Mininno Law Office Merges with Messa & Associates

Messa & Associates, P.C.

Mininno Law Office Merges with Messa & Associates

PHILADELPHIA (January 14, 2012): Center City based law firm Messa & Associates, P.C. has merged with Mininno Law Office effective immediately, the two firms have announced. The firm will continue under the name Messa & Associates, P.C. with John Mininno, Esq. joining as Counsel to the firm.

Joseph L. Messa, Jr., founding partner of Messa & Associates, said: “We are pleased to welcome John and join our resources in order to provide our personal injury clients with an even better experience as they cope with devastating, life-changing injuries and losses. John’s reputation, trial skills and dedication to clients are well known in New Jersey and we look forward to joining with John to serve this community.”

The firm will continue to focus on catastrophic injury cases, including workplace injuries, products liability cases, construction injuries, failure to diagnose matters, birth injuries, brain injuries, and motor vehicle accidents. Mr. Mininno’s Collingswood, N. J. office will remain open to serve clients in the South Jersey area. As a New Jersey Certified Civil Trial attorney, John and the firm will continue to accept referrals of these catastrophic cases from law firms throughout New Jersey who are then permitted to receive a referral fee upon a successful recovery.

In addition to the Collingswood office, Messa & Associates will continue to maintain its other office locations throughout Pennsylvania and New Jersey in Northwest Philadelphia; Conshohocken, Pa.; Downingtown, Pa.; Cherry Hill, N.J. and Linwood, N.J.

About Messa & Associates, P.C.

Messa & Associates P.C., represents individuals and their families in complex personal injury matters, including catastrophic injury, medical malpractice, products liability, motor vehicle accidents, fires and explosions. Our attorneys serve Pennsylvania clients throughout the state, including in Philadelphia and other surrounding communities in Montgomery County, Chester County, Delaware County, and Bucks County. Messa & Associates are also proud to serve New Jersey clients throughout that state, and also litigate selected cases throughout the country.

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We Have A Winner!

Before announcing the winner, the members of The Mininno Law Firm would like to officially thank and congratulate all five participants: Scott Bass, Jessica Dochney, Leyla Wirtz, Albertine Shain, and Nia Holsten. You should be very proud of yourselves and the essays you presented for the contest. You should also thank your friends and family for the support they gave each of you. There were thousands of votes that were logged.
At first, Scott Bass’s and Leyla Renee Wirtz’s contingents made them both very strong and early favorites. Then as the voting went along, while the others were receiving consistent votes, the Bass Team was outdoing them but a wide margin. Just when it appeared that it would be a Bass Team vote landslide, Jessica Dochney entered the contest and received tremendous early and strong voter support, as did Leyla Renee Wirtz.

While everyone continued to receive consistent support, just a few weeks ago, it looked like a three person race with the Bass Team leading, the Wirtz Team second and Team Dochney a bit behind in third. That’s when the “Albertine L. Shain rally” began.
As late as two weeks ago, Shain’s vote was just 7.7% of the totals – that’s when the entire dynamic of the contest changed. Since that time, Team Shain continued to show late and overwhelming support, which dramatically altered the results of the popular vote.

The final popular vote was much closer than it had been during the entire contest. Because the popular vote was so close, the judging the final essays on a comparative basis became even more important. This judging was the hard part. I heard discussions between the judges about voice, style, grammar, a concise and clear argument, staying on topic, enthusiasm and overall presentation of subject knowledge.
The judges debated these ranking and ratings for several hours and then presented me with their own ranking results. I then tallied up the percentage rank from the popular vote and the percentage rank from the judge’s vote and added the two percentages together… The results were within a few percentage points of each other… but Albertine Shain is our winner!

Congratulations to Albertine Shain!

To the others, your essays were all well written and showed an advanced knowledge of our justice system. I really enjoyed reading them, your friends and families’ comments and seeing the great support each of you received. Believe me, the contest was “THE HOT TOPIC” of discussion among us here at the Mininno Law Office this last month. You all worked very hard and it showed. My only regret is that there could be only one winner.
Thank you to all of the participants and good luck in future endeavors. I will be happy to write a letter of reference for any of you if you ever need one. Please let me know if you would like any confidential feedback from our judges on your essays. We may run another contest in the fall, so please keep checking back.

Essay Contest – Win a $500 scholarship!

The Mininno Law Office has sponsored an essay contest this year for 20 area high schools.
The topic: “Why Plaintiff’s Trial Lawyers are Good for Society.” The winning entrant will receive a $500 scholarship courtesy of John Mininno, Esq.

We’ve received five intelligent, thought provoking, well-written essays. Now we need your help! Our judges are having trouble determining a winner. In order to assist them, we’d like you to tell us which essay is your favorite, and WHY! Perhaps one of our participants has an idea that you agree with? Perhaps one of our participants taught you something in their essay that you did not know?

Voting and commenting can continue until midnight April 30th. We appreciate your help, and to all of the participants, good luck!

