Agenda / Content Covered

DAY 1: Getting Your Auto Injury Case Off the Ground

1. A Judge's Perspective on Local Procedure, Trends and Top Mistakes Attorneys Make
   9:00 - 9:45, Hon. Abbe F. Fletman
   
2. In-Depth Insurance Coverage Analysis
   9:45 - 10:30, Patricia W. Holden
   
   1. Review of the Auto Insurance Policy
   2. Identifying Ambiguous Contract Language
   3. Auto Insurance Exclusions to be Aware of
3. Litigating the Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist Claim
   10:45 - 11:30, Arthur S. Novello
   
   1. Introduction to UM/UIM and its Complexities
   2. Valuing the Claim and Policy Limits
   3. Playing the Stacking and Offsets Game
   4. Investigation Strategies
   5. Maximizing Damages
   6. Practice and Procedure in Filing UM/UIM Claims
4. Eliminating/Minimizing Subrogation Liens in Auto Injury Cases
   11:30 - 12:15, Marvin S. Haber
   
   1. Medicaid Liens in Auto Injury Settlements
   2. Minimizing ERISA Liens in Auto Injury Settlements
   3. Managing Medicare Set-Asides
   4. Workers' Compensation
   5. Hospital Liens
   6. State Specific Liens
5. Behind the Scenes of the Insurance Company - What You Don't Know
   1:15 - 2:00, Christofer C. Johnson
   
   1. How Market Situations Can Determine Timing of the Settlement
   2. Demand Letter Language That Gets Results
   3. Understanding Reserves in Negotiations
6. Insurance Defense Case Evaluation, Strategies, and Trial Preparation
   2:00 - 2:45, Christopher C. Johnson
   
7. Negotiating with Auto Insurance Adjusters
   3:00 - 3:45, Evan Aidman
   
   1. Getting to Know Your Adjusters
   2. Negotiation Techniques That Work
   3. How the Adjuster's Settlement Authority is Restricted and Going Beyond it
   4. Re-Starting Stalled Negotiations
8. How to Get Your Social Media, Email and Text Evidence Admitted (and Keep Theirs Out)
   3:45 - 4:30, Amy L. Wynkoop
   
   1. Discussion of Electronically Stored Information (ESI)
   2. Spoliation of Evidence
   3. Use of Demonstrative Evidence
   4. Authentication of Social Media Evidence
   5. Techniques for Answering Discovery

DAY 2: Wrapping up the Auto Injury Case

9. Auto Injuries
   9:00 - 10:00, Elizabeth A. Pope
   
   1. Treating vs. Examining Physicians
   2. Interpreting Charts, X-Rays, and Other Diagnostic Tests
   3. New Injury vs. Recurrence vs. Exacerbation vs. Aggravation - Key Indicators
   4. Crucial Questions Attorneys Should be Asking
10. Getting the Most Out of Doctor Depositions, Medical Records and More
    10:00 - 11:00, Mark S. Kardos
    
    1. Creatively Presenting Medical Evidence
    2. Interpreting Medical Charts
    3. Admissibility of Medical Bills
    4. Obtaining and Using Medical Evidence
    5. Impeaching Adverse Physicians
11. Pain and Suffering, Exacerbation of Pre-Existing Injuries, Loss of Earning, and Life Care Plans
    11:15 - 12:15, Mark S. Kardos
    
    1. Determining Whether the Underlying Injury is Subjective
    2. Past vs. Future Damage Considerations
    3. Value of Life Studies to Prove Your Case
12. Moving the Auto Injury Case to Settlement (and Maximizing the Value)
    1:15 - 2:15, Elizabeth A. Pope
    
13. Auto Insurance Bad Faith
    2:30 - 3:30, Jeffrey R. Lerman
    
    1. Knowing What the Adjuster Has a Right to Receive vs. Being Abusive
    2. Adjuster Case Evaluation Strategies: Merits of the Case vs. Excess Verdict
    3. Top Bad Faith Insurance Company Tactics and How to Prove Them
    4. Incident Scene Investigation Tactics and Biased IMEs
14. Ethics in Auto Injury Litigation
    3:30 - 4:30, Marvin S. Haber
    
    1. Addressing Potential Conflicts of Interest
    2. Client Confidentiality
    3. Communication With Represented Parties
    4. Confronting Coverage Issues

Accreditation Details:

