Gary H. Kaplan
5th Floor
Wilmington, DE 19801
With more than 30 years of practicing law, Gary has developed extensive experience in several areas of civil litigation. He has successfully defended clients in areas of premises liability, medical liability, mold and asbestos litigation, motor vehicle liability, eminent domain, as well as civil rights. Over the course of his career, he has handled thousands of toxic tort matters, hundreds of personal injury (non-toxic tort) matters, and numerous real estate tax appeals. In addition to the hundreds of asbestos cases, trials, and arbitrations with which he has been involved since 1979, Gary has taken approximately 50 cases to trial before juries. His commercial clients have included manufacturers of asbestos containing products, construction companies, commercial businesses, and owners of vehicles in personal injury matters.
Throughout Gary's career, he has routinely used experts in the fields of medicine, vocational rehabilitation, construction, accident reconstruction, and hydraulic engineering. He has been successful in negotiating settlements in a multitude of cases based on the testimony of these experts.
Gary has served as counsel to the Board of Revision of Taxes of Philadelphia, counsel to the Zoning Board of Adjustment of Philadelphia, had been a shareholder at Goldfein and Joseph and was the firm's resident shareholder responsible for its office in Wilmington, Delaware, from 1991 to 2007.
He graduated cum laude from Albright College in 1976, at which time he was admitted in Omicron Delta Epsilon, an International Honor Society in Economics. He attended Hebrew University Mount Scopus Campus in 1977 and graduated from Temple University School of Law in 1979.
Outside of his practice, Gary is active in the preparation and distribution of foodstuffs to the impoverished through the Jewish Relief Agency.
Significant Representative Matters
Successful resolution of a personal injury claim involving an illegal immigrant falling from the rooftop of a house while installing siding and rendering him a paraplegic in which the alleged damages sought were in excess of $3 million.
Successful resolution of a personal injury lawsuit brought by a cardiac surgeon seeking over $2 million in damages for permanent injuries to his hand which allegedly prevented him from performing surgical procedures necessitating a career change.
Jury defense verdict against a plaintiff who claimed he was the innocent victim of a hit-and-run accident resulting in a claim for in excess of $50,000 in boardable damages.
Arranged for the buy back of a plaintiff purchaser's allegedly mold-infested house on terms very favorable to the defendant seller and thereby preventing the existence of publicity which might have damaged the marketability of defendant's other properties.
Received a defense verdict representing the manufacturer and retailer of an allegedly defective mop. Plaintiffs, a mother and her eleven-year-old daughter, contended that the thumb of the plaintiff minor's dominant hand was severed at the first knuckle due to the allegedly defective design of the mop. Although plaintiff minor's thumb was severed at the first knuckle and the plaintiff minor had an abdominal scar as a result of the insertion of the remainder of the thumb into an abdominal flap for two weeks to facilitate healing, the jury was not moved by the emotional presentation of the plaintiff minor and found that the defendants' mop was not defectively designed.
Areas of Practice
Education
Temple University School of Law, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1979 J.D.
Albright College, 1976 B.A.
Honors: International Honor Society in Economics
Classes/Seminars Taught
Overview of Delaware Law PIP and UM Coverage in Delaware Landowner Liability in Delaware
Past Employment Positions
Goldfein & Joseph
City Solicitor's Office, City of Philadelphia
Cohen, Shapiro, Polisher, Sheikman and Cohen
Areas of Practice
Education
- Albright College (B.A., cum laude, 1976)
- Temple University School of Law (J.D., 1979)
Bar Admissions
- Pennsylvania, 1979
- U.S District Court Eastern District of Pennsylvania, 1983
- U.S. Court of Appeals 3rd Circuit, 1986
- Delaware, 1991
- District Court District of Delaware, 1991
Associations & Memberships
- Pennsylvania Bar Association
- Delaware Bar Association