Best Philadelphia Personal Injury Lawyers
Compare Our Top Philadelphia Personal Injury Attorneys
| Lawyer Name | PA Bar Association Status | Year Admitted to PA Bar | Law School Attended | Learn More |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A. Roy DeCaro | Active | 1974 | Villanova University School of Law | |
| Michael H. DiGenova | Active | 1996 | University of Pennsylvania Law School | |
| Daniel L. Hessel | Active | 1996 | William & Mary Law School | |
| I. Michael Luber | Active | 1969 | George Washington University Law School | |
| Joseph M. Marrone | Active | 1992 | Michigan State University College of Law | |
| Robert J. Mongeluzzi | Active | 1982 | Fordham University School of Law | |
| Robert Ross | Active | 1986 | Cornell University Law School | |
| Todd A. Schoenhaus | Active | 1997 | University of Michigan Law School | |
| Shanin Specter | Active | 1984 | University of Pennsylvania Law School | |
| Thomas A. Sprague | Active | 1981 | Georgetown University Law Center |
Pennsylvania Personal Injury Laws
Pennsylvania Statute of Limitations
Pennsylvania has a two-year statute of limitations, which means that you need to bring your personal injury lawsuit within that time frame after your injury. If you’re concerned that you’re close to or beyond the statute of limitations, don’t automatically assume that you’ve missed your chance. Speak with a qualified personal injury attorney who can assess the specifics of your case.
Liability in Pennsylvania Personal Injury Cases
Pennsylvania uses a modified comparative negligence model to determine who is at fault in a personal injury case. This means that the amount that can be collected in a lawsuit is reduced based on the fault of a plaintiff.
For example, imagine that someone slips and falls due to a pothole in the parking lot of a grocery store. However, the person was texting at the time of the accident and not paying attention to his surroundings. The judge or jury might determine that the store was 70% responsible for not fixing the pothole, but the person who was injured was 30% responsible because he wasn’t watching where he was going. If his injuries caused $12,000 in damage, he would be eligible to receive 70% of that amount, or $8400.
In cases of motor vehicle accidents where insurance is involved, Pennsylvania is a no-fault state, meaning that each driver’s insurance pays for their own injuries.
Pennsylvania Damage Caps
There are caps on how much you can collect in a personal injury suit, but they do not apply in most cases.
- If your case is against a Commonwealth (or state) organization, the amount of damages is capped at $250,000 per injured party and $1 million total for all claims.
- If your case is against a local government organization, the amount of damages is capped at $500,000.
Dog Bite Liability
In some states, dog owners cannot be prosecuted the first time that their dog bites someone. However, that is not the case in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania has a strict liability rule in effect for dog bites, meaning that the owner is responsible for an injury caused by their dog regardless of whether it is the first time their dog has injured someone.
How to Find a Philadelphia Personal Injury Lawyer
Don’t choose a Philadelphia personal injury lawyer based on whose name you recognize from billboards around the city. Instead, follow these steps to ensure that you’re hiring an attorney who is the best fit for you.
Ask for Referrals
If you know someone who hired a personal injury lawyer in the past five or 10 years, ask them who they used and whether they would recommend that law firm and/or that lawyer. You may find that someone knows an attorney who is perfect for you.
If the person you asked for a referral has negative things to say, this can be useful too. Make a note of what they were dissatisfied with so you can add it to your own criteria when evaluating lawyers.
Look for a Lawyer with Experience
Be wary of law firms that do everything. They may be fantastic, but they may also be stretched too thin and not especially knowledgeable about your particular needs. Try to find a lawyer who has a long track record in litigating personal injury cases. Make sure the attorneys you’re considering are familiar with how these cases work.
Discuss Their Fees
You typically won’t have to pay up front for a personal injury lawyer—many charge on contingency, meaning that you only have to pay if they win your case. However, this doesn’t mean that you don’t need to consider their fees.
Lawyers typically charge 33-40% of the amount collected. That’s a sizeable amount, so you’ll want to make sure that you understand what it’s going to cost you down the line.
Make sure you understand the fee structure before you agree to representation.
Find Out If They’re Comfortable Going to Court
This may very well not matter to you because only 4-5% of all personal injury cases go to trial. Many more cases result in a settlement with no need to go to court. But you don’t want to rely on the fact that a trial is unlikely. Make sure that your attorney is comfortable in front of a courtroom because there’s a chance it will be required.
Ask Questions
Don’t be afraid to ask questions as you’re interviewing attorneys. If a lawyer makes you feel as if you’re being a bother, don’t work with them. There are many lawyers out there who are happy to patiently walk you through every step of the process, answering questions as they arise. You shouldn’t settle for anything less.
