Paul Panepinto

From Judgepedia

Legal career

Panepinto began his career in the Family Court section of the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas. Panepinto started out with the Family Court in 1971, progressing from a Probation Officer to an Intake Unit Attorney and then to Juvenile Master before being appointed a Judge to the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas. During the earlier portion of his legal career, Panepinto worked also as a private practice attorney^[2]

Common Pleas judge

Judge Panepinto's previous judicial experience has came with a long tenure with the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas. Panepinto began his career with the Court of Common Pleas when he was appointed and then confirmed by the Pennsylvania State Senate on June 11, 1990. Panepinto was subsequenty elected to the Court of Common Pleas by the people in 1991, and was later retained for a second ten year term commencing January 2002^[4].

Panepinto has been mostly responsible for dealing with civil cases that come from the lowest level state court in Pennsylvania^[4].

From 2006 to 2007, Panepinto served as the court's Coordinating Judge of the Complex Civil litigation center from 2006 to 2007. During that time frame, Panepinto lead programs to help expeidite the large load of civil cases that come through the state's largest circuit court^[4].

Panepinto has also dealt with complex civil litigation where as a common pleas judge, presided over thousands of mass tort claims filed in Philadelphia County each year. Panepinto has overseen high profile civil lawsuits including those in the high-profile Phen-Fen, Vioxx and Hormone Replacement Therapy programs^[2].

Court of Judicial Discipline

Judge Panepinto also serves on the Pennsylvania Court of Judicial Discipline which is the state's body that rules on judicial discipline and regulations in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

State Supreme Court run

Panepinto announced his intentions to run for the State Supreme Court on March 20, 2009. In announcing his run, Panepinto described his run for Pennsylvania's highest court as “dedicated to initiating change throughout the entire state court system could change the attitude from ‘business as usual’ to the ‘people’s business." ^[5]

Judge Panepinto recieved a highly recommended from the Pennsylvania Bar Association. For Judge Panepinto's questionnaire to the Pennsylvania Bar CLICK HERE.

For the latest election news please visit Pennsylvania Supreme Court elections

Republican Party Endorsement

Common Pleas judge Panepinto also said in his campaign announcement: “In my role as a Common Pleas Court judge, I have worked as an independent jurist: not beholden to the party state committee but to the people and voters to whom I am accountable, a justice of Pennsylvania must ignore special interests and special groups and decide cases based on the law and what the Constitution says.”^[5].

Court System Reform

Common Pleas Judge Panepinto has had a reputation to reform the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas . While leading the family court division Judge Panepinto has been noted as an innovator in dealing with problems such as juvenile delinquency and "dead-beat dads," addressed the root issue that led to longer-term solutions^[6].

With Philadelphia having some of the highest child truancy rates in the United States, Panepinto set up a issue-specific truancy court aimed at immediate intervention of truancy issues. It was noted a couple of his cases, that when one student said he didn't go to school because he couldn't see the blackboard and couldn't afford glasses, Panepinto had his staff help his parent get him assistance and the glasses he needed. Another youth told him he didn't go to school because the child didn't have an alarm clock and no one in his family would wake him up. So a donor gave the court 1,000 free alarm clocks just in case anyone else had the same excuse. It kept some children in school, off the streets and out of his court system, Panepinto said in a recent interview with the Bedford Gazette^[6]

Also, Panepinto on the issue of "deadbeat parents", began a Networking for Jobs program in 1997 as Philadelphia Area companies came to the a centralized area set up by Panepinto and his staff, giving teenagers in the family court system as well as fathers a place where they could look for a job. Child support payments increased and Panepinto's court had less families in court^[6].

In 2000, he reached out to the black clergy and asked them to be part of a pilot project to pair up volunteers from the churches with juvenile offenders in a community service program and made it a point to also speed up the adoption process in his court which was better for the adoptive family, better for the child and it reduced the number of children and the cost of their care in the foster care system^[6].

Also, Judge Panepinto has been noted as a reformer on complex civil litigation cases as Judge Panepinto has presided over some of the most complex civil litigation cases that has came through the Philadelphia County Common Pleas Court. When Judge Panepinto was the corridinating judge of the Complex Civil Litigation Unit of the Philadelphia County Common Pleas Court, Judge Panepinto used best staff practices and mediation to reduce the amount of civil cases from medical malpractice to pharmaceutical liability in 2006 from 10,017 cases awaiting trial to 2,564 as Philadelphia's courts have been noted to hear some of the most complex civil litigation cases in the nation including cases that involved Vioxx and Fen-Phen^[2] ^[4].

