Local News Blog | Harrisburg, PA

Ten Tips for Safe Winter Driving

Posted on behalf of Schmidt Kramer on January 22, 2013 in Car Accidents

Winter driving can be challenging—especially when conditions are severe. The safest place to be during dangerous winter weather is at home. If, however, you must travel during a winter storm, a little advance preparation is necessary. The following ten winter driving tips will help reduce your risk of accidents on icy Pennsylvania roads: If you […]

Mild Traumatic Brain Injuries

Posted on behalf of Schmidt Kramer on January 22, 2013 in Brain Injury

Serious brain injuries are obvious and profound. They typically involve impaired movement, loss of sensation, coordination, and intellectual capacity. The more difficult cases, which are often overlooked, are those that involve subtle neurological and mental changes. These may happen in what looks to be a minor accident, but one in which the brain is jarred […]

Protect Your Home In Cold Weather

Posted on behalf of Schmidt Kramer on January 22, 2013 in General

Harrisburg and the rest of Pennsylvania will see the coldest weather in almost two years this week. Here are some tips to make your home safe when trying to stay warm. Do you have any others? • Be careful with candles – do not use candles for lighting if the power goes out. Use flashlights […]

Lebanon County Car Accident Claims the Life of Driver, Injures Teen Passenger

Posted on behalf of Schmidt Kramer on January 21, 2013 in Car Accidents

An Ephrata man was killed and a 16-year-old boy injured in a one-vehicle crash Saturday night in Lebanon County. Jose Ramon Marrero Sr., 51, was pronounced dead at the scene of the 10:50 p.m. wreck by Lebanon County Deputy Coroner Doug Leiby, according to state police. Investigators said Marrero was traveling north on Route 501, […]

Four Serious Car Accidents In Less Than A Week Concern Many In North-central Pennsylvania

Posted on behalf of Schmidt Kramer on January 21, 2013 in News

Posted on Jan 21, 2013 The January 21, 2013 Lock Haven Express is reporting on a region already suffering heartache under the weight of three serious traffic collisions within a week’s time, received news of a fourth serious crash Sunday, this one resulting in another death. The crash that occurred on the Marsh Creek Road Sunday […]

$4,000,000 Schmidt Kramer Verdict Draws Media Attention

Posted on behalf of Schmidt Kramer on January 21, 2013 in News

Posted on Jan 21, 2013 On January 17, 2013, Michael and Terry Hobbins were awarded $4,034,000 after Mr. Hobbins was shot by Leroy Miller in Union County between Mifflinburg and New Berlin. The Legal Intelligencer also did an article. Judge Michael Hudock found initially that the Plaintiff had lost $1,034,000 in past and future income. […]

Verdict of $4,000,000 In Union County, Pennsylvania

Posted on behalf of Schmidt Kramer on January 18, 2013 in Personal Injury

A Judge in Union County awarded our clients $4,034,000 following a bench trial yesterday. Just outside Mifflinburg, Pennsylvania, our client was hunting with his son. It was spring gobbler season and that means you can only shoot a male turkey. In order to help identify a male turkey, you first have to recognize that it […]

Winterize Your Car to Keep the Battery Going and Going

Posted on behalf of Schmidt Kramer on January 17, 2013 in Car Accidents

Winter weather is here in Carlisle and throughout Pennsylvania. It is very important that you check your vehicle out and make sure it is ready for cold, snowy and icy conditions. The following are some steps to take to winterize your car: Have a mechanic check your brakes, battery, hoses and belts. Check your tire […]

Adams County Car Acccident In Hanover Injures 4

Posted on behalf of Schmidt Kramer on January 17, 2013 in Car Accidents

Posted on Jan 17, 2013 The Hanover Evening Sun is reporting that four people were taken to Hanover Hospital after a three-vehicle accident at Red Hill and Hanover roads in Oxford Township early in the afternoon on January 15, 2013. Eastern Adams Regional Police Chief Robert Then said three passengers in an Acura Integra driven […]

Pennsylvania Workers’ Comp Specific Loss Payments Depend on the Injury

Posted on behalf of Schmidt Kramer on January 16, 2013 in Workers' Compensation

When a Pennsylvania worker is injured on the job and suffers amputation or loss of use of a specific body part, the injury is covered by workers’ compensation. When the injury affects the loss of use of certain body parts or disfigurement to the neck, head or face, Pennsylvania workers’ compensation law provides specific loss […]

