Posted: November 22, 2016

Great law firms don’t just secure substantial verdicts and settlements on behalf of their clients. They make change for the betterment of the community. Kline & Specter has a proven track record of creating improvements for citizens in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and the general public. Here are just a few examples:

  • In addition to winning a $51 million verdict against the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority in a case in which a small boy’s foot was ripped off in a subway escalator, the agency later committed $30 million to revamping its entire escalator system. That included tasking an outside firm with inspecting all 38 of its escalators, resulting in the replacement of at least 10 escalators and modifying others with modern safety features.
  • The Philadelphia Police Department established new guidelines requiring extensive training and safer operations of squad cars after the city agreed to pay more than $2.2 million to the estates of a man and his infant child who were killed by a police cruiser.
  • Following a $109 million Pittsburgh verdict and subsequent $105 million settlement for the family of a woman who was killed by a fallen power line, the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission required the utility to improve its line maintenance protocols and conduct rigorous inspections of all lines.
  • After winning a substantial settlement for a 19-year-old University of Pittsburgh student who was denied proper emergency care after suffering cardiac arrest, the university agreed to hire a medical director and provide campus police officers with improved CPR and automatic external defibrillator (AED) training and testing.
  • Earlier this summer—and as a direct result of confidential settlements secured for three people killed or injured in the collapse of a fire escape landing—Philadelphia enacted an ordinance requiring that all city fire escapes be inspected on or before July, 1 2017 by an independent structural engineer and later re-inspected at least once every five years.
  • A worldwide safety advancement was achieved after a settlement was reached for a woman killed in an accident involving an SUV without rear passenger seat belts. The automaker agreed to never again to sell a vehicle or vehicle kit without belts for every seat.