EVAN AIDMAN is the founder and principal of the Law Offices of Evan Aidman in Philadelphia, where he practices as a trial lawyer handling personal injury and wrongful death cases. Mr. Aidman began his legal career as a law clerk to the Honorable Samuel M. Lehrer of the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas. He has lectured extensively on topics connected to personal injury litigation, most recently addressing Drexel Law students on the topic of opening a personal injury practice. Mr. Aidman previously served as an adjunct professor at Peirce College, where he taught civil litigation. He is licensed to practice law in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Mr. Aidman has written four books for lawyers and litigants, the most recent being Winning Personal Injury Cases, A Practical Guide for Lawyers was published by the American Law Institute in October, 2011. He also serves on the editorial board of Verdict Magazine, a publication of the Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Association. Mr. Aidman has served as an arbitrator, mediator, and judge pro tem of legal disputes on many occasions since 1984. This work involves state court, federal court, and administrative regulation through the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), the largest independent regulator for all securities firms in the United States. He is a member of the Philadelphia Bar Association, Philadelphia Trial Lawyers' Association, Pennsylvania Bar Association, and the Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers' Association. He earned his B.A. degree from the University of Florida and his J.D. degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.

HON. ABBE F. FLETMAN is a Judge in the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas.

MARVIN S. HABER is a co-founder of the law offices of Haber DiPaul LLC. Mr. Haber has more than 30 years of civil, commercial and personal injury (litigation) experience. He is a member of the Pennsylvania and New Jersey State bar associations, and serves as the firm's New Jersey resident partner. He serves as a certified federal and state arbitrator (PA) and maintains memberships in several state bar and local trial lawyer associations in both Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Mr. Haber has recently been appointed to the Pennsylvania Bar Association's Judicial Investigation Committee - organized to vet appellate judges and justices in order to maintain integrity of the Pennsylvania Appellate Court System. He earned his B.A. degree, cum laude; his master’s degree in urban affairs at Boston University; and his J.D. degree at Temple University's James E. Beasley School of Law.

PATRICIA W. HOLDEN is an attorney with the law firm of Cipriani & Werner, where she practices in the areas of insurance coverage and insurance bad faith. She is a member of the firm's insurance defense group, as well as the counsel on litigation management. Ms. Holden has had an experienced and varied insurance defense litigation practice. She has had substantial experience in automobile claims, product liability claims, premises liability claims, medical professional liability claims, as well as toxic tort claims, first party benefit claims and subrogation. Ms. Holden earned her B.S. degree from Mount St. Mary's College, with honors, dean's list, Beta Beta Beta; and her J.D. degree from Rutgers University School of Law. She is admitted to practice in Pennsylvania and New Jersey and before U.S. District Court, District of New Jersey; U.S. Court of Appeals, 2nd and 3rd circuits; U.S. Supreme Court; and U.S. District Court, District of Eastern Pennsylvania.

CHRISTOFER C. JOHNSON, managing partner and founder of Philadelphia based The Johnson Firm LLC, provides legal assistance in personal injury, insurance coverage disputes, real estate, and other civil litigation matters. Mr. Johnson also serves as a First Judicial District of Pennsylvania arbitrator. Earlier in his career, he spent many years working as a litigation associate in a regional insurance defense firm, where he represented corporate entities in toxic tort and environmental complex litigation matters in Federal Multidistrict Litigation (MDL) and state court matters in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Mr. Johnson received a B.S. degree from the University of Delaware and his J.D. degree from Widener University School of Law. He is admitted to the New Jersey State and Pennsylvania bar associations, the Supreme Court of New Jersey, U.S. District of New Jersey, U.S. Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Supreme Court of Delaware, Third Circuit Court of Appeals, and U.S. District Court of Delaware. Mr. Johnson sits on the Executive Committee of the Delaware State Bar Association and the Board of Directors of the Delaware Center for Justice.

MARK S. KARDOS is the principal in the Law Offices of Kardos & Goch, where he has litigated personal injury cases in Philadelphia for more than 42 years with several verdicts published in the Pennsylvania Jury Reporter and “The Verdict” (Publication of the Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Association). Mr. Kardos was an adjunct professor of business and real estate law at Temple University for 12 years, and had a similar position at Bucks County Community College for three years. He has been a speaker at more than 50 seminars providing CLE credits, and topics have included defense and plaintiff perspectives on advanced trial techniques, UM/UIM law, medical malpractice and evaluation of wrongful death claims. Mr. Kardos has been selected by peers to be a mediator or sole arbitrator in more than 1800 cases. He also serves as a judge pro tem for the Philadelphia Common Pleas Court. Mr. Kardos earned his B.S. degree from Millersville University and his J.D. degree from the University of Baltimore Law School.

