The past year was a banner year for the plaintiffs bar in terms of decisions from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court allowing for greater avenues of recovery. As a consequence, the past year will also turn out to be a boon for the auto accident defense bar in terms of more business with the need for further litigation going forward on recurring issues of note. In the end, with the decisions handed down over the past year by the appellate courts in this context, the days of cost containment are fading in the rear view mirror to the detriment of all Pennsylvania drivers who face the prospect of increased automobile insurance premiums down the road ahead.

The plaintiffs bar’s organized effort in past years to get their favored judicial candidates onto the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s bench is paying off in spades. The now more liberal, judicially activist court has been tossing the doctrine of stare decisis out the window and is instead relying upon soft, amorphous public policy rationales to cut down long-standing precedent and create new law with abandon, and at times, even with a vengeance. With several decisions over the past year, the Supreme Court has rewritten parts of the General Assembly’s Motor Vehicle Financial Responsibility Law (MVFRL) with little regard for the checks and balances put in place by the Pennsylvania Constitution that places the law-making duties solely with the legislature.