How Philadelphia Statutes Affect Personal Injury Claims
Pennsylvania laws limit who you can sue and when you can claim damages. Experienced Philadelphia personal injury lawyers will help you determine when you are eligible to file a lawsuit. The following are some limitations you need to consider when filing a personal injury claim in Philadelphia:
- Good Samaritan laws. If a medical professional arrives at the scene of an emergency, they are immune from liability for any good faith emergency care they provide for the injured party, even if it causes additional harm. The only exception is if they are grossly negligent while providing care.
- Self-defense laws. A claimant also typically can’t sue someone acting in self-defense of their property. This means that if they believed you were trying to steal or damage their property, they are not liable for the harm they caused you while protecting it.
- Tort laws. Pennsylvania uses a modified no-fault rule for car accidents. You can effectively ignore the no-fault laws if you purchase full tort insurance, but if you don’t, there are strict limits on your ability to sue other drivers in a car accident.
- Homeowner insurance and dog bites. If a dog bites someone in Pennsylvania, the animal’s owner is liable, regardless of whether they had reason to believe the dog was dangerous. However, if they have homeowner’s insurance, that insurance will cover the dog bite even if it didn’t occur on the owner’s property.
What Is Covered by Personal Injury Law in Philadelphia?
Personal injury law is a broad category that covers a wide range of activities and accidents. The main factor that links all personal injury cases is that someone is harmed due to either another party’s negligence or intentional action. The harm is usually physical but doesn’t have to be.
Furthermore, the harm can be as serious as the death of the victim, which allows specific family members to file a wrongful death lawsuit. The following are other examples of personal injury claims:
- Slander or libel. While slander and libel don’t cause physical injuries, the damage to your reputation can have a significant financial impact on your life. You can recover damages for actual harm and estimate future harm.
- Defective products. This is an example where negligence usually occurs well before any harm. Most defective product claims involve the poor design or manufacture of a product, resulting in someone getting injured when using it as intended.
- Car, truck and motorcycle accidents. Pennsylvania laws have specific rules for this type of personal injury that don’t apply to other types. Those rules limit your ability to file a lawsuit unless you have a specific type of insurance or are catastrophically injured.
- Medical malpractice. This type of personal injury case also has a unique rule that doesn’t apply to other types. To file a medical malpractice claim, you need another doctor to provide a certificate of merit alleging that the defendant deviated from acceptable medical standards.
Do You Pay Taxes on Personal Injury Settlements in Philadelphia?
Tax rules for personal injury settlements are quite complicated. Technically, these rules are based on personal injury awards from a trial. However, settlements are treated identically to trial awards when determining taxes.
The simple answer is that anything that recoups an actual loss is not taxable. Thus, if you endured $30,000 of medical bills due to a personal injury, the $30,000 you receive to recoup that loss wouldn’t be taxable at either the state or federal level.
However, with every rule comes an exception. And the main exception is compensation for lost earnings. This compensation is subject to standard income tax and Social Security taxes, just as if you had earned it working.
Tax rules become more complicated once you start getting non-economic damages. These are damages that don’t represent specific losses. The most common type is pain and suffering.
In Pennsylvania, these damages might be taxed. If your pain and suffering resulted from physical injuries, compensation is not taxed. However, if you suffered mentally or emotionally and didn’t suffer physically, you will be taxed for compensation for that suffering.
Finally, there is one more type of compensation that you might receive: punitive damages. These damages are relatively rare and can only be awarded by a jury verdict in a trial. They will never be awarded in a settlement.
These damages are a punishment for the offending party to prevent a recurrence of the negligent or intentional act and are usually only assigned in wrongful death cases. Punitive damages are taxed both federally and by the state.
How Long Do You Have to File a Personal Injury Claim in Philadelphia?
As previously stated, the statute of limitations is two years for personal injury claims in Pennsylvania. However, that doesn’t tell the whole story. There are many exceptions to that statute of limitations, and in some cases, you may be able to take action decades after an injury occurred.
The one situation where you have less than two years to file a personal injury claim is one where the personal injury is libel or slander. Pennsylvania limits the time to act on slander and libel to one year from the date of injury.
In nearly all other cases, the exceptions increase the time people have to act. The most extreme case is for child victims of sexual assault. If you are alleging sexual assault that occurred before your 18th birthday, you have until your 30th birthday to file civil charges. However, if the assault occurred after you turned 18, you have the normal two years.
Another exception exists for medical malpractice claims when the victim was under the age of 18 when harmed. Children are considered legally disabled, so the clock to file a lawsuit doesn’t begin until they turn 18 years old. Thus, if you allege medical malpractice when you were a child, you have until your 20th birthday to file a civil lawsuit against the defendant.
Finally, the clock for filing a lawsuit doesn’t always begin when you are injured. Instead, it begins when you become aware of the injury or should have become aware of it. This typically applies to cases where someone intentionally conceals that they have caused harm but can also apply to injuries that aren’t immediately apparent when they first occur, like exposure to a toxic substance.