Our entrants:

Scott Bass – West Deptford High School
Leyla Renee Wirtz – Bordentown Regional High School
Nia Holston – Timber Creek Regional High School
Jessica Dochney – Haddon Township High School
Albertine L. Shain – Bordentown Regional High School

Baby Einstein Scam:Not a Good Teaching Substitute

We have all heard the “Baby Einstein” commercials and seen the colorful, bright characters. We also have all heard and seen these videos promise that it will make our toddlers and children brighter, smarter, and help them learn faster. It turns out this is not true and this is just turning out to be a “Baby Einstein” scam. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics children under two should stay away from the television. According to a study from the Campaign from Commercial-Free Childhood, there is a link between early television watching and problems with a child’s attention span later in life. These videos promised that our children would learn more, be brighter, and smarter later in life, not have attention and other school related problems, clearly Baby Einstein is a scam. This has led to Disney offering a refund to parents that bought Baby Einstein videos and other baby Einstein products and “teaching substitutes”.

Clearly, this baby Einstein scam has become a wakeup call for many parents who have yet again realized that television and other technology products are not always a good teaching substitute and parents should always supervise their children and help them as they learn and grow to be an active part of their learning process. Yes, the Baby Einstein scam is bad and should not have happened especially since it affects children and their education now and in the future, but maybe this will again reinforce that these products as well as others are never good parenting or teaching substitutes and parents still need to look out for their children’s education and their needs. A child’s education is very important and should not just be looked over by having them watch Baby Einstein videos or other products. Children’s education should also include active learning with both the child and the parent.

For more information on the baby Einstein scam and other children’s educational products, you may visit: http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/parenting/the-great-baby-einstein-scam-531147/

If you feel that you and your child have been mistreated because of improper warning labels due to the baby Einstein scam, you should contact a defective product attorney right away. They will help you advocate for your rights and those of your child.

New Malpractice Idea: Will it Help or Hurt Patients?

President Barrack Obama is willing to consider alternatives to medical malpractice lawsuits by replacing them with such alternatives like appointing neutral experts for both political parties to look at medical appeals and allegations. The goal for this new idea seems to be to address medical liability and to cut malpractice insurance premiums for doctors. Okay, maybe it is a long process to go through a jury trial with a lawyer but weren’t the courts and justice system created for just that purpose to bring justice to the party that has the injury or suffered from medical malpractice. It seems to be that this new idea is only favoring doctors who are afraid of being sued later. All trial lawyers are trying to do is see that their clients, who are former patients of these doctors received the proper care possible. Once again this new idea seems to be in favor of only saving money and not actually helping the patients who need proper medical care. If so many doctors worried less about how much money everything was costing and focused more on proper medical care for all their patients then they would not have to worry about medical malpractice lawsuits. If though however, a medical error or problem does occur then in this country by law that person or patient is entitled to a trial and entitled to justice being done for them and their families. This new idea seems to be taking away trial rights in favor of saving money for doctors and insurance. People should continue to come first; money needs to stop doing all the talking.

For additional information on this new malpractice idea and the health care debate, you may visit this link

If you or a loved one has suffered due to a medical error, please contact a medical malpractice attorney right away. They will help make sure your case is heard and you get the medical care you deserve.

Medicare Fraud? Tips on How You Can Tell

Medicare and Medicaid services were created to help the elderly and or those with disabilities or certain other medical conditions be able to better afford medical coverage in order to pay for supplies, medical care, treatments, doctor’s visits and much more. This all seems like a good idea if it works the way it should and benefits those it is suppose to. Unfortunately though, there have been more and more cases of Medicare and Medicaid fraud and people are getting sneaky about how they get around the rules. Billing Medicare for services that were not received or provided can cost taxpayers millions of dollars each year and it also hurts those people that really need the medical care and services by causing them to pay more. To help avoid being a victim of Medicare Fraud use the following helpful detection tips. These tips include:

Be suspicious if a test is free and if a provider only needs your Medicare information for their records.
Be aware if Medicare wants you to have a certain item or service.
Be cautious if the provider knows how to get Medicare to pay for an item or service
Be on the look out for provider that offer many tests at cheaper or discounted prices
Be careful if the equipment or service is free or you are offered a gift for the service

It is also important to know what services and equipment or medical supplies you are entitled to and report or question anything that seems out of the ordinary. As a general rule do not give out your Medicare health insurance claim number expect to your doctor or Medicare provider.

It is unfortunate that many people will try to scam those in need out of services and medical supplies for their own personal gain. It is good to know though that you can do something to help stop cases of fraud.

For additional information on Medicare fraud and prevention, you may visit:

http://www.medicare.gov/Fraudabuse/Tips.asp

If you or a loved one feel you have been a victim of Medicare fraud, please contact a whistleblower attorney right away. They can help your case to be heard and make sure you get the care you deserve.

