Michael Reed | Downingtown Criminal Defense Lawyer

• Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers Association | Member | 1988 - Present
  Pennsylvania Association For Justice | Member | 1986 - Present
  Chester County Bar Association | Member | 1978 - Present
  Pennsylvania Bar Association | Member | 1977 - Present
  National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers | Member | 1978 - 2004

• Peer Review Rated | Martindale-Hubbell | 2016

• Farvardin v. Cmnsr Pa State Police et al Practice Area: Civil rights Outcome: Citizen won. We sued three Troopers and the Commissioner of the State Police for assault, arrest on fabricated charges for purposes of cover up, and unconstitutional practices and procedures needing comprehensive repair. Their own IAD reported no cause for concern after inserting its own exonerating narrative into the report. Neither the local prosecutor nor the AG nor the PSP internally made any effort to address the failures by sanction or re-education or even a note in the file. The bloodied face of the 64 year old doctor of engineering on a water resources project in Chester County at 11:00 am who was not suspected of any connection to a crime but was suspected of being a middle eastern person told the story of an innocent person singled out for abuse. This part of it was not within the IAD report which narrated falsely "small cut on nose." See the car cam at "Reed PSP beatdown" King v Jacobs Practice Area: Personal injury Outcome: Citizens won MVA involving 24 year old with his parents' new M3. Reckless speeding around tight curve on country road. Crosses center line as slowly moving oncoming vehicle driven by recently retired couple watches in horror. M3 totals clients' car and sends wife to hospital for five days with impact trauma and broken ribs, all which healed. Com v Tingle Practice Area: Criminal defense Outcome: Not guilty even after remorseful client begged jury to convict him of homicide by vehicle Description: Grieving, remorseful, guilt ridden client, who refused to post even nominal bail, in the middle of trial, screamed "I'm guilty! Just convict me and get this over with." (Homicide by vehicle crossing center line ) Court denied defense motion for mistrial and court refused to accept the plea. Cross examination and evidence revealed that borrowed car had failed inspection and had faulty steering and braking parts. We had no expert testimony on causation. And neither did the prosecution. The jury that heard my client beg for punishment acquitted him. Juries do listen when the Court advises them to "weigh the evidence." Com v Young Practice Area: Criminal defense Outcome: Acquitted after successful appeal gave new trial. Description: We appealed conviction for murder alleging it was error to not instruct jury that first provoker rule for self defense did not apply where killing occurred in the open field car storage area outside the home when defendant was confronting a bold thief. This case presaged "stand your ground" by 20 years. The Pa Supreme Court agreed with us that the homeowner's privilege to shoot first extended to areas outside the home also. New trial ordered. Corrected instruction given. At 2nd trial, the jury took 15 minutes to acquit. Hopkins v Hopkins Practice Area: Constitutional Outcome: Settled after Supreme Court granted our appeal and reversed dismissal of our case and remanded for trial. Description: Wife sued husband for civil assault after Court failed to enforce PFA Orders. Divorce property allocation law would not help her. Her tort case was dismissed on preliminary objections due to law of interspousal immunity which paved our way to the Pa Supreme Court which had been awaiting a test case. This intentional tort case was bundled with a guest passenger MVA case of wife against husband and the Court declared interspousal immunity a violation of the equal access to the courts rule and a violation of equal protection. Orzeck v Orzeck Practice Area: Divorce and separation Outcome: Law of spousal support changed Description: Bahamas marriage one week end. Wife left 6 weeks later. The Court ordered husband to pay wife alimony pendente lite until divorce decree issued which wife swore would take years. Wife prolonged the matter, of course. Superior Court denied the appeal because length of marriage was not then a listed factor among the "special exception" to be evaluated. The equities were horrible but the outcome was in accord with the law as then written. This bad outcome despite the merits of the argument caused the law to change to include length of marriage as a factor shortly after the decision. Martel v AG MD Practice Area: Medical malpractice Outcome: Case settled pre trial. Physician owed duty of care to both the adult partient and his mother Description: The suit by Mom and her afflicted son alleged delayed diagnosis of his brain tumor by false attribution to smoking weed. Physician told mother that the dizziness, projectile vomiting and violent headaches would all go away if he cut his hair and ceased daily tokes. Classic post hoc error. Weed did not cause the nausea and pain; it relieved it. Mom almost had a nervous breakdown from witnessing son's awful suffering and marital estrangement from siding with her son against her husband and doctor together. The men were mired in the absolute certainty possessed most by those absolutely wrong that the kid was a doper and that Mom was an enabling hysteric. Another physician gave correct diagnosis and removed a massive benign brain tumor. Defendant admitted liability and denied massive damages due to salutary outcome for son. The case settled. Mom's suit for her own distress as an innocent afflicted by-stander presented challenging legal issues about whether the scope of a physician's duty to his patient extends also to others close to him as a matter of law. Court denied defense Motion for Summary Judgment on this issue and the case settled before trial. Pitassi v Bryn Mawr Hospital Practice Area: Medical malpractice Outcome: Jury verdict for plaintiff Description: When our client helped transfer her comatose and terminal mother from the hospital transport gurney to her own bed, the stench of the bed sore (decubitis ulcer) hit her first and the site of the massive wound deep to the exposed white bone felled her. Our suit was for harms to both the patient and the patient's daughter. The defense was that the comatose patient never felt pain and that the Hospital owed no duty to a non patient. The issue was the existence and scope of duty owned to close family members. We argued more than bystander liability; we argued that there was a direct duty owed to the only person the hospital ever communicated with and that it breached that duty to her by failing proper care for her mother. We argued there was an implied contract or duty of good care made between daughter and hospital which was not derivative from the duty owed to the mother. We were right. Haase v Thompson Masonry Inc Practice Area: Personal injury Outcome: Verdict for Plaintiff Description: Site manager fell 20 feet through open stair well on construction job site after all other workers left . 5 months later he told us the story. Within two hours we were at the job site to take pictures and spotted the improperly cemented safety harness bolt hole for the safety rope that he leaned against. Blown up photos showed that the crew had slapped mud on the hole to make it look finished and did not thread the bolt in properly. We sued for losses including bilateral hip displacement and fractures. Jury verdict was affirmed post trial

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