Introducing Peter H. Weinberger ...
Peter H. Weinberger was voted by Best Lawyers in America® as Best Lawyers, Lawyer of the Year in Personal Injury Litigation – Plaintiffs for 2013 and as Lawyer of the Year in Medical Malpractice Law – Plaintiffs in 2012. He has been voted among the Best Lawyers in America® since 2007. This listing has been called the most respected peer-review publication in the legal profession and is a guide to legal excellence in the United States.
BIOGRAPHY
Peter H. Weinberger was voted by Best Lawyers in America® as Best Lawyers, Lawyer of the Year in Personal Injury Litigation – Plaintiffs for 2013 and as Lawyer of the Year in Medical Malpractice Law – Plaintiffs in 2012. He has been voted among the Best Lawyers in America® since 2007. This listing has been called the most respected peer-review publication in the legal profession and is a guide to legal excellence in the United States.
He has been recognized as a Local Litigation Star – Plaintiff in the 2015 edition of Benchmark Litigation, a publication focusing on leading trial attorneys and firms in the United States. This was the third consecutive year that Mr. Weinberger was been selected as a Local Litigation Star by Benchmark Litigation. The publication’s rankings are the result of extensive interviews with private practice lawyers and in-house counsel. The guide's "local litigation stars" reflect lawyers who are recommended by peers and clients to have established consistent reputations as trial attorneys.
Peter H. Weinberger also has been selected by The National Trial Lawyers Association (a professional, educational, and business organization of trial attorneys) as one of the Top 100 Trial Lawyers in Ohio. Selection for this association is extended to civil plaintiff attorneys by special invitation. Candidates are considered for membership based on superior qualifications, leadership, reputation, influence, stature, and profile in the Trial Lawyer community. Mr. Weinberger has also been consistently selected as a “Super Lawyer” on Ohio Super Lawyers magazine’s list, including being placed in the Top 100 Ohio and Top 50 Cleveland lists for 2013. Peter's votes are each year among the highest received in the Super Lawyers nomination process. In 2012, he was voted as one of the top 10 Super Lawyers in the State of Ohio.
Peter H. Weinberger is managing partner of the law firm. He has successfully handled a wide variety of complex injury and wrongful death cases caused by medical malpractice, defective products, and motor vehicle accidents. In the medical malpractice field, he has tried and settled cases that have involved failures to timely diagnose diseases, failed surgeries, and birth injuries. In the field of defective products, he has concluded cases involving industrial plant explosions, defective insulation products, dangerous drugs and defective machinery. Some of the complex motor vehicle accidents have included collisions involving overloaded trucks, tractor-trailer collisions, and railroad crossing cases. Peter is experienced in counseling clients who have suffered catastrophic injuries requiring lifetime medical care and in evaluating and presenting the economic and non-economic losses associated with a wrongful death.
Peter has been honored by a number of professional groups. He is a Fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers, a Fellow in the International Society of Barristers, an advocate of the American Board of Trial Advocates, a sustaining member of the American Association for Justice, and has received distinguished service awards from the Cleveland Academy of Trial Attorneys and the Cuyahoga County Bar Association. He is a past president of the Cuyahoga County Bar Association and the Cleveland Academy of Trial Attorneys. He has lectured extensively on all aspects of personal injury cases and trial practice.
Of note is Peter's involvement in a number of cases that have impacted the personal injury law in the state of Ohio. Among his most important cases is the case of Galayda v. Lake Hospital Systems, which struck down as unconstitutional a provision of the 1987 Tort Reform Law which attempted to set a limit on personal injury damages. He recently tried a malpractice case where in post-trial proceedings, the trial judge ruled that the legislation passed in 2003 which established caps on pain and suffering damages was unconstitutional, and the legislation passed in 2004 which established caps on punitive damages was also unconstitutional.
In 2003 and 2004, as Legislative Chair of the Ohio Association for Justice, formerly the Ohio Academy of Trial Lawyers, he led the fight against tort reform in the Ohio Legislature. For his efforts, he received the president's award from the Ohio Association for Justice and the Spangenberg Award (named in honor of the founding partner of this law firm) from the Cleveland Academy of Trial Attorneys.
Peter currently holds a position as a Chairman of the leadership council of the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center. He also is an advisory member of the Law Medicine Institute of CWRU Law School. He is a past president of the First Unitarian Church of Cleveland, and a past president of Chagrin Valley Country Club.
OUTSIDE THE COURTROOM
Pete and wife, Laurie, have been married for nearly 40 years and have two children, Kelly and Adam. Pete has served in many leadership roles in professional and charitable organizations. He has been president of two local bar associations, president of the First Unitarian Church of Cleveland, and president of Chagrin Valley Country Club. Pete serves as chairman of the leadership council of the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center.
