Scranton Personal Injury Lawyers

In most cases, Pennsylvania's Workers' Compensation Act is the exclusive remedy against your employer, meaning you cannot file a traditional lawsuit against them. However, if a third party contributed to your injury — such as a subcontractor, equipment manufacturer, or property owner — you may have a separate personal injury claim against that party. Our attorneys evaluate every workplace injury to identify all possible sources of recovery.

Workers compensation provides medical benefits and partial wage replacement regardless of fault, but it does not cover pain and suffering or full lost wages. A personal injury claim against a negligent third party allows you to recover complete compensation including pain and suffering, full lost earnings, and potentially punitive damages. In many workplace accidents, injured workers are entitled to pursue both.

For workers compensation, you must notify your employer within 120 days of the injury to preserve your benefits. For a personal injury lawsuit against a third party, Pennsylvania's statute of limitations gives you two years from the date of injury. However, critical evidence can be lost or destroyed quickly after a workplace accident — contact an attorney as soon as possible.

The same way we handle one from across the street. Our office at 220 S River St in Wilkes-Barre is about 20 miles from downtown Scranton on I-81. We meet Scranton clients in person at the office, by phone or video, or at home or in the hospital when injuries make travel difficult. The investigation, the medical records, the insurer negotiations and, if it comes to it, the lawsuit in the Lackawanna County Court of Common Pleas are handled the same regardless of which side of the county line you live on.

Most claims never reach a verdict — they settle once the evidence is in. To win, we have to show that someone owed you a duty of care, breached it, and caused injuries with real, documented costs, and we only have to prove it by a preponderance of the evidence, not beyond a reasonable doubt. What actually decides cases is what happens in the first days: the police report, same-day medical treatment, photographs and witness names. Pennsylvania's comparative negligence rule (42 Pa.C.S. § 7102) reduces a recovery by your share of fault and bars it above 50%, so the insurer's first job is to shift blame onto you. Ours is to stop that.

For most claims, no — Pennsylvania sets no cap on non-economic damages, and a Lackawanna County jury decides the amount from the medical evidence and how the injury changed your life. The exceptions: claims against the City of Scranton, the county or the Commonwealth are capped by the Tort Claims Act, and if you picked 'limited tort' on your own auto policy you can recover pain and suffering only for a 'serious injury' as defined in 75 Pa.C.S. § 1705. We check your policy election in the first conversation.

There is no hourly rate and nothing to pay up front. The fee is a percentage of the recovery, spelled out in a written contingency agreement as Pennsylvania's Rules of Professional Conduct require, and it is owed only if the case settles or wins at trial. If there is no recovery, you owe us no attorney fee.

Most Lackawanna County injury cases are filed in the Court of Common Pleas at the Lackawanna County Courthouse, 200 N Washington Ave, Scranton. Cases with an out-of-state defendant or a federal question can be filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania at the William J. Nealon Federal Building, a block north on the same street. Where the case is filed shapes the timeline, the jury pool and the value, and it is one of the first strategic decisions we make.