News & Investigations

Our attorneys are now investigating nursing home abuse at the St. Francis Center for Rehabilitation and Healthcare after the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office raided the facility on Wednesday.

If you are a resident or family member of a resident at this facility who has been injured from the care provided at St. Francis nursing home in Darby, please call (215) 545-8800 to speak to Attorney Dan Purtell in a confidential, free consultation.

PA inspected the facility in August after receiving five complaints. The inspection found severely deficient wound care, inadequate responses to changes in medical conditions, significant weight loss from residents not eating, and other problems.

The nursing home is operated by Center Management Group, a New York company that bought the 273 bed facility and six other senior-care locations from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

The facility’s license was revoked by the state of Pennsylvania after an August inspection found problems. The facility was operating during the appeal process. The PA Attorney General’s Office would neither confirm nor deny the existence of an investigation.

If you are a resident or family member of a resident at this facility who has been injured from the care provided at St. Francis nursing home, please call (215) 545-8800 to speak to Attorney Dan Purtell in a confidential, free consultation.

Five Philadelphia firefighters were rushed to the hospital after suffering carbon monoxide poisoning while fighting an underground electrical fire in West Chester yesterday. Six other firefighters were evaluated and monitored on the scene after high levels of carbon monoxide were released by an underground transformer. One firefighter was kept overnight in the hospital for monitoring. All are expected to recover.

CO poisoning is normally a winter event caused by household appliances that burn gas, oil, coal and wood. It can also happen by running a car engine in an enclosed space such as a garage. CDC statistics released in 2014 indicate there are approximately 500 deaths from unintentional, non-fire-related carbon monoxide poisoning a year.

The firefighters were in a basement of a nearby home. The fire had spread from the underground transformer via the cable to an electrical box in the home. Local residents and businesses in the vicinity were evacuated for a few hours and the fire department said it would go door-to-door to check carbon monoxide levels of the homes and businesses in the area.

The symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning are headaches, dizziness, upset stomach, confusion, weakness, vomiting, and chest pain. Prolonged exposure to the colorless, odorless gas can be fatal.

In 2013, a jury verdict against an apartment company in Wyoming awarded $28.2 million to a woman poisoned by carbon monoxide that suffered permanent brain injury.

There are many potential sources of liability in the event of carbon monoxide poisoning. If you are a tenant in a building, your landlord may have a duty to install and maintain a working carbon monoxide detector. If carbon monoxide is leaking because of a malfunctioning appliance, the manufacturer, home builder or installation team may be liable.

If you or a family member are seriously injured by carbon monoxide, please call our office at (215) 545-8800 to discuss whether a lawsuit against the owner or manufacturer of the source of the carbon monoxide is appropriate.

We are pleased to announce that James J. McEldrew, III, has been named to the 2017 Pennsylvania Super Lawyers list. Brandon Lauria and Daniel Purtell were named to the 2017 Pennsylvania Rising Stars list published by the same organization.

The Super Lawyers list is an exclusive list, recognizing no more than five percent of attorneys in the state. Jim McEldrew has been named to the list for 14 years in a row.

The Rising Stars list recognizes no more than 2.5 percent of attorneys in the state. To be eligible for inclusion, a candidate must be either 40 years old or younger, or in practice for 10 years or less.

This is the 7th year in a row that Brandon Lauria has received the designation. Brandon Lauria works with clients in a wide variety of employment and family law matters. Brandon was selected for inclusion on the list for his work in family law.

Dan Purtell works with our personal injury clients here at McEldrew Purtell. Dan was selected to the list for his work as a medical malpractice lawyer.

Super Lawyers, part of Thomson Reuters, is a research-driven, peer influenced rating service of outstanding lawyers who have attained a high degree of peer recognition and professional achievement. Attorneys are selected from more than 70 practice areas and all firm sizes, assuring a credible and relevant annual list.

The annual selections are made using a patented multiphase process that includes peer nominations, independent research, and evaluations from a highly credentialed panel of attorneys.

The objective is to create a credible, comprehensive and diverse listing of exceptional attorneys to be used as a resource for both referring attorneys and consumers seeking legal counsel.

New York, California and 17 other states are increasing the minimum wage for employees for the new year, which will increase wages for millions of the lowest paid workers. If President Obama had succeeded in adjusting the FLSA overtime pay requirement for inflation, 2016 would have been a remarkable year for the working class.

For some states, these wage increases will be followed up with additional increases annually as the states move toward $15 an hour. For others, the increase is a cost of living adjustment (the minimum wage in these states is tied to an index). A few (Arizona, Maine, Colorado and Washington) are the result of voters ballots in the November election.

If businesses do not comply with higher wages for the lowest paid, they will be subject to wage and hour class action lawsuits from workers seeking backpay and possible enforcement actions by the state governments.

There has been an intense battle in the media about whether these wage increases will result in lifting workers out of poverty or plunge them into further poverty as their jobs are automated and they are laid off. The former president and CEO of McDonald’s wrote an opinion piece in Forbes that blamed the company’s self-service kiosks on the Fight for $15 movement. We will just have to wait and see who is right.

Pennsylvania is not one of the states where the wage will increase. The current minimum wage in PA is still $7.25 per hour, the federal minimum.

President Obama’s administration was unable to push through an increase in overtime pay for millions of workers, as the Department of Labor adopted new regulations but a federal judge in Texas issued an injunction in November to halt them. The Trump Administration is expected to roll back the changes and allow the injunction to stand. However, because many businesses overhauled their payroll system and informed employees of the changes well in advance of the court order, and then didn’t rollback the changes, it could be considered a limited success nevertheless.

