Episodes

  • When It’s Inevitable that the Product Will Fail, with Dave Kwass

    When It’s Inevitable that the Product Will Fail, with Dave Kwass
    Aug 23 2025

    When a 900-pound flail mower crushed a Delaware Department of Transportation mechanic, the defense claimed it was his fault and insisted his return to work proved minimal injury. When Dave Kwass sued the mower manufacturer, he exposed defense lies and revealed missing evidence. He also took jurors on a journey through the company’s history – including the “bizarre moment” when it rejected a design modification that would have made the mower safer because it would have increased repair costs. As Dave explains to host Brendan Lupetin, he set up the “narrative inevitability" that the flawed machine would injure someone. “The ‘Jaws’ music has been playing,” Brendan observes, “and they know that the attack is inevitable.” The jury awarded Dave’s client $11 million.

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    ☑️ Dave Kwass | LinkedIn

    ☑️ Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky on LinkedIn | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube

    ☑️ Brendan Lupetin | LinkedIn

    ☑️ Lupetin & Unatin, LLC

    ☑️ Connect: Facebook | LinkedIn | YouTube

    ☑️ Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube

    Ready to refer or collaborate on med mal, medical negligence, and catastrophic injury cases? Visit our attorney referral page at PAMedMal.com/Refer. We handle cases in Pennsylvania and across the United States.

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    1 hr and 4 mins
  • Trial Nugget: Shanin Specter’s Punitive Damage Blueprint: Reframing Net Worth

    Trial Nugget: Shanin Specter’s Punitive Damage Blueprint: Reframing Net Worth
    Aug 12 2025

    In the second Trial Nugget devoted to punitive damages, host Brendan Lupetin breaks down Goretzka v. West Penn Power, in which a woman was fatally electrocuted when a power line fell on her. Brendan reads key moments from the punitive section of Shanin Specter’s closing argument, including when he reframed West Penn Power’s $244 million net worth. Shanin showed the jury a $10 bill and suggested that the appropriate way of considering damages would be to say, “‘What would it be if it were a guy with $10? How much would that be to make him feel it? To make him not do it again?’ And then just do the math on that $244 million.” The jury awarded $109 million. Unpacking Shanin’s strategies, Brendan observes: “One clever point that Shanin pointed out: Whether they're worth $1 or $20 billion, it doesn't matter.”

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    13 mins
  • Smoking Guns that Turned $300K into $4.4M, with Blankingship & Keith

    Smoking Guns that Turned $300K into $4.4M, with Blankingship & Keith
    Aug 9 2025
    At Blankingship & Keith, they often say: "There's a smoking gun in every case; just, sometimes, you don't find it." With tenacity and strategy, a firm team found smoking guns in their recent case against a commercial trucking company. The team – Rob Stoney, Chidi James, Barkley Horn, and Matt Tsun – uncovered inspection failures that allowed a truck with inadequate brakes and safety features to be on the road. It collided with their client’s vehicle, causing her life-altering injuries. Listen to this case breakdown with host Brendan Lupetin to learn how they turned a $300,000 insurance policy into a $4.4 million jury verdict.Learn More and Connect☑️ Chidi James | LinkedIn☑️ Barkley Horn | LinkedIn☑️ Matt Tsun | LinkedIn☑️ Rob Stoney | LinkedIn☑️ Blankingship & Keith on LinkedIn | Instagram | X ☑️ Brendan Lupetin | LinkedIn☑️ Lupetin & Unatin, LLC☑️ Connect: Facebook | LinkedIn | YouTube☑️ Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTubeReady...
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    1 hr and 11 mins
  • From Policy Violation to $5.25M Verdict, with Dorothy Dohanics, Carmen Nocera, and Ben Cohen

    From Policy Violation to $5.25M Verdict, with Dorothy Dohanics, Carmen Nocera, and Ben Cohen
    Jul 23 2025

    The hospital had a good policy that would have prevented a 67-year-old woman from being prematurely discharged. Instead, she was discharged and found dead 12 hours later. Host Brendan Lupetin unpacks this wrongful death case with the trial team of Dorothy Dohanics, Carmen Nocera and Ben Cohen. Tune in to hear how Dorothy's meticulous discovery work and Carmen and Ben's strategic courtroom work drove their $5.25 million verdict.

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    ☑️ Ben Cohen

    ☑️ Dorothy Dohanics | LinkedIn

    ☑️ Carmen Nocera | LinkedIn

    ☑️ Harry S. Cohen & Associates on LinkedIn | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube

    ☑️ Brendan Lupetin | LinkedIn

    ☑️ Lupetin & Unatin, LLC

    ☑️ Connect: Facebook | LinkedIn | YouTube

    ☑️ Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube

    Ready to refer or collaborate on med mal, medical negligence, and catastrophic injury cases? Visit our attorney referral page at PAMedMal.com/Refer. We handle cases in Pennsylvania and across the United States.