JEFFREY R. LERMAN is a senior partner in the Litigation Department at Montgomery, McCracken, Walker & Rhoads, LLP. His practice emphasizes business litigation, with particular expertise in the representation of insurance carriers in coverage and bad faith cases, and in the insurance representation of a wide range of professionals. Mr. Lerman is chairman of the firm's commercial and professional insurance defense practice. For more than 30 years, he has been the chair of Montgomery, McCracken, Walker & Rhoads, LLP's professional liability insurance defense practice. In this capacity, Mr. Lerman has been lead trial counsel and supervising attorney in hundreds of cases. He has frequently lectured before lawyers and other professionals on matters including the representation of professionals, insurance coverage litigation, trial practice and ethics. Mr. Lerman earned his B.A. degree, with distinction, from Pennsylvania State University and his J.D. degree from Columbia University Law School in New York.

ARTHUR S. NOVELLO is a partner at the law firm of Dashevsky Horwitz Kuhn Novello & Shorr, P.C. Since 1986, he has represented individuals for personal injury claims resulting from motor vehicle accidents, slip and fall incidents, work-related accidents, medical and dental malpractice, and product liability cases in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Mr. Novello has enjoyed lecturing on various legal topics, such as the limited tort threshold, UM/UIM, Health Insurance Portability and Accounting Act of 1996 (HIPAA), trial preparation and strategy, ethical issues, and legislative updates. He has made numerous television appearances as a legal commentator and currently lectures on career opportunities in the legal profession at various high schools throughout Philadelphia. Mr. Novello is admitted to practice in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the state of New Jersey, and before the United States Supreme Court. He was asked by the city of Philadelphia’s Court of Common Pleas to be one of its first judge pro tempores to preside over settlement conferences at the Philadelphia Dispute Resolution Center and currently trains future judge pro tempores and arbitrators for the court. Mr. Novello lectures at Temple Law School’s LLM program on Advanced Trial Advocacy. Mr. Novello is a member of the Compulsory Arbitration Committee and the Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee of the Philadelphia Bar Association, and a past member of the Board of Directors of the Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Association. He is currently serving in his second six year term as a senior hearing member serving the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania’s Disciplinary Board. Mr. Novello earned his bachelor’s degree from Temple University and his juris doctor degree from Widener University School of Law.

ELIZABETH A. POPE is a shareholder in the Health Care Department in the law firm of Marshall Dennehey Warner Coleman & Goggin, P.C., where she focuses her practice in the areas of medical and dental malpractice, with a secondary focus on premises and products liability cases. Ms. Pope also handles large-scale personal injury claims arising from construction accidents. She has represented a large number of doctors, dentists, physician assistants, certified registered nurse practitioners and nurses in a multitude of malpractice actions. Ms. Pope has also represented clients in construction liability cases involving the representation of general contractors, subcontractors, engineers, architects and surveyors; premises liability involving the representation of commercial shopping centers, corporate centers, health care offices, etc.; and product liability with respect to the representation of manufacturers, distributors and wholesalers. She graduated cum laude from The George Washington University School of Law. Ms. Pope was awarded the American Bar Association/Bureau of National Affairs Award. She completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Pennsylvania, where she graduated cum laude and with distinction in her major of International Relations.

AMY L. WYNKOOP is a partner at the Law Offices of Thomas J. Wagner, LLC, in Philadelphia. She represents clients in state and federal courts in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Ms. Wynkoop's practice is concentrated in insurance/self-insured defense litigation encompassing premises liability, automobile/trucking liability, professional liability/malpractice, contract, insurance coverage, product liability, workers' compensation, and employment discrimination. She also has a selective practice of representing seriously injured individuals. Ms. Wynkoop has secured defense verdicts in premises liability and personal injury cases; obtained dismissals of a workers' compensation claim petitions in Pennsylvania and New Jersey; successfully argued before the Pennsylvania Superior Court on appeal; and negotiated de minimis resolution of claims on behalf of her clients. Ms. Wynkoop is adept at handling all levels of claims ranging in value from municipal court level to up to multi-million dollars. She graduated from Rutgers University with a bachelor's degree in history and a minor in women studies. She earned her Juris Doctor from Ohio Northern University, as well as a master's degree in criminal justice from John Jay College of Criminal Justice. She is licensed to practice in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Ms. Wynkoop is a member of Primerus Women Lawyers Section