Bradley J. Goewert

Shareholder

    As a shareholder of the firm's Health Care Department, Brad serves as the supervising attorney for the Health Care Liability Practice Group in the Delaware office. He has 30 years of litigation experience in Delaware, Florida and Pennsylvania, and the vast majority of this experience is medical malpractice cases since he focuses his practice in the areas of defense of physicians, nurses, hospitals, nursing homes and other health care liability matters involving large exposure and complex cases. Other areas of his practice are devoted to significant general liability matters, including premises liability, automobile liability, product liability and professional negligence. 

    Brad estimates that he has handled several hundred health care liability matters. He has tried 55 cases and taken almost all of them to verdict, with the vast majority of them resulting in defense verdicts. He has also handled a number of cases resulting in dismissals by stipulation, motions for summary judgment or directed verdict. 

    Brad's representative defense verdicts include the defense of a cardiologist in a 2008 trial involving the use of the drug Amiodarone, and a subsequent death involving pulmonary toxicity; the successful defense of a hospital in 2010 involving a patient who coded in the ED, was resuscitated for a half an hour with no pulse or respirations, was pronounced dead, and then a half an hour later, a nurse found the patient had come back to life and was breathing; and the successful defense verdict in 2011 of an interventional radiologist by rebutting a statutory presumption of negligence where a surgery is performed on the wrong organ.

    In one notable case, Brad successfully defended a pulmonologist in 2010 who was alleged to have breached the standard of care by failing to give the 46-year-old decedent informed consent, including the risk of death, prior to performing a bronchoscopy with transbronchial biopsy. Prior to trial, the defense convinced the court that the plaintiffs must prove not only that the physician failed to inform the patient of risks and alternatives, and the undisclosed risk materialized causing injury, but also that a reasonable patient in the position of decedent would have declined to undergo the procedure had she been properly informed. The jury found in favor of the physician on this newly recognized proximate cause standard for informed consent cases, and the decision was affirmed by the Delaware Supreme Court.

    After receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of South Florida in 1984, Brad obtained his juris doctor from Loyola University School of Law in New Orleans in 1988. Prior to joining Marshall Dennehey in 2001, Brad practiced in Florida as a partner with Gunn, Ogden and Sullivan, where he represented one of the largest operators of health care facilities in United States. Brad is board certified in Civil Trial Law by The Florida Bar. He then practiced in Pennsylvania for several years before coming to Delaware in 2003.  In 2016 he was elected to the membership of the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA), an invitation-only organization comprised of the most highly accomplished trial lawyers and judges in the country. Brad has also been awarded an AV® Preeminent™ rating by Martindale-Hubbell.

     

    Classes/Seminars Taught

    Medical Evidence in Delaware Courts, NBI Seminars, August 2005

    Successful Medical Malpractice Suits, NBI Seminars, May 2007

    Risk Management Issues Associated with Pressure Sores, HCI National Risk Management Conference, 2001

    Trying the Soft Tissue Injury Case in Florida, NBI Seminars, 1995

    The Tortoise and The Hare: Can the Slow Pace of Law Keep up with the Fast Pace of Computers?, Association for Systems Management, 1993

    Published Works

    “Important Distinctions for the Statute of Limitations in a Medical Negligence Case in Delaware,” Defense Digest, Vol. 27, No. 4, September 2021

    “Further Limiting the Collateral Source Rule in Delaware,” Defense Digest, Vol. 23, No. 3, September 2017

    "A Second Bite at the Apple, Superior Court appears to be making it harder to defend defense verdicts," Pennsylvania Law Weekly, Vol. 27, February 23, 2004

    "Annual Survey of Florida Tort and Insurance Law," The Advocate, No. 1, February 1992 and 1993

    Admissions
    Florida
    1988
    U.S. District Court Middle District of Florida
    1989
    U.S. Court of Appeals 11th Circuit
    1989
    Pennsylvania
    2001
    U.S. District Court Eastern District of Pennsylvania
    2002
    Delaware
    2003
    Education
    Loyola University School of Law (J.D., 1988)
    University of South Florida (B.A., 1984)
    Honors & awards
    Best Lawyers in America©, Product Liability Litigation – Defendants
    2024
    Top Lawyer, Medical Malpractice Defense, Delaware Today Magazine
    November 2022
    Top Lawyer, Healthcare Law, Delaware Today Magazine
    November 2020
    Top Lawyer, Healthcare Liability, Delaware Today Magazine
    November 2019
    Associations & memberships
    American Board of Trial Advocates
    Delaware State Bar Association – Health Law Section; Litigation Section
    Florida Bar Association – Trial Lawyers Section
    Pennsylvania Bar Association
    Year joined
    2001
    Certifications

    Board Certified in Civil Trial Advocacy by National Board of Trial Advocates

    Board Certified Specialist, Civil Trial Law, The Florida Bar