    Produced and Powered by LawPods
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    58 mins
  • Trial Nugget: Arguing Punitive Damages - Mark Lanier's Approach

    Trial Nugget: Arguing Punitive Damages - Mark Lanier's Approach
    Jul 9 2025

    In the first of a two-part series about approaches to arguing punitives, host Brendan Lupetin focuses on Mark Lanier's $9 billion verdict against Takeda Pharmaceuticals. Brendan breaks down the three-part strategy that ensured Mark’s success: emphasizing the purpose of punitive damages beyond compensation, empowering jurors to understand their verdict will travel globally within 30 seconds, and making astronomical corporate wealth comprehensible by converting $60 billion into relatable $60,000 scenarios. Come back for the second installment, when Brendan will analyze how Shanin Specter won $109 million from West Penn Power Company in the Goretzka case.

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    12 mins
  • Trial Nugget: Chorus, Not Clutter: What to Repeat at Trial

    Trial Nugget: Chorus, Not Clutter: What to Repeat at Trial
    Jun 30 2025

    Host Brendan Lupetin tackles the strategic paradox every trial lawyer faces: how to emphasize your strongest evidence through repetition without annoying jurors who hate lawyers who "say the same thing over and over." Drawing extensively from David Ball's "Theater Tips and Strategies for Jury Trials," Brendan explains the critical distinction between strategic repetition that wins cases and mindless repetition that loses them. He reveals Ball's gold standard for what to repeat—only what you want favorable jurors to say in deliberations—and shares the cautionary tale of a lawyer who said "in the blue Honda Civic southbound on US Interstate Highway number 95" sixty-seven times in a six-day trial, undermining his case's impact.

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    8 mins
  • David v. Goliath: Solo Practitioner’s $25.9M Victory against Temple University, with Jordan Strokovsky

    David v. Goliath: Solo Practitioner’s $25.9M Victory against Temple University, with Jordan Strokovsky
    Jun 23 2025

    When Jordan Strokovsky received a call about a 27-year-old medical assistant who lost his leg at Temple University Hospital, he knew within minutes something wasn't right. In this breakdown of his career-defining $25.9 million verdict in Parks v. Temple University Hospital, Jordan reveals to host Brendan Lupetin how he transformed a damages-only case into one of Philadelphia's largest amputation verdicts.

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    ☑️ Jordan Strokovsky | LinkedIn | Facebook

    ☑️ Strokovsky LLC on LinkedIn | Facebook

    ☑️ Brendan Lupetin | LinkedIn

    ☑️ Lupetin & Unatin, LLC

    ☑️ Connect: Facebook | LinkedIn | YouTube

    ☑️ Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube

    Ready to refer or collaborate on med mal, medical negligence, and catastrophic injury cases? Visit our attorney referral page at PAMedMal.com/Refer. We handle cases in Pennsylvania and across the United States.

    Produced and Powered by LawPods
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    1 hr and 10 mins
  • Exposing a Scam Medical Helpline and Winning $4.2M, with Helen Lawless

    Exposing a Scam Medical Helpline and Winning $4.2M, with Helen Lawless
    Jun 9 2025
    While representing a client who lost his foot after relying on his employer’s medical helpline, Helen Lawless and the trial team realized that the helpline did “exactly what it was supposed to do.” And their strategy was born. In this case breakdown with host Brendan Lupetin, Helen explains that the helpline was actually a lucrative business model designed to keep workers from getting proper medical care. Their “constant refrain” to the jury, Helen says, was that the company benefited from the deceptive helpline just as it intended. Ultimately, a Philadelphia jury awarded her client $4.2 million.Learn More and Connect☑️ Helen Lawless | LinkedIn☑️ Kline & Specter on LinkedIn | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube ☑️ Brendan Lupetin | LinkedIn☑️ Lupetin & Unatin, LLC☑️ Connect: Facebook | LinkedIn | YouTube☑️ Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTubeEpisode PreviewHelen reveals how the Workcompvidence company deliberately kept injured workers from seeking proper medical care, monitoring patients but only providing "first aid" advice to avoid recordable workplace injuries.The company used a strategy called "tight management" to reduce "panic factors" that might lead workers to seek proper medical treatment, with nurses representing themselves as part of a doctor's practice.When the construction site job ended, the company "closed" their client's case without informing him, leaving him without care until his foot deteriorated to the point of requiring amputation.The defense claimed they owed no duty to the injured worker, but the jury disagreed, awarding $4.42 million in compensatory damages despite having no offer from the defense before trial.The trial featured detailed testimony about the company's business model that included marketing materials showing how they promised to reduce worker compensation costs for employers.Ready to refer or collaborate on med mal, medical negligence, and catastrophic injury cases? Visit our attorney referral page at...
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    53 mins