Ben Present

January 03, 2012 | Daily Report Online

Three justices of the state Supreme Court have said a mother may have a cause of action for negligent infliction of emotional distress after a doctor interpreted her ultrasound during pregnancy as normal and her child was subsequently born with birth defects.Another three justices in Toney v. Chester County Hospital declined to endorse the mother's theory of liability.

By Ben Present

11 minute read

April 17, 2012 | The Legal Intelligencer

A lawyer representing a Pennsylvania police state trooper who has post-traumatic stress disorder told the state Supreme Court in Pittsburgh last week that it had the opportunity to break a line of precedent addressing a broad question: Can there be an "abnormal" working condition for police officers?

By Ben Present

6 minute read

October 28, 2011 | The Legal Intelligencer

Plaintiffs may not recover damages from SEPTA in a case where a man alleged he was injured while on a stopped bus when it was rear-ended by an uninsured motorist, a three-judge Commonwealth Court panel has ruled.

By Ben Present

5 minute read

February 14, 2012 | The Legal Intelligencer

In an apparent issue of first impression, an Armstrong County judge has ruled that the construction of an addition to a house may be a "home improvement" and therefore governed by the Home Improvement Consumer Protection Act of 2009.

By Ben Present

4 minute read

December 19, 2011 | The Legal Intelligencer

For two hours Friday, a key witness in the Penn State sex abuse scandal answered questions from a state prosecutor and attorneys for two ousted high-ranking officials mdash; now both headed to trial mdash; about his recollection of the scandal's most scrutinized allegations and his efforts to report them to the administrators.

By Ben Present

7 minute read

September 25, 2012 | The Legal Intelligencer

A bipolar man who voluntarily checked himself into a mental institution does not have to turn over related mental health records to his ex-wife in their custody case, the state Superior Court has ruled.

By Ben Present

5 minute read

March 28, 2013 | The Legal Intelligencer

A Philadelphia jury has returned a $1.7 million verdict — $1.5 million of which was a punitive damages award — in favor of a woman who claimed she was fired after reporting to company leaders that she believed her manager was engaged in drug activity and that he brought his daughter to a facility where convicted child predators were required to report.

By Ben Present

6 minute read

May 08, 2013 | The Legal Intelligencer

The state Supreme Court waded through lengthy arguments Tuesday in a case in which the state of Pennsylvania has alleged two pharmaceutical companies inflated the price of their drugs at the government's expense.

By Ben Present

6 minute read

May 29, 2012 | The Legal Intelligencer

A scan of state Supreme Court opinions since Justice Joan Orie Melvin joined the bench in 2010 shows a number of cases in which she was or would have been the deciding vote on a deeply divided bench.

By By Zack Needles and Ben Present

6 minute read

October 23, 2012 | The Legal Intelligencer

A sharply divided state Superior Court has narrowly granted a new trial to a Pennsylvania man who brutally raped and murdered a woman in 2004, ruling that his inability to obtain a continuance to his trial and the improper admission of "prior bad acts evidence" unduly prejudiced him.

By Ben Present

5 minute read