As a plaintiff’s personal injury attorney, Jim brings vast experience in handling and/or trying cases throughout Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia. Attorney Heneghan is also admitted to practice law in the Middle and Western Districts of the Federal Courts of Pennsylvania, United States Southern District of Ohio, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. He received his law degree from Duquesne University Law School. Jim had been a senior litigator at Edgar Snyder & Associates for over 11 years, an associate and partner at the firm Feldstein, Grinberg, Stein & McKee for an additional 11 years, and a senior litigator at Bordas & Bordas for three years before starting his own firm. In deciding to open his own firm, Jim wanted to give each of his clients the full personal attention that all clients want and deserve, but do not always get from their attorney.

Some firms do everything they can to obtain all the clients they can. However, those clients become one of the many, many cogs in the wheel necessary for those firms’ financial success. Because of the sheer number of clients with these firms, their clients do not always get the full personal attention of the attorney handling the claim. This is not the case at Heneghan Law. Yet, Heneghan Law has access to the same resources (investigators, research facilities, experts etc.) these other firms have available to them. In addition, Jim follows a mantra, “I give my heart and soul for each of my clients, to achieve the best result possible in each and every case.” He wants to live by that mantra and be able to provide his personal attention to all his clients. The result is this firm, Heneghan Law.  

An example of one of Jim’s cases with the personal touch led to the implementation of “Emergency Pullover” areas that you now see every day in Pennsylvania highway construction zones. The “Emergency Pull” areas were designed to allow vehicles to safely pull off the roadway when needed. This is designed to eliminate an unsafe impediment of the traffic on the roadway. The “Emergency Pullover” areas had not previously existed on Pennsylvania state highways before Jim’s verdicts against Penn DOT and a private construction company.  A car had broken down in a highway construction zone. The driver had nowhere to pull off the road. A horrible crash involving that vehicle and several other cars and a tractor trailer occurred, killing, and severely injuring several people involved in the crash. Jim represented two of the injured people. At trial, Jim proved that “Emergency Pullover” areas were needed in all highway construction zones, including the area of his client’s accident, and it could have prevented the crash involving his clients. Jim was able to get the judge to reconsider the Court’s previous ruling excluding evidence that emergency pullovers were feasible at the time of the crash and may have stopped the crash in question. The Court subsequently admitted the evidence at trial, which was instrumental in Jim receiving a 2 million dollar plus verdict, and ultimately a settlement of the matter. Most importantly, the result paved the way for the “Emergency Pullover” areas you now see all over the highways across Pennsylvania. This safety feature has no doubt saved countless lives across this state. 

Recently, Jim was the counsel involved in a case involving the death of a woman. She fell on a local library’s set of steps while exiting the library. She survived the fall for a few weeks, only to succumb to the head injury she suffered in the fall. Jim alleged the fall was a result of a deterioration of the steps, caused by shoddy workmanship. The library settled the claims against it for the full insurance policy limits. The claims against the contractor involved in the work on the steps continued in litigation. There were conflicting decisions by appellate courts on the duty of contractors for such incidents. The Trial Court followed the opposing law favorable to contractors and dismissed the case against the contractor. Jim filed an appeal to the Commonwealth Court. The Commonwealth Court reversed the Trial Court’s dismissal and found in favor of Jim’s client, the woman’s husband who was representing the woman’s estate. The Contractor filed an appeal to Pennsylvania’s highest court, The Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court. The Supreme Court upheld The Commonwealth Court’s ruling in favor of Jim’s clients and remanded the matter to the trial court for further litigation of the matter. In doing so, the Supreme Court and Jim created new law in Pennsylvania that protects members of the community from injuries caused by contractors and other entities shoddy or negligent work in their activities, including repairs and construction of structures.   

Despite many seven figure verdicts and settlements, Jim lists these two specific cases, and the result of the same for his clients, as two of his most rewarding achievements in his illustrious career. He does so, because not only were his clients in these cases provided with justice in their claims, the results in these two cases will continue to protect the members of this state for many generations to come.