Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky Show – Episode 16

Joe Daughtery hosts Andrew Duffy and Jack Duffy for the Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky Show WWDB Talk 860.

TRANSCRIPT

Joe Daughtery 

All right, ladies and gentlemen, around the Delaware Valley. Welcome to the Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky show here on WWDB talk 860. Our guest co-host for the broadcast is Salt Mongeluzzi Bendesky partner, Andrew Duffy. How are you, sir?

Andrew Duffy 

I’m doing well, Joe. Thank you so much for having me.

Joe Daughtery 

Well, it’s a pleasure. And we do have a special guest on the program, Jack Duffy, who’s going to be coming into the broadcast yet towards the end. But Jack, how are you?

Jack Duffy 

Good.

Joe Daughtery 

It’s great to have you on the broadcast and in Philly, I know you’re a student out there at Pitt and you know, we’re going to be talking about all that good stuff when we get to you probably around about the 40 minute mark of the broadcast. But we’re going to talk, you know, in a sense, so, you know, Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky and Andrew Duffy have represented some of the biggest incidents in construction accidents and individuals that were injured and worse across the country and certainly in our region.

Joe Daughtery 

And it’s a conversation we’ve we’ve had several times before. But, you know, I’d like you if you will, Drew, to introduce yourself and tell your internal listeners, remind them a little bit about, you know, what you do here at the firm and your specialties.

Andrew Duffy 

I’d be happy to to, Joe. Before I begin, we’re sitting here right before Memorial Day weekend. So I want to give a sincere shout out to everybody that has served our country. And everybody. Many people will be saying, Happy Memorial Day. I look at the different light. One of the greatest quotes I’ve heard is that we don’t know them all, but we owe them all.

Joe Daughtery 

Yeah.

Andrew Duffy 

And so for everybody that gave their life in the name of freedom, I just want to say thank you out there. Absolutely. And it is a you know, it’s a weekend that means so much to me as a former naval officer.

Joe Daughtery 

Okay. And it well said. And certainly, you know, one of the things that we’ve talked about many times and we’ll get into it is your commitment to labor and representing a lot of the union workers and their families in some of the most horrific accidents, you know, ever. And labor has a major affinity with our veterans. And so, you know, it was well said and my family also, my wife’s family, her uncle Tony he was in the Navy. And he on the last week, they had the signs up on the street and the wrong car showed up.

Andrew Duffy 

Oh, no.

 

Joe Daughtery 

Yeah. Now, I did not. It was Vietnam. But my point is, is that the reality and I married into that family. You see it firsthand. And so, yeah, you know, your sentiments are well.

 

Andrew Duffy 

Thank them all for me. But to answer your question, I’ve been at Saltz Mongeluzzi for 20 years. We’ve dedicated our entire practice to representing construction workers. We’re known around the country as the construction worker firm. I really wake up every morning just honored that the men and women who literally had the worst day of their life –

 

Joe Daughtery 

Yeah

 

Andrew Duffy 

This is a man or woman who went to work. All they wanted to do was put in a hard day’s work, come home, earn for their family, and they either didn’t make it home, God forbid, or they they made it home. But they’re not going to be able to work construction again. And so I have a solemn responsibility of I’m entrusted by those families to represent them.

 

Andrew Duffy 

And I take that so seriously, because nobody could put greater trust in you than saying, hey, you’re all we have right now. You’re our chance. Please make it right and get us a sense of justice.

 

Joe Daughtery 

It’s interesting. I said I was going to bring Jack in at the end, but, you know, I’d like to ask do you know what your dad does every day just – we’re having a conversation. Do you know what he does every day? He’s an attorney. We know that. But he represents individuals and family members of individuals who are catastrophically injured.

 

Jack Duffy 

Yes

 

Joe Daughtery 

My father ran the ironworkers union for 45 years now. Funny thing, here we are on the 52nd floor of Liberty One. Okay, now, this is a historic building and you’re at the top. And I’ve always said this, and if you listen to the podcast, this is like the White House, they built the White House for unfair advantages to foreign heads of state when they came in to be intimidated.

 

Joe Daughtery 

I don’t care who you’re coming. If you’re on the other side and you’re looking at this window, you know that you got a serious situation ahead of you. But my point is, I and all my friends, I was an ironworker. We seen these views out there. We were out there running the steel. Okay. And my father, and your dad and I have talked about this, whenever somebody got injured or worse the ironworkers put the steel up.

 

Joe Daughtery 

And so we’re always out in the elements. And having said that, my father always called. We call it Mongeluzzi I mean, that’s how they, you know, Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky and certainly and that’s because they’ve represented families. So, you know, so amazingly. Drew, you said to me and was it Pam Hockey, I will never forget this.

 

Joe Daughtery 

We were talking about the first case that, one of the first cases that you guys did and it was what went down at the Tropicana. Guy by the name of Mike when I worked for him on the Frankford L . We were refurbishing the L. Great guy. Just a great guy. You want to say, you know, say what happened there?

 

Andrew Duffy 

Oh, it was horrific. The Tropicana was basically in a race with the Borgata, the Borgata, was put up in Atlantic City and Tropicana wanted to expand. And this they certainly expanded and they put up a parking garage that was nine storeys up. And there was an absolute structural, inexcusable mistake in not tying rebar into the concrete structure.

 

Andrew Duffy 

And it pancaked, pancaked, and it killed four wonderful people and injured many, many. And it was just an absolute disgrace from a construction safety standpoint. And I’ll never forget showing up at that site.