As a candidate on the minimum wage, Donald Trump has been all over the map. This Washington Post article sums it up. He isn’t expected to be a friend to the working class, though I believe Trump himself would take issue with that statement. Progress will hopefully continue in individual states even if nothing happens on the federal level. Workers will also continue to have wage theft lawsuits under the Fair Labor Standards Act or the state equivalent as an option when employers don’t comply with labor laws.

A bill passed back in December to fight wage theft in Philadelphia will go in effect today, July 1, 2016. It’s one more reason for employees to cheer Mayor Nutter’s tenure in charge of the city.

The local law bolsters existing state and federal law to impose additional penalties for Philadelphia employers that fail to pay earned wages and creates the position of Wage Theft Coordinator at the City’s Managing Director’s Office.

Individuals and labor unions (“authorized organizations”) can now file a complaint with the city for unpaid wages of between $100 and $10,000. The Wage Theft Coordinator then determines whether wages are due and has the authority to order them paid. Employers in violation of the law will be subject to administrative penalties for each violation as well as the payment of the employee’s attorneys’ fees.

If the employer has a judgment against them from the Wage Theft Coordinator and the judgment is not paid to the employee, their licenses or permits authorized by the City can be revoked or suspended.

The new law maintains the existing private right to sue in a civil action for the failure to pay wages. However, exercise of this right suspends the proceedings with the Wage Theft Coordinator. As such, it will likely be used to recover pay for smaller wage disputes that do not make sense to pursue through potentially costly litigation.

The Independence Day weekend start to the wage theft law is a clever bonus. Wage theft has already stolen billions of dollars from American workers. A Temple report published last summer found that employers statewide fail to pay between $19 million and $32 million in wages owed according to the law. Specific to Philadelphia, around 11% of our city’s workforce reportedly experience wage theft in any given week.

We have previously written about the drop in PA medical malpractice lawsuits since the legislature required plaintiffs to obtain a certificate of merit from an expert to file a complaint. It turns out that we are also seeing new lows in the number of jury verdicts reached in Pennsylvania courts to resolve medical malpractice disputes.

The Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts has been tracking jury verdicts in PA since 2000. In 2015, there were only 101 medical malpractices cases to reach a jury verdict, which is more than a 20 percent drop from 2014. When AOPC started tracking jury verdicts, they averaged more than three times higher than there current low.

There is surely some correlation between the drop in jury verdicts and the decrease in cases due to the certificate of merit requirement. But this isn’t the only factor that is displacing the role of the jury so potential plaintiffs shouldn’t despair. Less disputes reach trial in court because of the use of binding arbitration and mediation.

For both parties, binding arbitration within a high-low range can offer benefits. Plaintiffs ensure that they walk away with some money from there injuries. The insurance company is able to guarantee that they don’t receive a huge negative judgment and physicians are able to avoid the reporting of a judgment against them on their record.

In some states, tort reform has practically eliminated medical malpractice lawsuits. Here in Pennsylvania, they have simply become more expensive to win and thus attorneys have to be more selective about which cases they agree to take on. If you have been injured by the negligence of a doctor or hospital during treatment, please give us a call at (215) 545-8800 for a free initial consultation.

Today is the one year anniversary of the derailment of Amtrak Train 188 at the Frankford Curve in Philadelphia. Sarah Feinberg, the Administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration, called it the “most deadly rail accident we’ve had in a very long time.” We thought we would take a look at some of the changes that have been made since the accident and some of the news that is expected in the next week or so.

Positive Train Control

Positive Train Control (PTC) is an automatic train braking system that slows or stops a train to prevent an accident. Although Congress had set a deadline for implementation, it had not been completed by the time of the accident. Amtrak has since installed it on all railroad track that it owns in the Northeast Corridor but much of the track outside of the Northeast is owned by private freight companies and has still not yet had the system installed. The deadline was pushed by Congress from 2015 to 2018.

Claims Limit Raised

At the time of the accident, Congress had limited the total amount of money that Amtrak could pay out as a result of a crash to $200 million. The maximum damage cap, set in 1997, was exceeded in the 2008 Chatsworth collision of a Union Pacific freight train and a Metrolink commuter train in California. As a result of the Philadelphia crash, Congress increased the damage cap to $295 million as part of the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act (FAST Act).

The Lawsuit

Amtrak has settled 19 injury claims as a result of the accident, each for an amount less than $50,000. There are at least another 100 lawsuits against the railroad seeking compensation. Amtrak has said that it would not contest claims for compensatory damages from injuries.

Changes to Scoop and Run Expected

Philadelphia is expected to revise its mass casualty plan next week to ensure that future disasters go more smoothly. Parked police cars restricted the access to the area for ambulances. Police officers were transporting victims to local area hospitals in their patrol cars. This “scoop and carry” policy where officers transport victims to local hospitals in their cars rather than wait for ambulances is credited with reducing the homicide rate in the city.

Investigation Report Next Week

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) will meet on Tuesday to determine the probable cause of the Amtrak crash. The NTSB has already released 2,200 pages of interviews, reports and other documents from its investigation.

Jim McEldrew and Jonathan C. Smith last night at the Widener University Delaware Law School 2016 Student Awards Ceremony. Jonathan received the James J. McEldrew Scholarship, a scholarship named after Jim’s father and awarded annually to a law student that is either serving in or has been honorably discharged from the U.S. Navy or Marines.