CURRICULUM VITAE
EMPLOYMENT
Spangenberg Shibley & Liber LLP
Managing Partner
EDUCATION
1975 Case Western Reserve University School of Law (J.D.)
1972 Syracuse University (A.B. Psychology)
1968 Orange High School
ADMITTED TO
1975 Ohio Supreme Court
1975 U.S. District Court, Northern District of Ohio
1975 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals
1986 4th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals
1995 Pennsylvania Supreme Court
1995 United States Supreme Court
LEADERSHIP POSITIONS - BAR ACTIVITIES
Member, Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association Blue Ribbon Panel to select officers and board members, 2008
Transition Team Member for Governor-Elect Ted Strickland, December, 2006
Commission on Rules of Practice and Procedures, Ohio Supreme Court, 2004 – 2010; Chairman Civil Rules Committee, 2009
Jury Instruction Committee, Ohio State Bar Association, 2003 – 2004
Member, Trial Lawyers Care (providing pro bono representation of September 11 Victims Compensation Fund), 2002-2004
President, Cuyahoga Bar Foundation, 1999 – 2001, Trustee, 1993 - 2003
Trustee, Ohio Academy of Trial Lawyers, 1999 – 2003
Legislative Chair, 2003 - 2005
Trustee, Legal Aid Society of Cleveland, 1998 - 2000
Co-Chairman, Cuyahoga Bar Association Holiday No Dinner Dance for the benefit of the Hungry, 1995 - 1998
Advisory Committee, Law-Medicine Center of CWRU Law School, 1994 - present
Member, Cleveland Bar Association Judicial Election Monitoring Committee, 1996 - 2001, Chairman, 1997 - 2001
Member, The Supreme Court Committee on Courthouse Security, 1993 - 1999
Member, Editorial Board for "Deposing and Examining Personal Injury Experts," James Publishing Corporation, 1995 - 1998
Member, The Committee For More Effective Judicial Elections, A Project of the Ohio Metropolitan Bar Leaders, 1992
President, Cuyahoga County Bar Association, 1991-1992
Charter member - Council - Litigation Section, Cleveland Bar Association, 1987-1990
Charter member - 8th District Judicial Conference
(member, AdHoc Committee on Formation of conference)
(member, Commission on Pre-trials)
(co-chairman, Commission on Personal Injury Litigation)
(member, Life Member Committee)
President, Cleveland Academy of Trial Attorneys, 1985 - 1986
Chairman, Grievance Committee, Cuyahoga County Bar Association, 1984 - 1986
Chairman, Young Lawyers Section, Cleveland Bar Association, 1980 - 1981
Law Day Chairman, Cleveland Bar Association, 1978
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS
Fellow, American College of Trial Lawyers
Fellow, International Society of Barristers
American Board of Trial Advocates - advocate member
Cleveland Academy of Trial Attorneys
Ohio Association For Justice (formerly, the Ohio Academy of Trial Lawyers)
American Association for Justice (formerly ATLA) - sustaining member
Ohio State Bar Association
Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association
American Trial Lawyers Association – Top 100 Lawyers
Million Dollar Advocate Forum
LECTURES, APPEARANCES AND ARTICLES
Lecturer, The Don Keenan Reptile Superstars Seminar - The theory of Primacy and Recency and Reptile approaches to final argument, May, 2014
Lecturer, Personal Injury Law Update, 2009, 2010, Federal Bar Association, Northern District of Ohio Section
Lecturer, Lake County Bar Association, "Medical Malpractice – The Winds of Change" June, 2008
Seminar Participant, plaintiff's closing argument, Masters in Trial Demonstration, ABOTA, September 2007
Debate Participant, The City Club of Cleveland, "Was Malpractice Tort Reform Effective", August 2007
Testimony before the Ohio House Judiciary Committee and the Senate Judiciary Committee Opposing changes to the Ohio Insurance Guaranty Act, May, 2006
Speaker – Cleveland Bar Association Health Care Institute – Medical Malpractice Tort Reform, April, 2005
Invited Panelist – Cleveland Workout Group – Seminar on Medical Malpractice Tort Reform, November, 2004
Testimony before the Ohio House Judiciary Committee on Constitutional Issues Arising from Proposed SB 80, July, 2004
Testimony before the Ohio Medical Malpractice Insurance Commission, May, 2004
Author, "S.B. 179: Immunizing Hospitals from Liability for Negligent Credentialing" published In Ohio Trial, Volume 14, Issue 1 (Spring, 2004)
Grand Rounds Presentation at the Medical College of Wisconsin, "A Medical Legal Case involving the failure to Diagnose Primary Hyperoxaluria", March, 2004
Testimony opposing Tort Reform (SB 80) before the Ohio House Judiciary Committee, March, 2004