How Long Does It Take to Settle a Personal Injury Case in Philadelphia?
No two personal injury cases will take the same time to resolve. Your personal injury lawyer in Philadelphia will typically attempt to settle your case as quickly as possible, but several factors may delay your case:
- The severity of your injuries. Typically, once you have settled a case, there is no way to get additional money in the future. This means most Philadelphia personal injury lawyers will wait until you are fully recovered, if possible, before pursuing compensation for your injuries.
- Proving negligence. The critical component of any personal injury case is negligence. Most personal injury lawyers in Philadelphia won’t pursue damages until they have gathered ironclad evidence that the defendant’s negligence caused your injuries.
- Identifying fault. Just because another party was negligent doesn’t mean they are entirely at fault in the accident. Contributory negligence laws are applied in Pennsylvania so that the dispute over the percentage of fault can take weeks, months or longer.
- Insurance bureaucracy. Insurance companies have a lot of control over the timeline of a personal injury claim, and many intentionally delay as long as possible. A recalcitrant insurance company can add months or even years to the process.
- Motions and hearings. Even if your case ends in a settlement, you may still file a lawsuit. Filing a lawsuit can force the hand of the insurance company to come to the negotiating table in good faith, but it also adds to the timeline of the case.
- The type of case. Some cases are more complex than others. For example, Car and workplace accidents are likely to take less time than product liability or medical malpractice claims.
Methodology
To come up with the Best Personal Injury Lawyers in Philadelphia in 2024, Forbes Advisor considered many factors. Forbes Advisor’s mathematical module considers and weighs the information collected to calculate a specific rating and reviews these results to find the best attorneys in a given practice area.
Within the model, we take into account factors that legal professionals and consumers value in an attorney’s qualifications. After assigning weighted scores to hundreds of data points, we narrowed the field down to our top choices based on:
- Legal experience
- Special licenses and certifications
- Ethics and bar disciplinary measures
- Legal thought leadership
- Education and employment background
- Scholarly lectures and writings
- Awards and honors
Forbes Advisor collects public data from a variety of sources, including state bar associations, court records and other published sources on the internet. This information should not be considered comprehensive, however. It might not include additional relevant information on an attorney’s legal skills and experience.
Each lawyer listed here has their own merits. Bear in mind that our list relates to these lawyers’ legal backgrounds but does not evaluate their personalities or their knowledge of the law. One attorney may be more suitable than another for your specific legal situation.
One thing that can’t be quantified, though, is the rapport you establish with your attorney. Personality goes a long way when teaming up with an attorney, especially when going through a potentially difficult legal situation. These rankings should serve as a reference and potential starting point in your search for the right lawyer for you and your legal concerns.
Forbes Advisor contributor Jessica Burgoyne contributed to this article.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About Personal Injury in Philadelphia
What happens if I carry full tort insurance in Pennsylvania and I’m injured in an accident caused by someone with limited tort insurance?
In a state that allows both at-fault and no-fault insurance, this is definitely a possibility. However, just because someone has limited tort insurance for themselves doesn’t mean that you’re under the same restrictions they are. You’re covered for at least $15,000 by Pennsylvania auto insurance minimum requirements. If you choose, you can purchase underinsured motorist coverage on your own policy, which will cover your medical bills if the other driver’s insurance does not.
Does full tort insurance in Pennsylvania cover property damage and damage to my car?
Although both full tort and limited tort insurance require some amount of property damage coverage, that will not cover your own car. It’s there in case you damage someone else’s property. To ensure damage to your car is covered, you need to purchase collision insurance in addition to full tort or limited tort insurance.
What is the non-emergency contact number for the local police station in Philadelphia?
Pennsylvania uses the same phone number to get local non-emergency support from medical, fire, and police: 311. This phone number is useful for reporting non-functioning traffic lights or a fallen tree that blocks traffic.
It can also potentially be used to report a fallen power line. However, if that line sparks and represents an immediate threat, the caller should use 911 instead.
The disadvantage of using 311 is that it won’t always contact the same location. Just like when you contact 911, it identifies your location and puts you in contact with the local emergency services based on that location. For a city like Philadelphia, which has 55 different police stations, that may not be convenient.
If you want to contact a specific police station, you can find the direct phone number for that police station by going to the Philadelphia Police Department website. The stations are organized by districts, which are then organized by cardinal directions.
This website also provides a map to help you determine what area you are in if you aren’t sure. Phone numbers for specific districts will always contact that police station and are answered 24 hours a day, every day of the year.
How much does an average Philadelphia personal injury lawyer cost?
There are a few factors to consider when determining the average cost of a personal injury lawyer in Philadelphia. The first is that almost all Philadelphia personal injury lawyers take their cases on contingency. This means they only charge you a fee if they obtain money from a settlement or a trial verdict. Thus, their services are free if the attorney fails to get you money.