 

Joe Daughtery 

And so what’s interesting about it is and I had this conversation and it’s mind boggling, really, because one day what’s amazing about that conversation is, first of all, I knew Mike, I didn’t know his family, okay? But he worked for Cornell Company and he was an awesome guy. And I know you know his family now, unfortunately. But what it must be like to be in your father’s shoes when he knows that family’s coming in and they have lost the patriarch of that family.

 

Joe Daughtery 

Okay, so I have always wanted I mean, I was on a job one time. I was over at 47th and Lancaster, not far from Penn. And it was a church, big church, where my buddy got electrocuted. And what happened was the crane brought the piece up down the street, he went to reach for it, and it hit the power lines.

 

Joe Daughtery

It was nuts okay. He lost his arm, but he left. But my point is, I know how horrific it can be, and it’s very hard for me. Imagine answering that phone every time that phone and it’s somebody who’s maimed and they don’t come here because they’re, you know, they – not that there was ever any small injury, but because they twinged their hamstring, you know, they’re catastrophically injured or some or worse.

Joe Daughtery

And so what that must – what is that like when you know, somebody is coming in, maybe in a wheelchair and your situation at this firm, the lives that are at stake in front of you, on a daily basis, they’re going to be injured. They’re in trouble. Or they have a loved one who passed away.

 

Joe Daughtery

How do you prepare yourself? You’re a great lawyer. We know that. But being a great lawyer is not just knowing the law, you know, it’s having the skills to be able to comfort a family. And, you know, it’s going to be, you know, could be a year before you get justice. But what is that like when, you know, they’re coming in, they come in and, you know, you have to get the facts, but at the same time, you’re dealing with major emotions.

 

Andrew Duffy 

It’s so difficult. I’ve sat across from way too many families who have lost a loved one and I’ve challenged the construction industry. We have said for decades our mantra, our war cry, has been put us out of business. Make your construction sites the safest construction sites ever so that no man or woman does not go home to their families.

 

Joe Daughtery

Well.

 

Andrew Duffy 

And so when the families come in, it’s just all about being a good human being with them and showing them the dignity and respect that they deserve. That’s first and foremost and secondarily, it is to let them know and to engender the confidence that the legal piece of it is now in our hands. Saltz Mongeluzzi’s hand, and they don’t have to worry about that anymore.

 

Andrew Duffy 

I have met so many families who have lost loved ones, and it is – they come in and we work in a civil justice system, which unfortunately you can’t turn back time. The only remedy available in civil justice system is compensation is money, right. But when these families come in, Joe, it is never, ever about the money.

 

Joe Daughtery 

It isn’t about the money. But they also know that their father or their brother or the you know what you say the breadwinner of the family just lost. They’re gone. They lost that person. So it’s not when we talk about. Right, it’s you know, it’s about the livelihood. It’s about, you know, and you’ve got and that’s where the justice comes and that’s what you’re fighting for.

 

Andrew Duffy 

Well, that’s the amazingly impressive part of these strong families, especially the union families that come in. It’s amazing to see how strong they are. They just had the worst day of their life when they lost a loved one, too. They’ve just buried them. They’ve just attended a funeral that they never thought they would have to attend.

 

Andrew Duffy 

And all they want to know is three things. They want to know what happened. They want to know who can be held accountable. And most important consistently to these families is they want to make sure that it never happens again because no other family should feel that way and what they’re going through.

 

Joe Daughtery 

And so I say this story on the air a lot, and it’s it may or may not be construction related, but you’ll get it. But one of the things that happens when you go to court, when your father goes to court, is he’s seeking justice for somebody in some family who’s injured or tragically lost a love one.

 

Joe Daughtery 

Like he just said, I live next to a contractor and every morning at 6:00, their trucks back up. And I hear, beep, beep, beep. Okay. Now I, you know, I wasn’t there. I don’t know the case that it happened. It could be your dad or somebody at the firm that created that change. But change happens in the courtroom.

 

Joe Daughtery 

And justice, part of that justice is making sure it doesn’t happen to somebody else. So having maybe somebody got ran over, it could have been a young person, a child. And now they have those those you know, I guess those like alarms that go off to make sure it doesn’t happen to somebody else. And that to me, I mean, how rewarding is that when you know that, yes, you’re getting justice for somebody? That money represents in a lot of ways the loss of wages and the living and the pain and suffering and all those things for that family that live for the rest of their life. Of course, they just lost a breadwinner. And then you’re making change in the courtroom so that it doesn’t happen to anybody else when you leave, how important is that and how does that make you feel?

Andrew Duffy

Well, it is a sacred responsibility that we take on. We literally become the leaders of the single most important financial asset this family has. Now. What we do, what we accomplish will determine if they can keep their house, if they can if they can send their kids to the schools they want to send them to, if they can provide a future for their grandkids.

 

Andrew Duffy

There is so much responsibility that we understand and we focus upon. We hire the right people to articulate that to the juries. What we do, especially in cases involving a sudden, unexpected death, is we are one of the only firms in the country that has an in-house film maker. So we have that filmmaker go out and interview family, friends, coaches, coworkers, because we have to tell the story of that person’s life.

 

Andrew Duffy

We have to ultimately convince a jury as to why they should reward an amount of money that we’re asking for, on financial lost wages, on everything that’s economically needs to support the family. And so we put together basically these documentaries because 95% of these civil cases settle. And so we know that. So what we do is we send the decision makers, these settlement documentaries, and they are devastating because they hear from the family and the family gets to tell their story on these documentaries.

