Earlier this week, a House Republican Policy Committee hearing delved into the negative impacts that could result from the Supreme Court’s recent decision to again allow forum shopping in medical liability cases in the Commonwealth. Testimony was provided by Dr. Michael R. Ripchinski, Chief Physician Executive, Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health, for the Hospital and Healthsystem…
News & Updates: Community
PA Supreme Court Rescinds Twenty Year Old Venue Rule!
All it took was a one page order to rip the medical liability venue rule right out of the procedural rule book! Nearly twenty years of successfully preventing venue shopping has been assigned to the dust bin of history. Last week, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court announced it was rescinding the state’s medical liability venue rule. Pennsylvania…
PCCJR Venue Opinion Piece Published in Scranton Times-Tribune
The Pennsylvania Coalition for Civil Justice Reform (PCCJR) continues to warn Pennsylvanians of the impact on health care should our Supreme Court allow venue shopping to return to medical liability cases. The following opinion piece ran in the Scranton Times-Tribune on July 28. It was written in response to an editorial filled with inaccuracies and misunderstandings of why medical…
PCCJR Amicus Briefs: Protecting Defendants from Liability Expansion in the Courts
The Pennsylvania Coalition for Civil Justice Reform (PCCJR) recently filed three amicus curiae briefs to cases pending before the state Supreme Court. An amicus brief is a “friend of the court” brief which allows PCCJR to argue on behalf of important legal and public policy matters before Pennsylvania’s appellate courts. Below are the issues involved in our recent…
U.S. Supreme Court to Take Up False Claims Case
The U.S. Supreme Court will be taking a closer look at the federal False Claims Act in the near future. The nation’s high court recently agreed to consider Polansky v. Executive Health Resources, Inc. – with the court’s decision helping to define the scope and extent to which the government can dismiss a FCA lawsuit. Under the…
LBFC Report Finds Increasing Sovereign Immunity Caps for Local and State Governments Will Lead to Increase Costs, Higher Taxes
A recent report by the Legislative Budget and Finance Committee (LBFC) found that the current sovereign immunity caps on damages are adequate to compensate more than 99 percent of personal injury cases brought against state and local governments. Personal injury damages against state and local governments are capped to protect taxpayers who foot the bill for such…