Levin, Sedran & Berman - Philadelphia, PA

Client of Michael Fishbein of Levin Fishbein Sedran and Berman. Sedran named partner He took my medical malpractice appeal. We had proof of malpractice, negligence, and the Pa. Superior Court called the defendant's testimony perjurious. ("We have little difficulty in concluding that Dr. Jannetta's testimony at deposition was different than, or inconsistent with, the testimony at trial." Levy v Jannetta, CCP Allegheny County, GD 81-7689; appeal -J. A370017/92 Levy v Jannetta et al, No. 00150 Pittsburgh, 1992. settled, 1995.). His associate at the time, Robert Unterberger, called me 7 times in a 2 1/2 hour period the night of the day the jury was to be picked. Each time he came down on the amount of a settlement that was being offered. Finally, crying, at the last call I told him to just get this over with. The amount was a pittance, not near covering my lifetime medical expenses. This occurred on a Friday night. The following Monday I called Mr, Fishbein and wrote him a letter stating I did not accept the settlement. He told me I had to (I later found out that is not true. If a lawyer is told in a timely fashion a settlement is not acceptable they have to abide by the client's wishes) Neither he nor his associate had taken any depositions, interrogatories or looked at admissions and other work from the initial case that verified the malpractice and negligence. I had to be pro se (self representing, I am not a lawyer) for the initial case. He relied on my work and only wrote a brief. For that he received 60,000$, 33% of the forced settlement.The perjury alone made this case worth much more then the small amt I received. I am prohibited from saying the amount but it was less then 211,000 and more then 209,000. The case was in the courts for 14 years. He apparently had an expert but it was the wrong specialty. He did not witness prep nor hire any witnesses. He told me that he would have prepped them while trial ongoing but he had not contacted any so would not have known if they were even available to prep much less testify. He did have the one person's report who evaluated me, That was a vocational rehab counselor whose report indicated lifetime wages lost 1,000,000+.That does not include lifetime pain and suffering. And of course if the jury voted in my favor would have added punitive, given the level of proof and the perjury. Instead I walked away with more then 140,000 and less then 160,000 (Pa fee dispute added 10,000 more) Within a month of the forced settlement the doctor was nominated by Gov. Ridge to be Pa. Sec't of Health. (Peter J. Jannetta, 1995-1996.) I leave it to you to decide if this appointment timing was related to forcing me to settle against my will. When I told Mike 2 months before the trial date he was not acing as my advocate because no work had been done he replied "after 20 years of doing this you lose your zest for it." He denies having said this. I found out, approximately 2 1/2 years later, that while he had no zest for my case he was the lead attorney against diet drug Phen-phen where he won a 50 million + verdict. (and according to articles walked away with 20+ million$ fee He did the least amount of work for the best payoff. In my experience he was lazy and unwilling to do the work necessary. He ignored the lawyer code of ethics and did not act as my zealous representative. As a named partner he would not have done this without conferring with the other named partners which would include Howard Sedran,.

He took case promised to work as my advocate. Case in courts 14 yrs (with him only for appeal) He literally forced me to settle against my stated 3 wks later Dr nominated for Pa. Sect health. Lazy. (relied almost exclusively on pro se work) Dr. Perjured self Pa Superior Court said so. Proof negligence malpractice Lifetime pain disfigurement and forced settlement not even cover lifetime expenses. He acted as advocate for defendant not his client

"Lawyer forced me to settle a medical malpractice case against a defendant whom the Pa. Superior Court called a perjurer stating."We have little difficulty in concluding that defendant Dr (apparently cant put name in this review) testimony at deposition was different than, or inconsistent with, the testimony at trial." The proof of negligence and malpractice was substantial. He took my medical malpractice case for appeal from a lower court non suiting. This case involved a surgery named after the defendant and from which I emerged with a 100% facial paralysis on the operated side as well as so much damage from the operation that the next surgeon was unable to do his surgery - leaving me with no way out of permanent disability and pain. He, and his associate although the contract was between above named lawyer and I, did no depositions, interrogatories, etc. I was evaluated only be a vocational rehabilitation expert. They got the wrong neurosurgical witness, pediatric for an adult surgery who never saw or spoke with me. The ophthalmic expert was my local ophthalmologist who also was not prepped.. Neither lawyer spoke with or retained a facial nerve specialist, a major component of the case; for sustained damages as well as showing that a defensive pre surgical test showed that Defendant dr's surgery had a high probability of paralyzing the face. They did no witness prep, including of me. The associate lawyer picked a jury on a Friday afternoon. He was in Pittsburgh and told me I didn't need to come up til the weekend for prep. He called me 7 times in a 2 1/2 hour period that Friday evening and each time with a lower settlement number, so low, from the start there was no way it would cover lifelong medical expenses or for the disfigurement and disability. (Lawyer told court case worth over 1million, outright costs not including pain and suffering or future medical costs forced settlement just over 200,000 which allowed defendant dr to pay almost nothing as insurance and state CAT fund covered 200,000 By the 7th call I was crying and told him to just get rid of it. The following Monday I called lawyer and told him what happened and I did not accept settlement. He told me I had no choice (which I found out a long time later was not the truth). Strangely enough, 3 weeks after this forced settlement, in a case that had been in the courts for 14 (yes fourteen) years, defendant dr was named Pa. Sec't of Health nominee by Pa Gov. This case went to fee dispute where I received a (small) additional amount but fee dispute then wrote they did not find against the lawyer so he has no record of fee dispute going against him. I asked him 2 mths before trial why he did not seem to be acting as my advocate. He replied, which he has since denied saying, "After 20 years you lose your zest for it." At that point it was too late to find another attorney. After 2 years later, after statute of limitations over, I found out the zest he lost was only for my case evidently as, during the same period of time, he was lead counsel for diet drug Phen-fen case for which he won a 54 million dollar verdict. (Despite his being quoted as saying some of the claimants had no damage.) He was lazy and betrayed my trust and gave anything but "zealous" representation as required by the canon of ethics and implied in the contract between he and I." Although Fishbein name no longer in name of firm, (Originally Levin, Fishbein, Sedran, Berman I have no doubt that this betrayal could not have occurred without the other named partners knowing and agreeing.