 

Andrew Duffy

And they have been extremely effective and impactful in getting a, I’ll call it, a sense of justice for the family, because there’s never a correct amount of money.

 

Joe Daughtery 

Now, I’m going to take a shot at this, but there can’t be more than a handful of firms, if anybody like, that’s the magnitude of the firm. So I’ve often, you know, we’ve had this conversation when you accept a case and I’ve talked to defense attorneys, we’ve done defense attorneys, and when you guys walk in the room, they know you’ve already vetted it.

 

Joe Daughtery 

The benefits of the firm, so people think – and I’m talking only as a talk show host- Okay, well, I’ve done a lot of 5-700 shows. Okay. Amongst the types that we, I mean, legal was a big one. And which means I get the opportunity to have a lot of lawyers and firms on the phone. There’s no firm like you dads firm.

 

Joe Daughtery 

Let me give you an example. Guys like me, you know, a lot of my friends, ironworkers and construction workers, you just hear, I’ve got to get a lawyer. Somebody got hurt. What you don’t know? What you don’t know as a regular guy is what the resources that firm has. Okay. With that and I Jack, I’m sure you know this, but what that means is say you go to a firm that doesn’t have the resources.

 

Joe Daughtery 

They can’t hire the experts. They may choose not to hire the experts because this may sound, you know, because they’ve got to pay the rent or they have to settle quickly. That and we had this conversation that never happens. Here it is. And once you vet a case and once you accept the case, there is no limit to what you guys will do in regards to, you know, investing in, you know, the right experts to make sure that justice gets done.

 

Joe Daughtery 

In other words, it’s usually David versus Goliath. You have the insurance company and you have the little law firm. Okay. The law firm, you know, may have resources. It may be medium sized, but not not here. Okay. You guys have the resources to go toe to toe with almost anybody. Talk about how important that is and the effect it has on the insurance company when they know that you and your colleagues walk in the room.

 

Andrew Duffy

Yeah. And Joe, it’s not almost anybody we’ve taken on Fortune 100 Fortune 500 companies and all the insurance companies throughout the country in the world. Once a family, we go through the initial meeting and the family entrust us with the case, they give us the honor of letting us represent them in the most important case in their life.

 

Andrew Duffy

And we realize that we as a firm, we have many cases that family has one, and we take that commitment extremely seriously as the understatement of this interview. We take that, as soon as that family leaves, I’ll put it bluntly, Joe, we unleash hell.

 

Joe Daughtery

Right.

 

Andrew Duffy

We immediately do everything we possibly can to get on that site and do a site inspection. And if they don’t let us on which some general contractors have it, they aren’t cooperating. We’re immediately in court that day, filing suit to force a site inspection so that no evidence is thrown away and nobody changes their stories.

 

Joe Daughtery 

Right.

 

Andrew Duffy

So it is initially and an absolute sprint to get onto that site. And that’s why it’s extremely important in these construction cases to look for an attorney with whom you’re comfortable early, because believe me, the defense has already lawyered up.

 

Joe Daughtery 

Right.

 

Andrew Duffy

The defense has already had their engineers and construction experts out to the site as soon as it happened, they’re preparing to defend the case. So that’s what everybody is up against. You need a law firm that knows exactly what to do, exactly what to look for. And most importantly, you hit the nail on the head. We don’t hire the experts that read the book.

 

Andrew Duffy

We hire the experts that wrote the book.

Joe Daughtery 

Right.

 

Andrew Duffy

And those experts, let’s just put it this way, they are keenly aware of their self-worth.

 

Joe Daughtery 

Yeah, no question.

 

Andrew Duffy

They are not –

 

Joe Daughtery 

They’re not cheap.

 

Andrew Duffy

So the average, the nuts and bolts of a construction case is, and how the arrangement works through what’s called the contingent fee, where there’s two ways to pay lawyers, either either hourly or by contingent. Right. They percentage of the recovery.

 

Joe Daughtery 

Jack, do you know do you know what the contingent fee is?

 

Jack Duffy 

I believe so. It’s just if you win the case, you get some of it. But if you do not then there’s –

 

Joe Daughtery 

And what that means is that the firm and I mean, the firm is literally doing you know, there’s no way out of pocket cost for the individual or the family member, which to me is the most incredible thing on the planet, which means that your dad walks in a room when somebody’s just lost somebody or they’re hurt. They clearly can’t pay for an attorney of Dad’s caliber. They just could never do it. And they say, We got it. And if there’s experts, they’re going to pay like the firm pays for it.

 

Joe Daughtery 

To me, it’s a difference. It’s where the heroism comes from, okay, somebody who cannot afford it, even if they were there’s just a regular person could never afford the type of expenses it costs to fight, you know, these big insurance companies. That’s the great equalizer. And every time I think about it, by the way, how long how how long can these cases last?

 

Andrew Duffy

Filed in Philadelphia, we have two years from the day of the accident to file. We don’t wait those two years, not even close. We get into suit as quickly as possible. Because why should the family wait? Once you file suit in Philadelphia, you are on a track to be in a courtroom for trial within two and a half to three years.

 

Andrew Duffy

And that’s a credit to Philadelphia’s court system. If you’re on a case out in Montgomery County, some areas of New Jersey, and then the collar counties, I’ll call it, you could be on a 5 to 7 year track. So people think that we we fight to get into Philadelphia because these the perception of the big verdicts out of Philadelphia, we fight to get into Philadelphia because it has the most streamlined road to justice that is efficient, expeditious, and you get to a trial as quick as possible, and it is the threat of a trial that moves and settles cases.

