I am a former partner of the Philadelphia firm Swartz Campbell, LLC, where I concentrated in insurance defense litigation until my wife and I chose to raise our three children in the culture, community, and environment of Vermont. I maintain a state-wide practice in Vermont, representing injured employees in their claims for workers’ compensation benefits.
I am responsible for the Vermont legislative change in 2010, which now allows injured employees the protections of video and audio recording of insurer independent medical exams. My contributions to the workers’ compensation system also include my drafting of the first Department of Labor medical pre-authorization form for providers to use in order to expedite authorized treatment for injured employees, as well as my successful advocacy for a legal “late fee”, which now is paid to injured employees whose insurers fail to deliver a weekly wage benefit on time.
In 2011, I published Injured Employee’s Guide to Vermont Workers’ Compensation, a helpful resource for providers, clients, and the general public. The Second Edition was published in 2017. My office is located in White River Junction, Vermont.
As a Vermont workers' compensation lawyer, I have had many successful case results, including:
- In 2012, in the trials of four com/_template/176379/10611525plex workers’ compensation cases in Vermont. Two published decisions were on Complex Regional Pain Syndrome; a third published decision was on the reasonableness of palliative medical care for work injuries; and in my fourth trial, I presented proof that my client’s liver disease disability was covered under a policy from an electrical injury at work in 1973. An $800,000.00 settlement occurred after that trial.
- In 2013, I succeeded in winning a Department of Labor decision permitting my client to continue narcotic pain medications as a reasonable medical expense, a difficult case to prove given the anti-opioid climate at the time of trial.
- In 2016, I tried a case for a client who suffered a disabling injury to the arm and shoulder, and won a unique decision which ordered the insurer to pay for the client’s “ancillary” treatment—dental cleaning, teeth extraction, and a new set of dentures—because I proved these were needed to continue treatment of the work injury.
In 2018, I tried a case to re-open vocational rehabilitation which had been improperly shut down before the client retained me. My poem advocating for the client in my brief was quoted by Judge Phillips in her Opinion an Order in favor of the client.
In 2019 I successfully tried a permanent total disability case of a 43-year-old windshield installer, calling upon experts in physiatry, pain management, vocational rehabilitation and employability to overcome a functional capacity test result of light duty, and was awarded fees and costs.
In 2021 I represented a client in a case of Complex Regional Pain Syndrome which settled after mediation. The defense denied the diagnosis. Shortly before trial the defense attempted to bargain to accept the diagnosis if attorney fess would be waived; but the client rejected it and the defense withdrew its denial anyway and I obtained an order by the Department of Labor requiring acceptance of the case diagnosis and treatment.
If a case and controversy can be satisfactorily resolved without the need for testimony before a judge and without the inherent costs, stress and risks of litigation, all the better for achieving the client’s goals. Statistically, most cases referred to the formal hearing docket settle before an actual need for a trial.
Education:
- Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA (1980)
- Villanova University School of Law, Villanova, PA (1983)
- Trial Lawyers College, Dubois WY (2009)
Admissions to Bar:
- Vermont
Memberships & Affiliations:
- Workers Injury Law & Advocacy Group
- The Bar of the United States Supreme Court
- United States District Court for the District of Vermont
- Vermont Supreme Court
- Vermont Bar Association
- American Association of Justice
- National Trial Lawyers Association
- Vermont Association for Justice
- American Bar Association
- Recognized by Best Lawyers® 2020
- Best Law Firms
- Best Workers' Compenstaion Attorney
- Super Lawyers - 2021, 2022