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$10,043,952.13 Personal Injury
Schmidt Kramer, P.C.partner Gerard C. Kramer won a personal injury action for $10,043,952.13 in Northumberland County on behalf of a volunteer firefighter who was the victim of Intentional Tort. The 50-year-old volunteer firefighter was seriously injured when a barn collapsed, causing a spinal injury which left him a paraplegic. The claim was brought against the arsonist who intentionally started the fire. It is believed that the verdict is the highest ever in Northumberland County.
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$4,034,000.00 Personal Injury
Yesterday a Judge in Union County (Lewisburg, PA) awarded a couple from New Berlin, Pennsylvania, over $4,000,000 because the husband was shot while turkey hunting.You might ask yourself, how does a turkey hunting accident end up with that type of verdict? In order to understand the verdict you would have to know our clients. They are good people who had their life wrecked. Plus, you would have to know the defendant, who should not have been hunting with a gun because he was prohibited after a previous criminal conviction.It is a good verdict, because the Judge was able to do two things with his decision. First, he communicated to two very good people that their losses were something that those of us on the outside could appreciate and value. Mike Hobbins (our client) is a 51 year old guy who lost his sight because a convicted felon --who should not have even possessed a gun-- went hunting illegally, and broke with impunity the most fundamental rule in hunting: identify your target before you pull the trigger. The Judge accepted the financial loss Mr. Hobbins' suffered, but listened closely to the evidence of less tangible losses. When Mike broke down on the stand, because his daughter would end up walking him down the aisle at her wedding, as opposed to how it was supposed to go, the Judge was listening. When Mike could not keep it together, because of how emasculating it was for him not to be able to provide financially for his family, the Judge was listening. It was facts like these that the Judge cited to support the $2,000,000 award for non-economic damages. Second, the Judge wanted to send a message. Union County is a hunting county. Many of the residents hunt there, and people from outside the area come to Union County to hunt. It was my impression, from the Judge's statements as he rendered his decision, that he wanted to send a message to the people in Union County to protect them in their sport. The rules in place to restrict people convicted of crimes not to have a gun are not to be broken. Hunting is serious and you have to identify your target before you shoot. When you turn your back on the rules that are set to provide safety in a sport, you risk being an example. Here, the $1,000,000 punitive damage award sends that message loud and clear.When it really comes down to brass tacks, the right action was taken against a Defendant who may never truly appreciate what kind of impact his reckless choices caused.At Schmidt Kramer, we are injury lawyers. That means we work with people who were hurt in car accidents, who were hurt by the neglect of nursing homes, or those that were seriously injured because of the reckless, thoughtless acts of others. If you or a loved one have been injured in Pennsylvania, we may be able to help. While the verdict yesterday is not one that is representative of every case we do, it does show that serious and dedicated representation can bring good results.Joe ChapmanJanuary 18, 2013
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$2,200,000.00 Auto Accidents
On Monday, January 6, 2014, Schmidt Kramer accident lawyer Scott Cooper obtained a verdict on behalf of his client who is the widow of a man who died in a fiery crash on Interstate 78 in Lebanon County. The awarded verdict of $2.2 million was in a nonjury proceeding before a federal judge in the Middle District of Pennsylvania. That verdict includes $100,000 in punitive damages assessed against the owner of the trucking company.Kamilah Claxton won summary judgment in November after the defendants, Sukhwinder Singh and the trucking company for which he worked, failed to file a brief in opposition to Claxton's motion, which was made in September. The verdict in Claxton v. Singh was issued after the court held a non-jury assessment of damages earlier this month."Mr. Sukhchan Singh, the employer, is liable on the basis of respondent superior, but was also grossly negligent in failing to maintain his vehicle in compliance with state and federal law, particularly with regard to having required safety inspections and correcting defects in its braking equipment," said U.S. District Judge William W. Caldwell of the Middle District of Pennsylvania in his opinion accompanying the verdict."He was also grossly negligent in entrusting his vehicle to Sukhwinder Singh, an inexperienced truck driver who had failed the written test and driving test multiple times before finally earning his commercial driving license," Caldwell said.
