Why lawyers seek to try cases in Philly, even when the plaintiffs aren’t from here

Late afternoon on March 24, 2023, a powerful explosion tore through the R.M. Palmer Co. factory in West Reading, Berks County, sending columns of black smoke into the sky.

The explosion killed seven people, injured 10, displaced three families, and caused $42 million in damages. The National Transportation Safety Board concluded the “probable cause” was a natural gas leak from a degraded plastic pipe. The gas leaked into the factory, famous for producing hollow chocolate Easter Bunnies, where it was ignited by an unknown source.

Victims, family members, and the factory’s neighbors in the 4,500-resident borough have filed 27 lawsuits against R.M. Palmer, UGI Utilities, and DuPont.

» READ MORE: NTSB issues final report on 2023 explosion at West Reading chocolate factory that killed 7 workers

West Reading is 65 miles northwest of Philadelphia, but the lawsuits were filed in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas. And following a two-yearlong, contentious legal battle, a judge ruled this month that the cases will remain in Philly.

None of the people who filed the lawsuits are from Philadelphia, and the sued businesses aren’t headquartered in the city.

The fight demonstrates that venue, the court in which a case is litigated, is extremely important to attorneys on both sides.

And indicators suggest plaintiff attorneys want to litigate in Philadelphia. After the Pennsylvania Supreme Court scrapped a rule that limited medical malpractice filings to the county where the alleged malpractice took place, the number of such lawsuits filed in Philadelphia surged from 275 in 2022 to 616 in 2024.

Plaintiff attorneys say that they want to litigate in Philadelphia because of the court’s efficiency, while defense attorneys believe the true motivation is an increased chance for a large verdict.

Philadelphia, a city plastered with personal-injury attorney advertising, has developed a reputation for large verdicts — at times for out-of-county plaintiffs.

In January 2024, a Philadelphia jury handed down a $2.2 billion verdict against agricultural giant Monsanto for claims that the company’s weedkiller, Roundup, caused cancer in a Lycoming County man. (The verdict was reduced to $400 million in appeal.) In October 2023, another local jury hit Mitsubishi with a nearly $1 billion verdict in favor of a New Hope man who was left quadriplegic after a car crash.

Philadelphia juries handed down 12 verdicts larger than $10 million in 2024. These so-called “nuclear verdicts” earned the Philadelphia court the top spot on the “judicial hellholes” list of the American Tort Reform Foundation, a group tied to an association that advocates for reform of civil litigation and represents business interests.

But the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas is also an outlier in resolving cases quickly.

» READ MORE: Why there are so many billboards for personal-injury lawyers in the Philly area

Only 9% of cases making it through the Philadelphia court, before any appeals to higher courts, are older than two years, according to data from the court. Statewide, the figure stands at 20%. And cases that are older than five years are extremely rare — less than 1% — while they represent 5% of cases statewide.

None of the 10 largest counties in Pennsylvania has fewer old cases in its Court of Common Pleas.

“Defendants’ ability to delay justice for plaintiffs in such a horrific tragedy such as this is extremely limited and extremely frowned upon in Philadelphia County,” said Andrew Duffy, a Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky attorney representing some explosion victims.

Some defense attorneys don’t buy the efficiency explanation.

“The data shows that filing a case in Philadelphia county, as opposed to another county, provides the plaintiffs with a proverbial lottery ticket, because by filing here you have an exponentially higher chance of an outsize verdict,” said Casey Coyle, a Harrisburg attorney with Babst Calland.

The first order of business for UGI and R.M. Palmer in the chocolate factory lawsuits was to try to transfer them to Berks County.

The companies first argued in court filings that they don’t conduct enough business in Philadelphia.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court held in 2023 that if a company conducts even a relatively small amount of its overall business in a county, it is a proper venue.

Attorneys for the victims submitted records showing that UGI, for example, reported more than $100 million in revenue from Philadelphia in the past five years.

In September, Common Pleas Judge Gwendolyn Bright let the cases stay in Philadelphia.

The companies then argued Philadelphia would be inconvenient for witnesses.

R.M. Palmer argued in court filings that “dozens of likely trial witnesses” who live in West Reading would be burdened if the case remained in Philly.

“Their families, their jobs, their civic obligations, and even their health will suffer if they are required to travel to Philadelphia to testify in this matter,” R.M. Palmer said in a memo to the court.

UGI noted it would make it difficult for a Philadelphia jury to visit the site of the explosion if the court deems that necessary.

“Significantly, the distance from the Berks County Courthouse to the R.M. Palmer Factory is only 1.3 miles and a 7-minute drive,” UGI said in filings.

Attorneys for UGI and R.M. Palmer did not respond to requests for comment.

Attorneys for the victims said in court filings that UGI and R.M. Palmer are “grossly exaggerating the impact of an hour-and-15-minute trip to Philadelphia.”

Earlier this month, Bright denied the requests and kept the lawsuits in Philly.

There is no data on overall denials of motions to transfer cases, but the court does keep track of medical malpractice cases that were transferred to other counties. Last year, fewer than 30 cases were transferred.

The process through which the venue fight took place is another example of the Philadelphia court’s ability to handle complex cases, Duffy said.

Philadelphia consolidated the factory cases under Bright for issues that impact all the lawsuits, such as venue and rules of discovery. The judge holds monthly status conferences where all parties get updates on where things stand.

“You do not get that in other counties,” Duffy said.