Archive for the ‘DLP Law’ Category

As the 13 Trial Lawyers at DLP continue to represent many more clients involved in serious/catastrophic AUTOMOBILE ACCIDENTS,  gas truck/big truck traffic continues to increase in the Marcellus Shale regions of NEPA.   DLP has ongoing referral relationships with numerous lawyers in NEPA and Central Pennsylvania.  DLP  lawyers make house calls and are available 24 hours per day to answer all questions about AUTO ACCIDENTS and resulting damages.

The battle over clean drinking water in Dimmock Township, Susquehanna County , Pa. took a strange turn when Cabot Gas admitted that data used to support its position was wrong and resulted from simple human error. Cabot has always denied that its gas drilling efforts polluted drinking water wells in the township. The DEP permitted Cabot to cease providing fresh water to the residents claiming pollution. The Federal EPA reviewed the problem and found different results. Cabot issued a press release claiming that the EPA used water from the Montrose watershed and that arsenic reading were from those samples. Today Cabot backtracked acknowledging that the Montros water samples did NOT contain pollutants and that Cabot had entered data improperly. It seems that the debate over clean water will continue. EPA ordered residents to receive fresh water until further notice.

Attorneys Paul Oven and Joseph Price travelled to the explosion site of a blasting accident in Bradford County where a DLP client suffered serious injuries. The case, referred by a local lawyer from Bradford County is ongoing and in pre-litigation at this time.

Attorneys Judy Price, Paul Oven and Joseph Price of DLP continue to represent clients injured in a carbon monoxide poisoning case. Medical information is being collected and clients are being monitored. More information will be posted in the near future.

Partner Joseph Price of DLP announced that the firm has been hired to represent seriously injured clients involved in three big truck/ tractor trailer accidents. Investigations are ongoing in Wyoming and Luzerne Counties Pennsylvania and in the Newark New Jersey area of Interstate I-78. More details to follow.

There is quite a bit of news floating around today in the Marcellus Shale natural gas drilling region. In NEPA the local water company in Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania American Water is upset that Cabot Gas alleged that the tainted water samples cited by the EPA in the Dimmock Township water pollution fight came from PAW’s Montrose water shed. PAW officials released 6 years of water samples showing no pollution. Cabot gas has not responded. Elsewhere, state officials in Western Pennsylvania are permitting fracking under a dam created lake drained after the Fall, 2011 flooding. Range Resources will pay an extra 2,2 million dollars to help rebuild the dam for the right to drill. Environmental groups are wary of gas drilling under fresh water lakes, especially those that are spring fed. In Ohio, tax payers are asking the Governor to support tax rates on natural gas drilling in line with those in Texas. This would cause an increase in Ohio tax rates currently charged. Pennsylvania, led by Governor Tom Corbett, still has no tax on natural gas drilling to date. Finally, West Virginia may be on the verge of landing construction of the Marcellus Shale by- product cracking plant and its estimated 12,000 direct and indirect jobs. No decision has yet to be made and Ohio and Pennsylvania are hoping that they are still in the running to land the large project. The 13 AUTOMOBILE ACCIDENT Trial Lawyers at DOUGHERTY LEVENTHAL PRICE–DLP–continue to monitor these and other gas drilling issues affecting clients seriously and catastrophically injured in AUTO accidents, gas truck accidents, big truck accidents, quarry accidents, explosion accidents, blasting accidents, product liability accidents and other accidents in NEPA ant throughout Pennsylvania.

       In Pennsylvania, if a minor (an individual under 18 years of age) is employed in violation of Pennsylvania state laws relating to minors and is injured in the course and scope of employment, that minor is entitled to receive an additional 50% of the workers compensation wage loss benefit rate. The insurance carrier must pay compensatuion at the customary benefit rate (generally 2/3 of the pre-injury average wages). The employer in this scenario (not the insurance carrier) must pay the additional 50%.

Disclaimer: The above article is for instructive purposes only and each case is fact sensitive.  Consultation with an attorney should be obtained instead of reliance upon the legal issues discussed in this column. 

YOU BE THE JUDGE

Sandy was driving south on Route 191 between Lake Ariel and Hamlin. Bob was heading in the opposite direction. A freezing rain began to fall causing the road to become extremely slippery. Both drivers slowed their vehicles down to accommodate the road conditions. As Bob approached Sandy’s vehicle, he noted that Sandy started to slide towards the center of the road and Bob applied his brakes. For whatever reason, both cars started to slide further into the center lane causing what essentially was a head-on collision. Fortunately both vehicles were going slow enough and no injuries were sustained.

Both drivers had collision insurance but each of their respective insurance companies sought full reimbursement against the other driver’s insurance company.

ISSUE: Will either insurance company prevail?

ANSWER: Yes. In all likelihood the insurance companies will use what is called intercompany arbitration. This is an agreement among insurance companies where without the use of lawyers or formal litigation, they utilize independent arbitrators to determine the extent of negligence. In this case the most likely scenario is that both drivers will be considered fifty percent negligent and that each insurance company will be allowed to collect fifty percent of that which they had paid to their own drivers to repair their respective vehicles.

Disclaimer: The above article is for instructive purposes only and each case is fact sensitive. Consultation with an attorney should be obtained instead of reliance upon the legal issues discussed in this column.

As natural gas prices continue to drop, and gas drilling in Pennsylvania increases, construction of gas pipelines is on the rise. Reports today note that a new 90 mile gathering pipeline is being built in Western Pennsylvania. Pipelines are also being constructed in NEPA. Meanwhile, landowners are complaining about eminent domain rights and use by gas pipeline companies building interstate transport pipelines in Pennsylvania. Federal laws permit the pipeline companies to take property by eminent domain. Property owners are complaining that they are receiving “lowball” offers and that the pipeline companies are using the courts to take their property without good faith negotiations. The 13 Trial Lawyers at DOUGHERTY LEVENTHAL PRICE LLP–DLP–representing AUTO accident, gas drilling accident, gas truck accident, big truck accident, quarry accident, blasting and explosion accident and other catastrophically injured victims continue to follow these and other natural gas drilling issues in NEPA and throughout the Marcellus Shale Region.

In the case of a Fatal Claim Petition filed in the death of an employee under the Pennsylvania Workers Compensation act, Section 315 of the act requires that the Petition be filed within three years from the date of death. The filing shall be submitted on the prescribed form, LIBC- 363. In addition to the three year from the date of death filing requirement, the Act also requires that the death occur within 300 weeks from the date of the injury tat gives rise to the death. For example, if an injured employee develops a disease as a result of medical treatment received for a work injury and subsequently dies as a result of that disease, the death must occur within 300 weeks of the initial injury in order to support the Fatal Claim Petition.
In cases involving occupational disease and fatal claims, the Act likewise requires that the compensable disability occur within 300 weeks of the last date of employemnt in an occupation or industryto which the employee was exposed to hazards of such a disease.
If you or a loved one have been injured at work and have questions about a workers compensation claim, call me at 570-347-1011 or email me at [email protected] for a free consultation.
Disclaimer: The above article is for instructive purposes only and each case is fact sensitive. Consultation with an attorney should be obtained instead of reliance upon the legal issues discussed in this column.