On May 30, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court issued its long-awaited opinion in Pottstown School District v. Montgomery County Board of Assessment Appeals. In a 5-2 decision, the court held that Pottstown Hospital in Montgomery...more
Peer review litigation in Pennsylvania has been quiet since the Pennsylvania Supreme Court handed down the Leadbitter decision in 2021....more
Key Points: Pennsylvania Supreme Court recently evaluated the no felony conviction recovery rule. No felony conviction recovery rule bars medical malpractice and indemnification claims brought against murderer’s medical...more
Pennsylvania Superior Court holds that trial court correctly entered nonsuit on plaintiff’s corporate negligence claim for failing to show actual or constructive knowledge....more
Last month, in Mertis v. Oh, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania held that a physician subpoenaed for deposition in a malpractice case does not have unfettered discretion in choosing his or her attorney. Rather, the Supreme...more
Dinardo v. Kohler, 304 A.3d 1187 (Pa. 2023) - Both the trial court and the Superior Court found that the plaintiff’s claims were barred by the no felony conviction recovery rule. The plaintiff filed a medical malpractice suit...more
On January 1, 2023, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania unraveled a 20-year venue rule applicable to medical professional liability cases. Under the previous venue rule, a medical professional liability action may be brought...more
Last week, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania issued yet another opinion making it easier for plaintiffs to choose preferred venues to sue corporations. Continuing a trend that has emerged over the last several years, the...more
Key Points: Recent Pennsylvania Supreme Court actions may dramatically broaden the counties in which plaintiffs may file medical malpractice actions. Such actions can now be filed and litigated hundreds of miles from the...more
In a setback for Pennsylvania health care providers, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania approved an order amending the rules pertaining to the venue in which medical malpractice suits may be brought. The Pennsylvania Rules of...more
On August 25, 2022, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania issued an Order amending Rules 1006, 2130, 2156, and 2179 of the Pennsylvania Rules of Civil Procedure, all of which pertain to venue in civil actions. The court’s...more
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court issued an order and opinion on August 17 holding that medical peer review documents do not need to be generated by a “peer review committee” to be protected under the Pennsylvania Peer Review...more
On December 22, 2020, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania issued an opinion in Leight et al v. University of Pittsburgh Physicians et al, Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, No. 35 WAP 2019 determining the extent to which...more
Last week, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court announced it would address whether the Pennsylvania Peer Review Protection Act (PRPA or Act) protects documents in hospital credentialing files. This decision could significantly...more
In a further erosion of the peer review privilege, the Superior Court in, Leadbitter v. Keystone Anesthesia Consultants, Ltd., affirmed a discovery order compelling the production of the complete, un-redacted credentialing...more
On October 31, 2019, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania decided Yanakos v. UPMC, et al. and declared the seven-year statute of repose under the Pennsylvania Medical Care Availability and Reduction of Error (“MCARE”) Act...more
The December 22, 2018 proposal by the Civil Procedural Rules Committee of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania to repeal the medical malpractice venue rule, Pa. R. Civ. P. 1006(a.1), which requires medical malpractice actions to...more
The proposal by the Civil Procedural Rules Committee of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania to repeal the medical malpractice venue rule, Pa. R. Civ. P. 1006(a.1), which requires medical malpractice actions to be brought in the...more
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania was facing a healthcare crisis as of 2002 due, in part, to costly medical malpractice litigation which was impairing the ability of Pennsylvania healthcare institutions to provide quality care...more
A recent Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision, Reginelli v. Boggs, 0 WAP 2016, 21 WAP 2016, 23 WAP 2016 (Pa. Mar. 27, 2018), has been raising a number of questions regarding the strength of a state peer review privilege based...more
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled, on March 27, 2018, in Regenelli v. Boggs, Monogahela Valley Hospital and UPMC/ERMI that physician performance reviews of an ER physician, who was provided by ERMI to Mon Valley Hospital,...more
It has been nearly four months since the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania issued its opinion in the case of Shinal v. Toms. In its opinion, the Court considered the issue of informed consent under Pennsylvania law and issued a...more
In June, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court issued a controversial opinion holding that a physician had to have face-to-face interaction with the patient to effectively obtain informed consent. This has raised heightened...more
Patients have come to expect that they will be actively involved in making decisions about their health care. Informed consent aids patient involvement and provides a process whereby a health care provider discusses a...more
A recent Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision will have a major impact on how physicians across the Commonwealth obtain informed consent from their patients. In Shinal v. Toms, 2017 WL 2655387 (Pa. June 20, 2017), the 4-3...more