Joe Daughtery

And that’s when they typically settle. When they get close to trial?

 

Andrew Duffy

They do.

 

Joe Daughtery 

So here’s a case. I’d like, and I know we’re going to talk construction cases, but here’s a case I I’d love to talk about, Larry and I think his name is Sam. He’s one of your guys.

 

Andrew Duffy

Sam Dordick.

 

Joe Daughtery 

Yeah. Sam Dordick. Okay, settled a case, and then, you know, the firm settled the case for $1,000,000,000 in less than a year on the collapse in Florida. Okay. I’ve said that there are car accidents that settled for $10,000, maybe 5. That took way longer than that. Now, there was a smoking gun that your attorneys, because they’re such bull dogs, found in the middle of the night, you know, that that was and the judge was a good judge, from what I understand. But that doesn’t happen. It’s a handful of firms on the planet that even get a case at that magnitude. But to be able to settle a billion and you know, it’s not the norm. But man, is that a big one?

 

Andrew Duffy

Yeah, that was Jeff Goodman and Sam Dordick of our office. Jeff’s a partner with me, and he and Sam just did an unbelievable job on that case. I mean, off the charts. Unbelievable. And it was just it was literally one of the most tragic occurrences in American history.

Joseph Daughtery

Right.

 

Andrew Duffy

With 98 people killed in a oceanfront condo down right outside of Miami that just collapsed unexpectedly. And so they were able to show that it had so much to do with the construction working next door and some lack security situations. And so what Jeff and Sam were able to do is they took all of their construction and collapse expertise because they were heavily involved in the Salvation Army building collapse at 22nd, and market street also.

 

Joe Daughtery 

And there were thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of documents and I don’t know if it was Jeff or Sam, but one of them was up in the middle of the night and found the document where one of the construction workers, you know, one of the foremen said something like, you know, I forget exactly what Larry said or Sam said.

 

Joe Daughtery 

He said, but what it was and he called the other guy up at two or three in the morning, you know call, two, three in the morning. And usually it’s either unbelievable news or terrible news. And so it kind of makes my, you know, my skin tingle over that. Just thinking about it. Talk about what it’s like here at the firm, having the experience, you know, the collective experience of the team.

 

Joe Daughtery 

And also, I’d love to know where you guys get the drive you have. You’ve had such success. But what’s really impressive is if I was to meet you today to talk about a case, if I had one, you know, it would likely be like it was your first day. Like, you guys are fired up, Bob Mongeluzzi Is on a plane every 15 you know, flying around the country to address situations. Are you guys are you as passionate today as you were 19, 20 years ago? Talk about that and talk about the the benefit of the experience of a team here to be able to go in that big room right there and roundtable something and be able to get experience off of almost any type of case.

 

Andrew Duffy

Well, when I joined Saltz Mongeluzzi, Mongo as we called him, asked me to join his construction team 20 years ago. I think I was a 12th, a 13th attorney. So I blink and all of a sudden we have 48 attorneys, 48 attorneys is nothing when you look at the large corporate firms.

 

Joe Daughtery 

The defense firms.

 

Andrew Duffy

Defense firms that work for insurance companies, 48 attorneys, is extremely large for a –

 

Joseph Daughtery

Plaintiff’s term.

 

Andrew Duffy 

And so we have every Tuesday we collectively talk about our cases and we present the cases. We welcome everybody’s opinion. We get the insight of not my 27 years of experience, but we get a combined of what we figured out once over 600 years of experience to say, okay, what should we do in this situation and what does everybody think about this strategy?

Andrew Duffy 

We brainstorm it all. Bob Mongeluzzi is the single greatest construction attorney I’ve ever met in my life. He’s the single greatest trial attorney I’ve ever met in my life. But as he sits in that room, there is no ego. He seeks the opinion from the first year associate from the 10th year associate from the 30 year partner. Everybody gets to give their opinion.

Andrew Duffy 

And then we walk out of that with the breadth of knowledge of how we want to proceed with the case. And so it’s, I think that gives our clients a real advantage over the one or two person shops. I mean, I think they’re great lawyers out there. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not chastising anybody. But just to have that amount of experience –

 

Joseph Daughtery

The resources in the room and the right and the experience.

 

Andrew Duffy  

And the practice of law is a lot about, you know, doing something once you’re going to know how to do it. And we do something a thousand times, you’re not only going to know how to do it, but you’re going to know how to do it to the best of your abilities.

 

Joseph Daughtery

And the passion. You know, you’re as fired up today. Like I said, well, and, you know, we’ve had Larry, on the show many times. And, you know, from the top, you guys are, like I said, where does that passion come from? You’ve been doing that a long time. You could walk away anytime you want. Talk about the fact that you guys are just as passionate today you were when you first started.

 

Andrew Duffy  

Well, the passion starts with with meeting the families.

 

Joseph Daughtery

Yeah.

 

Andrew Duffy  

And you just know when you look in their eyes and make a promise that you’re going to work as hard as you possibly can to bring them a sense of justice that you don’t slack in that promise. You fulfill that promise, no questions asked. And if that you know, Jack, unfortunately, as my 19 year old son has, has seen times where I haven’t been able to go on vacation with him, his mother and his sister.He has seen times where he knows that I’m prepping for trial so he won’t see me for two weeks straight until it’s 12:00 at night and I come home and and you make those sacrifices because that’s what these families deserve.

 

Joseph Daughtery

Yeah

 

Andrew Duffy  

They need their sacrifice.

