Scranton Attorney Melissa Scartelli Speaks at Dispute Resolution Institute CLE

PRLog (Press Release) - May 10, 2010 - Melissa Scartelli, president and founder of Scartelli, Distasio & Kowalski, P.C., spoke at The Dispute Resolution Institute 12th Annual Personal Injury Potpourri in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., on “Constitutional Torts.” She addressed Civil Rights Litigation and Federal Court matters including medical malpractice claims involving violation of Constitutional Rights.  Scartelli’s firm provides personal injury and criminal defense services in the Scranton and Wilkes-Barre regions of Pennsylvania.

Scartelli has been representing seriously injured plaintiffs in the state and federal courts of Pennsylvania for more than 20 years. She handles a range of complex matters on behalf of accident victims, malpractice victims and other injured individuals and their families. Scartelli’s areas of practice include automobile accidents, auto defects, construction and workplace accidents, defective drugs and medical devices, insurance bad faith, liquor liability, medical malpractice, nursing home negligence, premises liability, product liability, professional liability and psychiatric malpractice.

A native of Scranton, Pa., Scartelli has remained dedicated to representing the people of Northeastern Pennsylvania throughout her career. She firmly believes that products and health care are made safer in the U.S. through legitimate lawsuits that reveal and curtail unsafe products and practices. She takes particular pride in fighting for the rights of elderly or retired clients, who many attorneys decline to represent. Scartelli’s first significant personal injury verdict was a $970,000 award on behalf of a 91-year-old woman who fell from a hospital bed. The verdict remains the largest recorded in Luzerne County on behalf of an elderly patient. She also secured a rare punitive damages award against a school district that had denied retirement benefits to four retired teachers. And in a pro bono matter, her elderly client was awarded $80,000 in back benefits due to the client’s husband’s death at a Veterans Administration hospital 12 years earlier.    

Scartelli is admitted to practice in all of Pennsylvania’s state courts, the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. She is a 1987 graduate of The Dickinson School of Law, where she was captain of the moot court team and received the International Academy of Trial Lawyers “Award for Excellence in Trial Advocacy.” A resident of Dallas, Pa., Melissa enjoys boating, golfing and skiing. Her husband, attorney Peter Paul Olszewski, Jr., is also a shareholder with the firm.

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About Scartelli, Distasio & Kowalski, P.C.: Scartelli, Distasio & Kowalski, P.C. was founded in 2001. The firm handles a range of complex matters on behalf of accident victims, malpractice victims and other injured individuals and their families. The firm also represents criminal defendants. Practice areas include automobile accidents, auto defects, construction and workplace accidents, criminal defense, defective drugs and medical devices, insurance bad faith, liquor liability, medical malpractice, nursing home negligence, premises liability, product liability, professional liability and psychiatric malpractice. Scartelli, Distasio & Kowalski is small enough to care yet large enough to win for their clients in the Scranton and Wilkes-Barre, Pa., region. To learn more about the firm, visit http://www.sdklaw.com.

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