Lucas J. Csovelak, left, and Sherri L. Dougherty, right, of Weber Gallagher Simpson Stapleton Fires & Newby. Courtesy photos

Where We Started: Workers' Comp Practice Pre-Pandemic

Before March 16, 2020, the day of a Pennsylvania workers' compensation attorney was quite hectic, driving around the state, attending court hearings, depositions, mediations and client meetings. Depending on where your office was located, and the counties your cases were located, the time in the car could be extensive. Many firms opened multiple offices to reduce travel time. Many clients thought travel time was irrelevant, if they wanted their favorite attorneys covering a specific matter. Focusing on the court system, most cases would involve attending a series of hearings, from a pretrial hearing to a final hearing, with the number of hearings per case being different depending on the judge. In some of Pennsylvania's larger cities, court hearings would typically be a "call of the list," where multiple cases were scheduled at the same time, and attorneys would appear at the hearing room and wait for their case to be called, sometimes dashing back and forth between multiple courtrooms. You could be at the hearing office anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours or all day even, depending on whether you had a pre-trial hearing at the beginning of the list, or testimony of a witness at the end of the list. Many judges held their hearings in the morning, leaving the attorneys' schedules open in the afternoon for depositions, mediations and client meetings, all of which took place in person. Some days and for the better part of some weeks, workers' compensation attorneys did not even make it to the office.