 

Joseph Daughtery

Jack, when that happens and you know he’s going to be on trial, your dad, but that’s one thing. But, do you know, you know, the lives that like in other words, the magnitude of what that’s about, like in other words, the lives that are going to be impacted by that. A lot of people just have a tendency to, you know, my dad’s at work.

 

Joseph Daughtery

I mean, I would do the same thing, you know, he’s doing, you know, he’s a lawyer and he’s doing this. But have you ever thought about the magnitude of the lives that are being impacted by your dad on a daily basis and when he’s prepping for trial and he’s out? What’s actually going on?

 

Jack Duffy  

Yeah, I, I do. I think that my dad just mentioned, like, having to take time away from family to make sure this all goes down. And I think a lot of people listening might picture like you know, me and my sister sitting at home just like, sad and like waiting, like our negligent father. But no, we sit at home with this like, and it doesn’t it doesn’t happen very often that he has to go out and be away, but when it does, we sit at home with this, like, sense of pride, like, wow, like like go out and do this.

 

Jack Duffy  

And sometimes my dad will be a, he’ll be sad to leave and I’ll be like, Dad, I’m immensely proud of you and what you do. Like, go, go out and do this. And he still finds time, even during the trials, to spend time with me and my sister. And you can just see the exhaustion. Sometimes I’ll be like, Dad, I know you want to like, we have a bubble hockey set up he’ll come home and be like let’s play like three rounds and I’ll be like, Dad, like, go to bed. Like dad, you got to like take some time to yourself.

 

Joseph Daughtery

Yeah. I mean, wow. I mean, there you go. It’s first of all, that’s awesome, Jack. And the fact that your kids know what you’re doing on a daily basis in the lives that you know that you’re impacting and what you’re doing it for, how does that make you feel?

 

Andrew Duffy  

It’s just a beautiful thing that people in your life that once you tell them the story about what another family went through and the loss that they incurred and what they’re going through day in and day out, that there’s no words. We’re wordsmiths as lawyers, but there are no words that we can ever tell a family to make them feel better and heal that huge hole in their heart. So I’m very fortunate to be living with three wonderful people that when they hear the stories, which they usually hear on the news and they know that I’m involved, that they get it.

 

Joseph Daughtery

Yeah.

 

Andrew Duffy  

They get it. And they say, Dad, go do what you need to do.

 

Joseph Daughtery

And you know what’s interesting about that? When you think about the building we’re in right now. Okay. And what this firm, you know, does on a daily basis, and you look at that collapse that could be our families, too. By the way, you’re fighting for not only those people, but so it doesn’t happen to anybody else. And so there’s such a big picture and it’s great that your family and by the way that also is a tribute to yourself for educating the kids, and obviously your wife knows, but on what you’re doing, I mean taking the time to kind of, you know, let your family, know what’s happening.

 

Joseph Daughtery

And then you listen to Jack and he’s like, you know dad, you know, we know what you’re doing. You know what I mean? And so that’s an awesome thing. And let’s do this. I want to just ID with the station you’re listening to the Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky hour with Andrew Duffy and Jack Duffy on the broadcast, on talk radio, on WWDB Talk 860 we’ve got a great show going. I’m Joe Daugherty and we’re here at the offices of Saltz Mongeluzzi Let’s talk a little bit about, you know, we talked about the topic that we’re going to talk about construction law and the challenging issues that some of the cases have. Okay. And you had mentioned that and talk about that. Sometimes it’s a needle in a haystack. Talk about some of them challenges.

 

Andrew Duffy  

Well, Joe, I can put that in reference to the first case that your father ever asked me to handle. And I was a younger lawyer, I’ll put it that way. My in my late thirties, early forties and and I get the call from Doc.

 

Joseph Daughtery

By the way. Angela says, hello, by the way.

 

Andrew Duffy  

Angela’s wonderful.

 

Joseph Daughtery

She loved you.

 

Andrew Duffy  

And it was just such an honor that when I knew how much your father cared about his men and women and that is a decision that he made to say, okay, something really bad happened. Who do I want to call?

 

Joseph Daughtery

That’s right.

 

Andrew Duffy  

And when he called me, that was one of the greatest honors of my career.

 

Joseph Daughtery

Well, and Jack, so my dad ran the ironworkers union for 40 years. He wasn’t about politics. He wasn’t, you know, I mean, he liked your dad and likes everybody at the firm, and he would only send cases here. But it had nothing to do with liking – he knew that our union family were ironworkers, we don’t catch a sprained ankles.

 

Joseph Daughtery

The lives and their families were on the line. Who do we call? My dad’s reputations on the line too, you know when he refers somebody to somebody. And by the way, that included workers comp. I mean, the workers comp, I was also impressed, you know, because he was no, it was no joke.

 

Joseph Daughtery

And by the way, his wife, Angela, still works at the hall. He passed away, but they still think incredibly highly of your father and Bob Mongeluzzi, Larry Bendesky and everybody from but mainly the construction team. And your dad’s at the forefront of that. So yeah. I mean that’s.

 

Andrew Duffy  

So your dad calls me and we’ll protect his name because I love the guy. A union ironworker is working down at Fifth and Chestnut and there was a bunch of shoring up because its still on the site work base and there’s site work and there’s a couple, it was a rehab of a hotel so it needed some shoring up around the area and had these large granite blocks that were shored up.

 

Andrew Duffy  

And one of the granite blocks fell on the iron worker taking his leg off at the scene. And the iron worker asked me to come into the hospital. We’re not the type of attorneys that run in the hospitals. But when our clients ask us to come in to meet with them, we go in and meet with them.

