“I give my heart and soul for each of my clients, to achieve the best result possible in each and every case.”

– James Heneghan

Attorney James (“Jim”) Heneghan has accomplished many successful verdicts and settlements over his 30 plus years of practicing law. His priority has been making sure his clients receive the best legal representation possible and that they feel personally supported. Over his career, Jim has received the prestigious Client Distinction Award from Martindale-Hubbell. This is an award based on an objective audit of an attorney’s past client reviews and satisfaction.  Martindale-Hubbell is an independent information services company that was founded in 1868. It provides the public with background information on lawyers and law firms in the United States and other countries.  Jim has also just recently been selected by The National Trial Lawyers as one of the “Top 100” plaintiff civil trial attorneys in Pennsylvania. Subsequently, he has continued to be invited to membership as one of the “Top 100” civil plaintiff trial attorneys in Pennsylvania by The National Trial Lawyers and one of the “Top 10” Personal Injury Attorneys of Pennsylvania by The National Academy of Personal Injury Attorneys, Inc. The “Top 100”and “TOP 10” are both an invitation only organization composed of the premier trial lawyers from each state or region who meet stringent qualifications as trial lawyers. Membership is extended only to the select few of the most qualified attorneys from each state or region who demonstrate superior qualifications of leadership, reputation, influence, stature, and public profile.

In addition to the Client Distinction Award from Martindale-Hubbell, The National Trial Lawyers “Top 100″ and The National Academy’s “TOP 10,” Jim is also a member of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum, which is awarded to attorneys who have a verdict or settlement over seven figures ($1,000,000.00). Less than 1 percent of all attorneys in the United States belong to this forum. Jim has achieved both 7 figure settlements and verdicts on many occasions, and has numerous multi-million-dollar results. In fact, he has a personal high result of a $4,100,00.00 resolution in a non-fatal motor vehicle crash. He has almost a dozen 7 figure results for his clients over his career. Some examples include one of his very first cases as Heneghan Law in 2021. There he completed a resolution of a fall down case that resulted in a total settlement for his clients equaling $1,050,000.00 against all defendants. Within the year before he started Heneghan Law, Jim also completed a $3,500,000.00 resolution in a non-fatal trucking crash.  

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.

Professional Honors and Memberships

Verdicts and Settlements as Lead or Co-Counsel

Presentations

Attorney Heneghan has been an invited adjunct professor teaching law courses at Robert Morris University part-time. He has also presented seminars on handling personal injury claims to other attorneys. These seminars were presented on behalf of the National Bar Institute, a national company providing lectures to attorneys and legal personnel across the county.