That latter situation is extremely unlikely. Most lawyers won’t take a case unless they believe they are likely to win. And the most experienced Philadelphia personal injury lawyers seldom guess wrong, obtaining money in 99% or more of their cases.
Assuming your attorney obtains money for you, they will take a percentage of the money they obtained for you as a fee. If the case ends with a settlement and they never set foot in a courtroom, that fee is typically between 15% and 30%. Once a lawyer goes to court, that fee usually increases between 33% and 40%.
However, before that fee is assessed, most attorneys will remove their expenses from the settlement. Expenses don’t include attorney hours but just about anything else they had to spend money on. The costs for expenses can be relatively trivial in a simple case and can reach hundreds of thousands of dollars in complex cases that involve expert witnesses.
Whatever the lawyer takes for expenses is reduced from the settlement value before applying the percentage fee. This is advantageous to you because it effectively reduces the lawyer’s fee.
What happens if I miss the deadline for filing my Philadelphia personal injury lawsuit?
Unfortunately, if you miss the deadline for filing a personal injury lawsuit in Philadelphia, your case will likely be dismissed. The judge won’t automatically dismiss your case because you missed the deadline, but the opposing counsel will likely file for dismissal.
Most judges will immediately grant the request if they can show that you missed the deadline. However, your Philadelphia personal injury lawyer can oppose this motion, presenting evidence that an exception applies in your case.
Unfortunately, while the deadline doesn’t technically apply to settlement negotiations, it effectively applies in practice. An insurance company usually won’t negotiate a settlement if the deadline to file a lawsuit has passed.
The insurance company knows that you can’t file a lawsuit to force it to pay you money, so it has no reason to negotiate a settlement.
If you think the deadline to file a personal injury lawsuit is approaching or may have passed, contact a Philadelphia personal injury lawyer as soon as possible. They will investigate, and even if the usual deadline has passed, they may be able to find a reason that a legal exception applies.
But it takes time to investigate facts, so even if you aren’t beyond the deadline, you can run out of time before the lawyer can file your case with the courts.
Are there extensions for the Philadelphia personal injury statute of limitations?
As previously noted, there are extensions for the Pennsylvania personal injury statute of limitations when the victim is under 18 years old and when the injury isn’t immediately discovered.
The discovery rule is complex. It recognizes that some injuries or causes are not immediately apparent. However, it also acknowledges that the defendant has the right to avoid a potential lawsuit hanging over their head indefinitely. Thus, the discovery rule isn’t based on when an injury was discovered but on when it should reasonably have been found.
The latter means that you can’t, for example, intentionally avoid getting evaluated by a doctor if you suspect that you were injured. From the moment you experienced signs of an injury or suspected one, you reasonably should have discovered it. That is the date when the two-year timer begins.
One other situation can extend the time you have to file a personal injury lawsuit. If the defendant leaves Pennsylvania for four months or more, you can request an extension from the court equal to when they are not present in the state.
Similarly, if they attempt to hide their identity somehow, most likely by using a false name or credentials, you can also request an extension for the time they were falsifying their identity. The courts will likely approve these extensions if you prove the defendant left the state or hid their identity.
What is the average personal injury settlement in Philadelphia?
The average Philadelphia personal injury settlement value depends on many factors. For example, in 2005, the average settlement for an auto accident case was $16,000, while the average award for a medical malpractice claim was $679,000. This isn’t because medical malpractice lawyers are better at their job but because the harm suffered in the latter type of claims is usually much greater.
The average car accident results in weeks or months of recovery and lost work time. For most people, that only amounts to tens of thousands of dollars. However, medical malpractice often results in lifetime disability, which means the victim needs enough money to cover decades of lost wages and medical procedures.
Typically, the severity of your injuries will be the most significant factor in the value of your personal injury settlement. More severe injuries mean you will miss more work time and require more medical care. But there are also subtle factors that can affect the value of the settlement.
The simplest example is how much you earn in wages or salary. If you earn $40,000 a year, you will lose less money from being out of work for six months than someone who earns $100,000 a year.
Then, there are non-economic factors like emotional damage. The value of pain and suffering is typically given as a multiple of the economic damage (actual losses) you suffered.
Your attorney will be able to give you a reasonably good estimate of the value of your case during your initial consultation. But until you have that consultation, you should expect the average payout to be about five digits unless you were catastrophically injured.
Where can I get a copy of police reports for incidents related to my personal injury case in Philadelphia?
You can get police reports from the City of Philadelphia by requesting the report online, in person or by mail. Online requests are limited to crash reports, typically only useful if you were involved in a car accident.
All other police reports cost $25 and take roughly two to three months to obtain. Requests should be made to the Department of Records at the Public Safety Records Unit in City Hall.