Testimony opposing Tort Reform before Ohio Senate Commerce Committee, June, 2003
Panelist Speaker, The Future of Personal Injury Practice in the 21st Century, Eighth Judicial Conference, October, 2001
Invited Speaker, Medical Malpractice Presentation, Northern Ohio Association for Healthcare Quality, April, 2000
Invited Speaker, Trial Superstars, Cross Examination of Medical Experts, Cleveland Bar Association, 1997
Lecturer, Preparation, Selection and Examination of Expert Witnesses, Ohio CLE 1997
Lecturer, Ohio Tort Reform - Medical Malpractice, OCLE, 1996 and 1997
Lecturer, Medical Malpractice - Advanced Issues, OCLE, June, 1996
Lecturer, Litigation from the Plaintiff's Perspective, OCLE, 1995, 1996
Instructor, Developing Deposition Skills, National Institute of Trial Advocacy, January, 1994, March, 1996, March, 1998
Fourteenth Annual Law Review Symposium "Litigation 1990," The Ohio Northern University Lecturer - The Cuyahoga Bar Association - Ethics Seminar 1990, Tort Reform 1990, Cross-Examination of Experts, November 1990
Lecturer - Professional Educational Systems, Uninsured Motorist Claims and Coverage, July 1986, September 1988, Evaluating and Settling Personal Injury Cases 1989, Preparing and Trying Automobile Accident Cases 1990
Lecturer - Ohio Academy of Trial Lawyers
2006 - The Illusion of the Non Economic Caps
2003 - Seminar Chair, Trial Tactics
2002 - Seminar Chair, Trial Tactics
1999 - Novel Concepts in Final Argument
1996 - Tort Reform Seminar - co-chairman
1995 - Cross-Examination of the Defense Medical Doctor
1994 - Making the case for Pre-Judgment Interest
1993 - Doubling Time Theory in Cancer Cases, Medical Negligence Seminar
1989 - Damages in Opening Statement
1987 - Toxic Torts - Solving the Causation Problem
1987 - Immunities and Insurance Law
1984 - Damages
1983 - Uninsured Motorist Claims
Tort Reform Legislation Seminar, Chairman and Lecturer, Cuyahoga Bar Association, April, 1988
Product Liability Law - published in Northeastern Sun Magazine, December, 1986
Lecturer - Product Liability, Council on Hazardous Substances, Cleveland State University Symposium, October, 1986
Lecturer and Program Coordinator - Toxic Tort Litigation, Case Western Reserve University School of Law, Continuing Legal Education, March 1986
Plaintiff's Counsel - A Mock Product Liability Trial, Risk and Insurance Management Society, Inc., March 1988
Testimony on behalf of Cuyahoga Bar Association before Ohio Supreme Court Advisory Committee on Disciplinary Procedures, February, 1986
Lecturer - Cleveland Bar Association Trial Practice Seminars
1997 - Civil Trial Walk Thru
1992 - Post Verdict Motion Practice
1986 - Closing Argument
1985 - Direct and Cross-Examination of Medical Expert
1984 - Voir Dire and Direct Examination
AWARDS AND RECOGNITIONS
Listed in Best Lawyers in America, 2007 through 2015, Lawyer of the year-Cleveland Medical Malpractice Lawyers, 2012. Lawyer of the Year – Personal Injury, 2013
“Ohio Super Lawyer “ – Nominated and Published by Law and Politics and Cincinnati Magazine and Northern Ohio Magazine, 2005-2015 – Named Top 10 lawyer in State of Ohio 2012 and Top 5 lawyer in Cleveland 2012Selected by The American Trial Lawyers Association as one of the Top 100 Trial Lawyers in Ohio
Selected by The National Trial Lawyers Association as one of the Top 100 Trial Lawyers in Ohio
The Spangenberg Award – Cleveland Academy of Trial Attorneys, 2005
Distinguished Service Award – Ohio Academy of Trial Lawyers, 2005
President's Award - Ohio Academy of Trial Lawyers, 2004
President's Award – Cuyahoga County Bar Association, 2001, 1999
Member, Million Dollar Advocates Forum, 1995 to present
Who's Who in American Law, 1990 to present
Cuyahoga County Bar Association, 1986 - Outstanding Service Award, 1985, 1996
Certificate of Appreciation, 1989
Cleveland Academy of Trial Attorneys, 1985 - Award of Special Merit
CIVIC ORGANIZATIONS
Chairman, Leadership Council, Case Comprehensive Cancer Center, 2014-Present
Chagrin Valley County Club – President 2007-2008, Board of Trustees, 2005 – 2008, Membership Committee, 2004 – 2005; chairman, Buildings and Grounds Committee, 2004 - 2005
Cleveland Athletic Club – Board of Directors, 1999-2002
The First Unitarian Church of Cleveland, 1990-1992; President, 1992-1993
Commissioner, Solon Civil Service Commission, 1985-1987; Vice Chairman, 1986-1987
BlueBook Society Welcomes Peter H. Weinberger, April 26th 2015
BlueBook Society Welcomes Peter Weinberger, Medical Malpractice, Complex Injuries, Wrongful Death