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$1,200,000.00 Personal Injury
A Dauphin County jury has awarded a $1.2 million verdict to the parents of a 5-year-old who had an anoxic brain injury and stopped breathing after he had a tonsillectomy.2012-06-26 10:00:00 AMDate of Verdict: June 19. 2012Court and Case No.: C.P. Dauphin County No. 2009-CV-14003-MMJudge: Scott EvansType of Action: Medical malpracticeInjuries: Anoxic brain injuryPlaintiffs Counsel: Terry S. Hyman, Schmidt Kramer, HarrisburgPlaintiffs Experts: Dr. Anna H. Messner, liability; Lucille Packer, Pediatric Otolaryngology, Palo Alto, Calif.; Terry P. Leslie, vocations and earning capacity, Lancaster; Dr. Hilary B. Berlin, pediatric psychiatry, Great Neck, N.Y.Defense Counsel: Andrew H. Foulkrod, Darlene K. King, Foulkrod Ellis, Camp Hill, PADefense Experts: James C. Reilly, Pediatric Otolaryngology, Wilmington, DEComment: A Dauphin County jury has awarded a $1.2 million verdict to the parents of a 5-year-old who had an anoxic brain injury and stopped breathing after he had a tonsillectomy.The entire verdict came against Dr. Andrew M. Shapiro, the doctor who plaintiffs Reginald Graham and Tykeisha Metz alleged chose to have the boy monitored at a pediatric ward. The plaintiffs argued Shapiro failed to tell nurses caring for the baby about, and how to care for, the boy's enhanced risk for respiratory failure.The jury came back on June 19 and awarded Reginald Graham and Tykeisha Mets $500,000 in non-economic damages and $686,170 in loss of future earning capacity, according to the plaintiffs counsel.According to the statement, the baby's mother brought him to Shapiro because she was "'afraid that he might stop breathing during his sleep,'" the plaintiffs' pretrial statement said. Shapiro performed a sleep study and observed the baby's Apnea Hypopnea Index to be 43 — four times higher than what's considered severe. A tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy were performed.According to the plaintiffs, the baby's sleep study results put him at an increased risk for post-operative respiratory complications. Despite this, they argued in the statement, Shapiro ordered the pediatric nurses at the Harrisburg Hospital general pediatric ward to observe the boy as they would any other patients — about once every four hours.The pretrial statement said that one in four children who have an AHI in the 40s and oxygen desaturation below 80 have some type of respiratory problem. The younger the child, the greater the risk of a respiratory problem, the statement said.According to the statement, Shapiro took off the child's pulse oximeter, the finger-mounted device used to measure blood oxygen, and ordered a heart and respiratory rate monitor. The child was 11 months old at the time.The plaintiffs pled that the baby was last seen at 4 a.m. There was no record of his oxygen saturation for the next hour and 45 minutes. He stopped breathing a 6:40 a.m., and his brain was without oxygen long enough to cause demonstrable injury on an MRI."Immediately prior to his surgery, [the child] was a normal child, who could say mama, eat finger foods, and was just on the verge of walking," the statement said. "After his code, [he] was like a newborn. He could not lift his head or sit up. He could not talk. He could not move."In his pretrial statement, Shapiro argued that he recognized the child's pre-operative sleep study showed he was driven to breath by decreased blood oxygen saturation, which he said was typical in patients with obstructive sleep apnea.He argued the American Academy of Otolaryngology dictates that admission to the intensive care unit is not the standard of care. In the statement, he said nurses did not observe signs of respiratory distress. No alarms sounded until the child arrested, the statement said.He said the baby likely arrested as a result of hypoglycemia and/or an acute aspiration, which he argued would not have been identified by blood oxygen saturation.— Ben Present, of the Law Weekly
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$1,024,040.80 Auto Accidents
Scott Cooper settled a wrongful death case on behalf of the widow of a police office who was killed in a car accident in the line of duty for $1,024,040.80. The claim against the other driver was amicably resolved before suit was filed for the entire available policy limits for the other driver. The case took place in Adams County, PA.
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After being in an automobile accident , Scott Cooper came highly recommended to me. I found Scott and his team very kind and considerate. Scott took time to explain the whole process to me and got me a settlement in a timely manner. I couldn't ask for best representation.
Ruthie Lupfer
Great Experience and Great results.. I recommend!!
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Scott Cooper and Jessica Vizcaino did great. They had good communication, follow-up and fought for me. They handled my case professionally and swiftly, especially with me being out of state. 5 stars all the way and I am glad that they represented me.
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