Personal Injury

Pierce & Mandell, P.C. is engaged in insurance defense work, representing insureds and insurers in a wide variety of actions. The cases we defend include professional malpractice claims, construction accidents, property damage cases, subrogation and product liability claims. Our lawyers are dedicated to utilizing every available avenue to protect the interest of insureds, including the prosecution of third-party claims for contribution, indemnification and/or insurance coverage. We also represent individuals in personal injury suits.

Insurance Coverage Litigation and Subrogation
We represent national insurance companies in litigation matters concerning the carriers' obligation to provide coverage to insureds. The firm's litigators have numerous years of experience interpreting insurance policy provisions and counseling insurance companies regarding their legal rights and duties. We have also successfully represented numerous insurers in prosecuting subrogation claims.

Personal Injury, Disability and ERISA
The firm has successfully represented individuals in a broad variety of personal injury cases. In December of 2004, Bob Pierce settled a case for $3.7 million on behalf of a client who was severely injured in a bus crash. This settlement was achieved after several days of trial. In addition, the firm recently settled a fire death case for the insurance policy limit $500,000 plus a contribution of over $350,000 from others.

We represent clients in negotiations and litigation to enforce the client's contractual rights to disability insurance benefits. We have extensive experience in interpreting disability policies and prosecuting claims under state law as well as ERISA.

Recently, we represented a client who had been wrongfully denied disability insurance benefits after suffering a catastrophic heart attack. After our lawyers instituted litigation, and on the day of trial, the disability insurance carrier agreed to settle the claim by paying our client approximately $400,000.

Also, we recently represented a cardiologist whose disability insurance policy was wrongfully rescinded by the carrier based on an erroneous claim that the client had made a misrepresentation as to his medical history on the application for insurance. Our attorneys were able to secure a dismissal of the complaint brought against our client on the basis that the federal court lacked jurisdiction as the insurance policy was outside the purview of ERISA. We also successfully argued for the affirmance of the dismissal of the complaint before the First Circuit Court of Appeals. Subsequently, the insurance carrier pursued the action in state court, and following a one week trial, the jury returned a verdict in our client's favor and the court entered a judgment declaring the validity of our client's insurance policy.

For more information, please contact Bob Pierce at email bob@piercemandell.com or Tom Kenney at tom@piercemandell.com.