Benjamin Tursi of Marks, O’Neill’s Philadelphia office recently secured transfer of a very serious motor vehicle accident case, where one passenger was ejected and died and another claimed permanent injuries.  After aggressively pursuing additional venue discovery and depositions, the case was transferred more than one year into the litigation out of Philadelphia to Cumberland County, a more conservative venue, following the filing of our Motion to Transfer Venue based on Forum Non Conveniens.  The Court granted our Motion only days before the mediation in this case, which provided significant leverage to the defendants to obtain a reasonable resolution prior to trial, minimizing exposure to our client.   

Sean X. Kelly of Marks, O’Neill’s New Jersey office recently won a motion to dismiss in a New Jersey federal court action asserting  FDCPA and fraud claims against a law firm brought by a defendant in a foreclosure action.  Our team argued that the state law claims were barred by the litigation privilege because the defendant firm represented the foreclosing bank in the underlying foreclosure proceeding.  We also argued that the FDCPA claim was barred on federal abstention grounds because the plaintiff had the opportunity to raise it in the underlying state foreclosure proceedings, but failed to do so.  The Court agreed with both arguments and dismissed the matter before any discovery was necessitated.

Sean X. Kelly of Marks, O’Neill’s New Jersey office recently obtained summary judgment in a New Jersey attorney malpractice case. Our client represented a plaintiff in a medical malpractice action and obtained a substantial settlement on the client’s behalf. However, the underlying client failed to repay a worker’s compensation lien asserted against the settlement. The workers compensation carrier filed suit seeking to recover the unpaid lien from our client, the attorney. We filed summary judgment arguing, in part, that our client had no duty to a workers comp carrier to protect or repay the lien.  The trial court agreed with our argument and dismissed all claims.

Sean X. Kelly of Marks, O’Neill’s New Jersey office recently obtained summary judgment in an attorney malpractice case, which alleged that an attorney was negligent for failing to fully explain the terms of a settlement agreement to a client.  Our team filed a motion seeking to strike plaintiff’s expert,  arguing that the report and testimony constituted a baseless net opinion. The trial court held an evidentiary hearing.  After cross-examination, the Court struck the experts testimony agreeing with our position that the expert misstated the standard of care and that there was no evidence in the record that the plaintiff would have fared better at trial.  In the absence of an expert, the Court dismissed the case with prejudice.