Practice Areas

Personal Injury Law—Our firm handles all types of catastrophic personal injury and wrongful death cases caused by automobile accidents, trucking accidents, job-related accidents, construction accidents, bicycle accidents, aviation and watercraft accidents, dog attacks, slip and falls, nursing home negligence, premises liability, and products liability. Personal injuries not only cause physical pain, but often emotional and financial hardship through loss of work, medical bills and stress placed upon families and loved ones. We often take our physical and mental well being for granted-until something goes wrong. When an accident happens lives are forever changed. Simple pleasures become chores. Daily routines are disrupted. Economic losses are often devastating. Whether caused by an automobile accident, a defective product, medical malpractice, or other negligent, careless or reckless conduct, injuries alter lives forever. We take responsibility for effective, aggressive investigation and representation, allowing the injured person to attend to health, family and economic issues, while pursuing a variety of legal means to obtain the highest possible financial recovery.

Products Liability—Injuries caused by defective products happen every day. These injuries are frequently serious and debilitating. Our firm has years of experience and an excellent track record of representing individuals who have been injured as a result of an unsafe product that was designed, manufactured, sold, and/or furnished by a person or company. This type of case is handled much like other personal injury cases, but the proof is much different. In a product liability case the product and its safety are on trial. We have successfully handled products liability cases over the years and assist injured individuals in bringing their claims and being fairly compensated for their injuries.

Family Law— Few legal areas are as emotionally charged as family law, primarily for the litigants, but also for the lawyers and judges involved in the cases and even the public at large. In divorce and child custody cases in particular, the adversarial process has increased tensions between the parties that do not abate even when the process is complete. As a result, many states have begun to explore other, non-adversarial alternatives, such as mandatory mediation, which can save time and money and preserve relationships to the extent possible. Mediation and other Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) processes provide an option for those who prefer to stay out of court. ADR provides many potential advantages for most cases, including reduced cost, faster resolution, less emotional stress, the ability to construct solutions that are outside of the authority of the courts.

Shawn Dougherty and her staff are well equipped to handle all of your family law needs. Ms. Dougherty has extensive experience in family law and represents clients in the following areas: adoption, divorce, paternity, child custody, child support, arrearages, criminal non-support cases, visitation, temporary orders, legal separation, premarital agreements, domestic abuse, mediation, arbitration, spousal support, maintenance, modifications, terminations, judgment enforcement, grandparent right cases, and all other financial or marital property-related disputes.

Workers' Compensation—In general, the exclusive remedy of an employee injured in the workplace is under workers' compensation laws. When a person is injured at work it can be one of the most frustrating and difficult experiences in the law. If you have been injured on the job, you are entitled to certain benefits. Workers' compensation laws represent a trade-off of sorts for the employee: the employee receives compensation for any employment-related injury regardless of fault, but the nature and extent of benefits is limited. These laws also represent a similar trade-off for employers: the employer is liable for some benefits in nearly every case of workplace injury, but this liability is limited, even in cases of employer fault. The risk of workplace injury thus becomes a cost of doing business. Our firm represents workers who are injured on the job in claims for lost wages ,medical treatment and permanent impairment benefits. The firm's senior partner, Joseph W. Weik, esq. is a past chairman of the Workers Compensation Section of the Delaware Bar Association.

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