 

Andrew Duffy  

And that iron worker looked at me and he had a beautiful wife and four beautiful kids and said, I need you to take care of me. So, Joe, you asked about the motivation. One, I’m incredibly passionate about what I do because there’s a dark side of this with insurance companies I can talk about later. Two, I get a call from your father. So when a man of your father’s stature calls me, you want to produce, but then you walk into that hospital bed and an ironworker, who won’t be able to go back to Iowa asked me to help him. If that can’t get you out of bed and working your ass off in the morning then nothing.

 

Joseph Daughtery

Yeah.

 

Andrew Duffy  

And so we had, that was a challenging case because here’s what happens in every single construction case. They blame the worker.

 

Joseph Daughtery

Yeah.

 

Andrew Duffy  

Whoever gets injured gets blamed. Yeah. And it’s atrocious because, as you know from our federal government, construction sites are covered by ocean and so safety must start at the top. Safety starts with the general contractor who has overall site safety responsibility. That’s in the contract. They make that promise in the contract. It’s the same promise that we all make in our mortgage contracts that they’re going to give us the money to buy the house and we’re going to pay it back. They make the general contractors make a promise to the owner that they will be solely responsible for site safety.

 

Andrew Duffy  

And when they don’t fulfill that responsibility or they try to argue that, oh, its somebody else’s responsibility, we hold them accountable. And so this was a challenging case because they were blaming the ironworker, they’re blaming his crew. And we were able to hire the best structural engineer, hire the best construction safety expert, I believe, in the country and that case cost us 250 to to $280,000 out of pocket.

 

Joseph Daughtery

Right.

 

Andrew Duffy  

To work up the right way, because this ironworker deserved it. And you don’t spend that kind of money kind of willy nilly. You spend that kind of money because, you know, that’s what it takes to recover. And we were able to, you know, get him over a $16 million recovery. And I got a call from your father thanking me. And not only did I get a call from the ironworker who was extremely, you know, happy isn’t the right word.

 

Joseph Daughtery

Grateful.

 

Andrew Duffy  

Grateful. Right. But every single holiday, I get a call from that gentleman.

 

Joseph Daughtery

Oh wow.

 

Andrew Duffy  

And when I see his contact on my phone I just light up.

 

Joseph Daughtery

What year did it happen?

 

Andrew Duffy  

Happened in about you know 2008.

 

Joseph Daughtery

Wow

 

Andrew Duffy  

So it was a long time ago so, but that’s you ask what fuels me what creates the passion when you develop that type of relationship with the clients who have choices.

 

Joseph Daughtery

So I’ve just got –

 

Andrew Duffy  

There’s plenty, there’s so many firms out there, they have choices.

 

Joseph Daughtery

I was literally just going to say, that, think about this for a second. I’m talking to Jack. Like your dad just said, they can call anybody. Like, in other words, there, you know, there’s options and my father was not, I say this dead serious because he was a serious dude. He was, one of the things about great labor leaders and I will put him in that category is they care about their members.

 

Joseph Daughtery

It’s not about them. And their members can tell and part of that is you care about your member, you only want the best for them. You’re, you know, in the Philadelphia building trades. And so you have a responsibility, but you can also choose any attorneys you want. There are a lot of good attorneys.

 

Joseph Daughtery

And, you know, we’ve got, this a big city. It’s a quality city. But they want the best of everybody. And when your dad says, you know that he appreciates that. I go well, we appreciate the fact that we have somebody like your dad who we know is not going to mince on, like you’re going to go up against these insurance companies.

 

Joseph Daughtery

This firm is going to go up against them and not spare. But and also the fact that you’re respected when you walk in the room, they got to start thinking right away. Okay. We know they’re not just, you know, you guys vet your case. So when somebody you know, as does every firm, but when somebody comes in with a case, unfortunately, you can’t take every case. And sometimes people think, I definitely have a case, you know, and they may have had a horrific situation, but they may not have it. Talk about that process, because you probably spend money even on cases you just don’t take.

 

Andrew Duffy  

Oh, absolutely. When a family comes in and there’s been a horrific tragedy, we don’t always know that there is a case that we can prove in a court of law right away. So but we will jump into an investigation aggressively. And what that means is, is we will spend the money early on to hire experts, to, you know, get photographers, to get surveyors out there, to get people out to the scene that need to look at it to determine what happened. And sometimes it comes back that what happened is not actionable.

 

 

Joseph Daughtery

Right.

 

Andrew Duffy  

And so what we want to do to that family and this is kind of our mantra in the promises we make to the family. We want to get them an answer quickly. Time is of the essence. The family has two years from the day of the accident to file a lawsuit.

 

Andrew Duffy  

You don’t file a lawsuit, the statute of limitations in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, you’re likely forever barred from doing so. So in the first three months, that time’s crucial. You want to get as many answers as you can, and then you want to make the family, you want to educate the family so they’re the most well informed decision makers that they can be as far as whether or not to go forward with the case.

 

But sometimes we have to make that decision for them. Sometimes we just know from our experience that unfortunately, as much as we want to help you, as much as we wish that there was a way to recovery here, that there’s no way for us to to seek that recovery. We have I can’t tell you how many times I’ve sat with a family that, you know, has a paralyzed family member who went up to put his Christmas lights on and fell over a family member who was just driving along, going to work, gets hit by somebody who has a $15,000 insurance policy.

