Lamb McErlane PC partners Maureen McBride and James Sargent successfully convinced a Pennsylvania appellate court to overturn — in its entirety — a nearly $1 million sanction issued against a medical malpractice defense attorney.

The state’s Superior Court overturned sanction against attorney Nancy Raynor after finding that Judge Paul Panepinto in the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas had improperly relied on hearsay testimony, denied Raynor due process rights and levied an “unprecedented and punitive” punishment.

“We are thrilled with the decision,” said Raynor’s appellate lawyer, Maureen McBride. “This has been an excruciatingly difficult ordeal for Nancy, and we are happy for her sake that it is finally over.”

The appellate panel found that the lawyers’ charges were excessive and that they had engaged in personal attacks on Raynor throughout the legal battle over the sanction.

The case involved the testimony of one of Raynor’s witnesses in a medical-malpractice trial in 2012. The witness, Dr. John Kelly, in response to a question from Raynor, testified that a deceased woman, whose heirs sued Roxborough Memorial Hospital and physicians there, had been a smoker. The woman went to the hospital complaining of shortness of breath, and physicians failed to inform her that X-ray results showed a suspicious nodule.

Read more in the Philly.com article: http://www.philly.com/philly/business/20160616_Appeals_court_rescues_Philly_lawyer_from__1m_fine.html

Read more in the Law 360 article: https://www.lambmcerlane.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Raynor-Sanction-Case-Due-Process.pdf