Shanin Specter is an attorney I went to Penn Law with. He is also the son of the late Arlen Specter. Shanin got a $109 million verdict this month in a case against West Penn Power Company, the largest personal injury verdict ever awarded in Allegheny County. It included $61 million in punitive damages. After three weeks of testimony, it took the jury just 90 minutes to return this verdict.
Carrie Goretzka died in June 2009 when she was electrocuted and burned by a spliced power line in her back yard. This was witnessed by her mother-in-law and young daughters. Specter argued that West Penn employees failed to properly install the power line. During closing arguments, a West Penn Power attorney who denied workers improperly spliced the line, arguing that millions of power lines have been spliced. He contended that there would be many more similar cases if West Penn’s employees were doing it improperly.
Jurors embraced Michael Goretzka after the verdict, overcome with emotion. To view a video of this emotional scene: Click here.
To read about my own 7 figure verdict: Click here.