 

There are so many injustices out there, Joe. And and you just have to look them in the eye and be honest with them. You can’t sugarcoat it. You can’t you got to show them the respect and dignity they deserve. But at the same time, they came to you for the truth. And if the truth is we have a case here that we’re going to pursue aggressively, you tell them that if the truth is we’re sorry because of the draconian nature of the law here, we can’t go forward. You got to tell them that too

 

Joseph Daughtery

List you know, you’ve done so many cases, some of the notable cases that you’ve represented, but too many, too numerous to actually mention. But give me a rundown of five cases that have impacted you over your career that are at the top. And I’m sure you’re going to miss plenty of them. You know, we don’t have time, obviously, to address the whole gamut of them, but talk about you know, and I mean, obviously, we got about and I want to get I want to bring Jack back in, but just off the top of your head, 3 to 5 cases that impacted you.

 

Andrew Duffy  

Well, I have a ,when I’m handling a construction case, it is usually a construction fall case –

 

Joseph Daughtery

Yeah.

 

Andrew Duffy  

I don’t have to tell an ironworker about the risk of falls.

 

Joseph Daughtery

Right

 

Andrew Duffy  

And fall protection is just literally there is what’s called subpart R that controls ironworker fall protection inertia.

 

Joseph Daughtery

What I got away when I got in the union, it was 1982 at a high school. Okay, Jack, he was on the job, wasn’t he? But we had, you could walk across a beam. We didn’t have static lines or anything. I mean, literally, you could walk across, I can tell you stories after this. You wont have time. But mother of God.

 

Andrew Duffy  

So I’ve handled so many fall cases. I have the single largest construction worker settlement in Pennsylvania history as a result of a fall case that again this is, everything that I do is against the backdrop of something tragic happening in somebody’s life. So I never say that I’m proud of my recoveries or that I’m happy with my recoveries.

 

Andrew Duffy  

What I’m proud of is what I did for that family. Yeah, that’s what fuels me. And that was an outlier type of recovery that I was very proud to achieve for the family. I handled the one of the lead counsel in the Philadelphia food truck explosion case where a propane tank exploded. And that led to a global settlement of $160 million. Right now, I’m handling the chocolate factory explosion out in West Reading, which is just a horrific tragedy that killed seven people and badly injured many. So if there is a major catastrophe in the Delaware Valley, we usually end up being involved. And I’ll tell you how.

 

Joseph Daughtery

A lot of attorneys refer them to you.

 

Andrew Duffy  

About to say we either get calls directly from the clients that know about us and know what we do. And so they know that an explosion case, a structural collapse, a construction case, a maritime case, because I handled both the Philadelphia duck boat disaster and then the Missouri Duck Boat disaster. So they know to call us in those types of cases. But I see day in and day out. I see attorney after attorney refer a case to us because they know –

 

Joseph Daughtery

You have the resources and you’re going to –

 

Andrew Duffy  

We have the resources and that we can help the family more so in conjunction in working and co counseling with them.

 

Joseph Daughtery

And when you talk about the duck boat tragedies, back before I understood, you know, how that actually happened in regards to, you know, that was a you know, there was one in Philadelphia in the Delaware, but one out of state. And I was wondering, I’m like, wow. I mean, you know, how well their lawyers know who the great lawyers are and the great firm who represented the last one so successfully.

 

Joseph Daughtery

And that’s how, you know, how you get it. That contingency fee agreement, again. Well, when you mentioned, you know,, lawyers get a bad rep. I once had a conversation with a guy who I was doing a show with him and he was running for office. He was like, if I’m proud of what I do, he’ll do personal injury.

 

Joseph Daughtery

He did another type of law but it was a contingency fee area. I’m like, It’s a contingency fee, right? I’m like, Yeah, I see you’re a dang hero what are you talking about. You give people the opportunity to walk in and you represent them without asking for a dime. And if it could take five years, we could go all I mean, so you’re right, lawyers do get a bad rep.

 

Joseph Daughtery

And by the way, it’s probably because it’s a good job by the insurance companies, you know, with their PR campaigns and doing all – to make, you know, so that they have the Rogers rate okay and when we get you what you need. While the plaintiffs attorneys are representing individual for literally I mean on a contingency fee agreement for free for five years if necessary and although you know I don’t, you know, you guys I’m sure don’t lose, if at all.

 

Joseph Daughtery

The fact of the matter is, there’s always a shot and you’re taking that shot with them. And you’re saying if we do not win, we’re not getting paid. You don’t take it out of the injured families, you know I mean, their pocket that’s it. So you’re a hero as far as I’m concerned because that contingency agreement makes it possible. There are other areas of the law like criminal law and divorce law. And you know, where they charge up front. Okay. But when you’re talking about personal injury. Okay. And worker’s comp and the attorneys, you know, they give you a shot to win. Okay. And so so we only have a few minutes left and I’m going to get to Jack.

 

Joseph Daughtery

I have a couple questions for him. But before we go in that direction, anything, you know, that you want to, you know, shout out or you know, that we didn’t cover that you just want to, you know, just shout out.

 

Andrew Duffy  

There’s something to that I alluded to earlier in our conversation, Joe, is that we have challenged construction companies to put us out of business.

 

Joseph Daughtery

Yeah.

 

Andrew Duffy  

And I am extremely happy to report. And this mainly focuses on union run sites, right? That construction sites are getting safer and we love it. There’s too much tragedy, too much misery, you know, too much loss in this field as it is.

