on the issue of using demonstrative exhibits in a jury trial. Such exhibits are very persuasive in proving spinal cord injuries and brain injury. Enhanced and enlarged x-ray films can demonstrate before-and-after injuries, and thereby help pinpoint whether an automotive defect caused the injury. Mr. Pettit also spoke on the use of crash test videotapes. These are often produced by vehicle manufacturers which use them to test compliance under Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) promulgated by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA). In a crashworthiness jury trial, the injured plaintiff will face an argument that such testing and videotapes prove their injuries could not be caused by the defectively designed vehicle. Mr. Pettit offered his lawyer-audience ideas on how to counter such a defense.