On Tort Reform

Panepinto has had a reputation for trying to move cases forward especially civil tort reform cases in which has caused serious backlogs to the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas which has given Philadelphia a once known reputation as one of the worst tort litigation environments in America.

One key case that has given Judge Panepinto national acclaim is the 2005 case of Paul, Karician, et. al v. Wyeth Pharmaceuticals. This case was a high profile case the Complex Tort Litigation until that Judge Panepinto chaired was responsible for handling multiple, individual lawsuits against Pharmaceutical manufacturer Wyeth as it pertained to the former dietary drug Fen-Phen^[7].

Despite there was a $3.75 billion dollar nationwide class-action settlement, many litigants opted out of the class action settlement to pursue further legal action. In the case of Paul, Karician, et. al v. Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, two women who suffered valvular heart disease sued the manufactrers of Fen-Phen. After hearing testimony, a Philadelphia Jury awarded $200 million dollars in total to which each of the plantiffs were entitled to $100 million in compensatory damages individually^[7].

Wyeth filed for a motion to vacate the verdicts as the amount awarded exceeded previous cases setting a precedent for mass tort cases related to diet drugs, but Judge Panepinto called a "time out" to allow the attorneys for Wyeth to settle cases with related victims^[7].

Electoral Advantage

Despite Joan Orie Melvin winning the endorsement of the Pennsylvania Republican Party, Panepinto is banking on the primary being the only candidate from Eastern Pennsylvania as a key towards winning the GOP nomination. As a Philadelphia native who has been a Common Pleas judge in Pennsylvania's largest trial level court for 17 years has said to various media sources in Pennsylvania he believes his reputation in the populous southeastern corner of the state makes him a stronger candidate in the general election than either of his two western Pennsylvania foes claiming an situation in which if the vote is spilt in Western Pennsylvania could allow him to win^[8]

"Geography matters," Judge Panepinto said. "I'm from here, I work hard here and I'm known here." Panepinto is mentioning this advantage as there could be a possible scenario during the May 19th primary in which both Madam Superior Judges Allen and Orie Melvin may battle for votes in Western Pennsylvania as both candidates are from the Pittsburgh Area. Panepinto's likely path to an upset is sweeping up the vote in his base of Eastern Pennsylvania and win enough votes in both Central and Western Pennsylvania in which could take away from Orie Melvin and Allen's base in their past electoral successes^[8].

Judicial independence

Judge Panepinto on Judicial Independence

Judicial standards

Judge Panepinto on Judicial Standards

On the Law profession

Judge Panepinto on his passion for the law

On the duty of a judge

Judge Panepinto on the duty of a judge

Campaign advertisements

Judge Panepinto's First Campaign Ad

Endorsements

For a list of endorsements CLICK HERE

Professional Organizations

Panepinto is a member of the Lawyers' Club of Philadelphia, the Justinian Society, the National Italian American Bar Association, the Knights of Columbus Cora Marie Council, and the Executive Council Board of Widener University School of Law. Judge Panepinto served for four years as President of Roxborough Lodge, Order Sons of Italy.

External links

References

The Pennsylvania Project on Judgepedia

[pba-0] Pennsylvania 2009 Supreme Court candidates

[Bio-1] 2.0 ^2.1 ^2.2 ^2.3 "Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas" Biography of Paul Panepinto, April 14, 2009

[2] "PA Election Returns" Orie Melvin Wins, May 19, 2009

[PA_BAR_1-3] 4.0 ^4.1 ^4.2 ^4.3 "Pennsylvania Bar Association, Paul Panepinto" public questionaire, April 14, 2009See Page 12 for Civil Litigation Statistics

[SI-4] 5.0 ^5.1 "The Bulletin" Judge Paul Panepinto Announces his run for the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, March 20, 2009

[Reform-5] 6.0 ^6.1 ^6.2 ^6.3 "Panepinto for Supreme Court" Family Court Reform of Judge Paul Panepinto, April 23, 2009See Bedford Gazette Article

[Diet-6] 7.0 ^7.1 ^7.2 "FindLaw" Judge Paul Panepinto calls timeout on Fen-Phen case, June 14, 2005

[Advantage-7] 8.0 ^8.1 "Philly Burbs" Supreme Court Race Tops Primary Ballot, May 8, 2009

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