 

Joseph Daughtery

But that happens because you guys are fighting for that. Change happens on the job. Let me just say this. When justice happens and there’s a negligent situation, that company no longer allows their people to work on a scaffold without the experts in that because guess what? They just got bit and are in trouble. They don’t want that to happen to them again.  A lot of it’s in itself, you know, common sense doesn’t prevail first time. But individuals like your father keep people accountable that way. It doesn’t happen to a loved one. And so on.

 

Andrew Duffy  

Yeah, as you know, the construction industry is an odd industry because they’re really in the construction industry. It’s not a whole lot of bad people. They’re really good people. And so I’ll take the deposition of a project superintend tenant who are normally the people that we’re really going after at a deposition. Right. We’re saying you didn’t do this and you violated this. You didn’t read the safety manual. And you know, the corporate safety director told you to do this.

 

Andrew Duffy  

And many times at the end of those depositions, the corporate safety director will either sit in or the project superintendent will come up to us. And we’ve had this situation where they have literally thanked us. I mean, we’re beating the heck out of a deposition. They thanked us. And so that really fuels us in that the corporate safety directors for the largest general contractors have said to us, thank you for keeping me on my toes because everybody is in this to keep the men and women at the project safe.

 

Andrew Duffy  

The one question I ask at every deposition is, do you agree with me that the single most important aspect of any construction project is the safety of the men and women working there? And it’s universally, yes, yes. Sometimes I wish they would say no because that would make it a much better case.

 

Joseph Daughtery

Yeah

 

Andrew Duffy  

It infuriates the jury, but in the end, the construction case, there’s really no bad people. You have to prove that they violated OSHA, that they violated their own safety manual, and that, unfortunately happens a lot because there are so many, let’s call them, extracurricular pressures at a construction site to get the damn building up.

 

Joseph Daughtery

Absolutely.

 

Andrew Duffy  

And so.

 

Joseph Daughtery

Well, and at the same time, those guys are probably getting pressure from above. And this gives them the ability to say, yo, bro, you know, look at what happened last time that you wanted to cut corners. Maybe a higher up pushing, pushing, pushing, pushing so you give them a leg to stand on. And in a sense, you know, and nobody wants like you said, it’s a number one issue. So true. It’s always a pleasure to have, you know, to have you on the show and awesome what you do on a daily basis. I mean, Jack, you proud of your dad?

 

Jack Duffy  

Immensely.

 

Joseph Daughtery

And so you’re at Pitt right now, right?

 

Jack Duffy  

Yep.

 

Joseph Daughtery

What do you see? What are you looking at for your career?

 

Jack  Duffy  

Well, of course, my dad hopes that I go on to do law school and, you know, join SMB but I am currently a business major and I’m doing a lot with computer science, but mainly undecided. Who knows I might end up being interviewed by you in a couple of years.

 

Joseph Daughtery

Well, let me say this. Drew did you know you wanted to be a lawyer when you were Jack’s age?

 

Andrew Duffy  

When I was 19 years old, I probably couldn’t tell you what I wanted to have for dinner. Right. So, you know, for Jack to be in this situation. I’m so impressed with young people today at 19 years old, you know, I sort of knew that I kind of had to write that damn paper that was due the next night. But at the same time, you know, I did not fully know. I kind of knew toward the end of college that I wanted to apply to law school.

 

Joseph Daughtery

Well, and that’s the point. In other words, you know, I mean, it’s always it’s never especially when you’re 19 like you said. Having said that, so you’re a business major and how much do you like Pitt? You love Pitt?

 

Jack Duffy  

I love Pitt.

 

Joseph Daughtery

Yeah.

 

Jack Duffy  

Yeah.

 

Joseph Daughtery

What do you love most about it?

 

Jack Duffy  

What I love most about Pitt, I really like the location. There’s just a lot of interesting architecture. I mean, I don’t know if you’ve seen the Cathedral of Learning, but it was the number one biggest academic building until Russia beat us, took us out of the title. But it’s just all of the buildings around campus are beautiful, especially Cathy. There’s this thing called the nationality rooms. I don’t know if you’ve been there. I study there a lot.

 

Andrew Duffy  

He’s in the Irish room.

 

Jack Duffy

The Irish room. Yeah.

 

Joseph Daughtery

That’s awesome. And what high school did you go to?

 

Jack Duffy  

St. Joe’s Prep.

 

Joseph Daughtery

Oh, St. Joe’s Prep.

 

Jack Duffy  

Yeah.

 

Joseph Daughtery

I coach football at Roman Catholic. So this interview is over. When I played at Roman Catholic, Richard Gannon was a junior when I was a senior.

 

Andrew Duffy  

Yeah. Okay. Mr. University of Delaware.

 

Joseph Daughtery

That’s right wen to the Super Bowl with the Raiders.

 

Andrew Duffy  

MVP.

 

Joseph Daughtery

But listen, Jack, it’s been a pleasure to meet you. And I’m glad you could be here to kind of like witness it at the magnitude of what your father and what Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky does on a daily basis for people who cannot represent themselves.

 

Jack Duffy  

Pleasure to meet you, too.

 

Joseph Daughtery

The pleasure is all mine. And I look forward to that day when I’m interviewing you. And we’ll bring your dad in on that one. And hopefully he’ll be a witness to that. So great to meet you. I want to thank everybody for tuning into the Saltz Mongeluzzi and Bendesky hour on WWDB Talk 860. I want to thank Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky partner Andrew Duffy for being my guest and co-host. I want to thank Jack Duffy for also being a guest on the program. On behalf of everyone out there listening, I’m Joe Daugherty.