“I found that there is almost no greater pleasure than helping a severely injured person or the family of someone killed by the negligence of others obtain vindication and compensation from the person or company that caused their harm. It not only makes you feel like you have righted a serious wrong, but have helped another person over a very difficult time in their life.”
Lifelong Philadelphia Resident
Stephen is a lifelong Philadelphia-area resident, whose experience attending Catholic parochial schools St. Bernard Parish School and Father Judge High School firmly established his moral outlook. He has been selected for inclusion in Pennsylvania Super Lawyers® since 2014.
Accomplished Legal Background
Stephen earned his law degree from Temple University Law school in 1985. After graduation, he served a one-year clerkship for the Honorable Leonard Sugarman, President Judge of the Chester County Court of Common Pleas. He joined Anapol Weiss in 1986 and has been working as an attorney on behalf of seriously injured victims of tortious conduct since that time.
Notable Verdicts and Settlements:
- $9 million verdict in a breech birth medical malpractice case
- $4 million verdict for a mother and child permanently injured as a result of their obstetrician’s negligence during labor and delivery
- $3.5 million for a client with nerve damage from a post-operative injection
- $4.25 million settlement for a women who suffered severe neurological injuries due to a hospital’s failure to timely treat the signs and symptoms of a stroke
- $2.5 million settlement for a child born with neurological injuries because the attending obstetrician canceled an emergency C-section
- $2 million settlement for a ten month old child who suffered destruction of her right eye global and blindness due to negligence in connection with lazy eye surgery
- $1.4 million settlement for a 63 year old husband and father who died because the attending physician failed to diagnose and treat a dissecting aortic aneurysm
- $1.1 million verdict in a rhabdomyolysis misdiagnosis case
- $1 million recovered for the death of a 42 year old as a result of a physician improperly prescribing methadone to treat his chronic pain
In addition to his successes as a medical malpractice attorney, Stephen focuses his practice on personal injury matters and has also secured substantial verdicts in motor-vehicle accidents, highway design and product liability cases.
Stephen is a member of the Pennsylvania Bar Association, as well as the American, Pennsylvania and Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Associations. He is admitted to practice in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and before the United States Supreme Court. He has written articles for legal publications and has lectured for the Pennsylvania and Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Associations concerning medical negligence issues.
Mr. Pokiniewski has handled a number of cases involving managed-care health issues, including representing clients in landmark cases involving ERISA preemption and the ability to sue health maintenance organizations (HMOs) when their healthcare decisions result in injury.