Insurance companies like to present themselves as neutral evaluators of claims. They are not. They are risk managers. Their job is to reduce exposure, control payouts, shape the narrative early, and pressure claimants into positions that weaken the case before real litigation even begins. Vincent R. Petrucelli has dealt with insurance companies long enough to […]

Wrongful death cases begin in grief, but they do not end there. They become legal cases only when grief is joined by evidence: evidence that a death was caused by negligence, evidence that the loss was preventable, and evidence that accountability is required. Vincent R. Petrucelli has spent much of his professional life representing families […]

Catastrophic injury cases are difficult in any setting. In rural medicine, they are even more complex. The distances are longer. Specialty coverage can be thinner. Critical care resources may be limited. Transfers may take time. Communications between facilities can break down. The defense often uses those realities to suggest that a bad outcome was simply […]

When a diagnosis is delayed, the defense almost always begins with the same argument: the outcome was inevitable. The disease was already advancing. The infection was already spreading. The stroke was already underway. The cancer was already there. According to that narrative, nothing that happened at the hospital or clinic truly changed the result. Vincent […]

When a catastrophic medical outcome occurs, hospitals rarely acknowledge fault. Instead, they respond as institutions do: internal peer review, carefully drafted summaries, and coordinated defense narratives. Records become guarded. Families are given partial answers. Responsibility diffuses across departments. Vincent R. Petrucelli has spent decades litigating against that institutional response across Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and Northern […]