Successfully Defended FOP Lawyer in Legal Malpractice Case

Marshall Dennehey attorneys obtained a directed verdict after a four-day jury trial in Philadelphia County. The plaintiff, a Philadelphia police sergeant who had been discharged, sued the lawyer provided by the FOP at a grievance arbitration on the basis that, had the lawyer done a better job, he would never have been fired. In response to videotape evidence of 22 clear instances of lying about work hours and proven false entries by him in the official time records, the sergeant maintained that: (1) “everybody did it.”; (2) his supervisors had approved it; and (3) no one had ever been fired for such trivial matters before. His discharge was affirmed. The case was defended by essentially replicating the arbitration hearing, playing the surveillance videos for the jury and putting on convincing evidence, including that of former Police Commissioner Ramsay. We also showed through expert testimony that the lawyer represented the union, not the grievant, at the arbitration and that the union had been consulted and approved the trial strategy. We eventually prevailed on a directed verdict because the plaintiff utterly failed to prove damages, which were non-speculative.