New Health Legislation may not provide Coverage for Everyone

The health legislation concerns still keep going and going. The Democrats have celebrated that the bill created in the Senate Finance Committee would not increase the deficit, but it may not actually provide coverage for every American as previously promised. Yes, the bill will cover the expensive and possibility the sickest patients, but it will pose an insurance risk to other people by making them pay even more in health care coverage. This will lead to people once again not being able to afford coverage and then again having not everyone receiving health insurance coverage. The health care reform was supposed to provide health care coverage for as many if not all Americans. This does not seem to be the case since health insurance will increase their costs for those with insurance making those with insurance unable to afford it. This means less injuries and health problems for those that are covered by the new health care reform and unaffordable insurance and more injuries and problems for people that already had health insurance. This seems like the bill will not actually be able to deliver what was once promised. Patients and proper health care should come first, but yet again, money and profits are still being put first. When will our system get up to speed to places like Europe where if you have an ehic card, that’s probably all you are going to need for coverage. We need to make sure that not only is every American able to afford coverage but that this coverage will provide proper medical care and less malpractice and injuries for patients.

For more information on the new health reform debate, you may visit: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/08/AR2009100801732.html

If you or someone you love feels like you have not received proper medical care, please contact a malpractice lawyer right away. They will help you advocate for your rights to receive proper medical care.

September 11, 2001 Friend Remembered

Today is September 11, 2009. The United States will never forget this day. In West Chester, Pennsylvania, not far from where I went to College at West Chester University, there will be a special gathering. For the second straight year, people will gather to honor Mike Horrocks, a friend, Marine, United Airlines colleague and football teammate. Mike was a person of principle and integrity whose life ended too soon on September 11, 2001. Many of us from West Chester remember Mike as a tremendous athlete, competitor and leader from his playing days at West Chester from 1981 to 1984 when he was our quarterback. Mike’s leadership and sheer determination was the catalyst leading to one of the biggest upsets wins in West Chester football history – the 1983 upset over the heavily favored Delaware Blue Hens in Mike’s first career start.Each year thousands of students, athletes and faculty attend various events at West Chester University. However there is presently an absence of anything tangible at West Chester to connect those people with Mike’s story and its tragic ending on 9/11/2001. Sadly, with the passing of time, it will only be a few short years until Mike’s name and the legacy of those he represents is completely forgotten at West Chester.

To ensure that Mike’s name and legacy are never forgotten at West Chester University, we have conducted fundraise the last two 9/11 anniversaries. We plan to construct a permanent memorial and establish a perpetual scholarship in Mike’s honor at West Chester University.

This memorial and scholarship will serve many purposes – but two come quickly to mind:

1) To the thousands who will attend events at West Chester in the coming years and decades to come, it will serve as an important reminder of the senseless loss of Mike and nearly 3,000 others who tragically died on 9/11/2001; and

2) For those of us who knew Mike as a teammate, friend, Marine and colleague, it will be a place for us and our families to come and remember him and the short time we spent with him in our lives.

We have had tremendous suppport for this memorial. But, we are still short of our fundraising goal.

All generous donations will make certain we “Never Forget.” Information regarding donations is available at tonight’s donation tables. Make Donation checks Payable to “Mike Horrocks Scholarship Endowment” and return to the donation table or mail to:

West Chester University Athletics

Sturzebecker, HSC

West Chester, PA 19383

Credit card donations may also be made by calling 610 436-2557. Donations may be made in a single installment or in equal monthly installments charged to credit card.

Donations will be received by a 501(c)3 organization and earmarked for a special fund in honor of Mike Horrocks and will be tax deductible.

For additional Information call 610-436-2557.

For additional information on Mike Horrocks and the statue, you may visit:

This link.

No Such thing as a "nice bike ride in the park," with Dangerous Bike Chain

On Tuesday September 8^th 2009, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and SRAM of Chicago, IL recalled defective bicycle chains and chain connectors because they can crack while in use and cause a fall hazard to the rider of the defective bicycle. One incident has been reported in the U.S. and three incidents outside of the U.S. with these Powerlock connector links, but no injuries have been reported. The recall is specifically on defective SRAM PowerLock connector links on 10 speed bicycle chains sold individually and on some bicycles as part of the original equipment.

If you may have one of these defective chains, play it safe and stop riding your bike and contact SRAM for a free replacement PowerLock connector link.

If you feel that you may have been injured or your rights have not been protected due to this defective consumer product, contact a defective product attorney right away. They can help you get your voice heard and make sure your rights as a consumer are protected.

For additional information concerning this product you may visit the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and the SRAM website at: http://www. sram.com.

New Jersey’s Medicare Project

According to the Star Ledger as reported on August 18, 2009, there has been a difference in the amount of money that doctors receive when treating Medicare patients and what hospitals receive. Hospitals only receive a large amount of money, while doctors receive money based on the services they provide to Medicare patients. Some New Jersey hospitals have decided to try and change this by having doctors and hospitals share the profits received. They are hoping this will cut costs by cutting patient stays, lowering rates and improving discharge plans. They are hoping that by saving these costs, hospitals and doctors can work together to help improve medical care for Medicare patients due to sharing financial incentives. Medicare services are significantly more in New Jersey, then the payments that hospitals actually receive. There are currently twelve New Jersey Hospitals participating in this “Medicare Project.”

For additional information on this “Medicare Project” and hospitals involved you may go to:

This link.