In the wake of several major changes to the First Judicial District’s handling of mass tort cases, the Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Association sent a six-page, single-spaced letter this week to court leaders asking for rescission of some of the new court protocols, including the deferral of punitive damages in all mass tort claims.
Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge John W. Herron, the administrative judge in charge of the trial division and the main author of the court regulation, said during a meeting at the Philadelphia Bar Association’s offices Wednesday that “we’re anxious to consider if punitives are appropriate” outside of asbestos cases and the protocol is open to revision.
