A significant amount of Paul's practice is in the area of civil rights litigation. He defends police officers, corrections officers and administrators, teachers and school district administrators, children and youth case workers, as well as their respective municipal entities, in state and federal court both in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. These areas of practice include representing clients before inquest and grand jury proceedings and before administrative proceedings.
Paul has been utilized to perform police department audits and internal investigations and has provided consultation to numerous municipalities with regard to the operational aspects of police departments. Paul's many years of experience in law enforcement provide him with a unique perspective, particularly with regard to the numerous matters he has litigated involving the use of Tasers.
Paul has also litigated a wide array of professional liability cases in West Virginia. Such cases include the defense of real estate agents, insurance brokers, logging cases, correctional facilities and civil rights matters. Included among the West Virginia cases was the defense of Weirton Steel Corporation and Wheeling Downs and the City of Huntington.
In 1979 Paul earned his B.S. degree in Administration of Justice from the Pennsylvania State University. For some 12 years before attending the Duquesne University School of Law, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Paul was a police officer. He served in Elizabeth Township, Pennsylvania, and then in the city of West Palm Beach and Palm Beach, Florida. Paul has served as a uniform police officer and Field Training Officer, as well as becoming certified as a Crime Scene Analyst and was part of the Major Crimes Unit. Paul was recognized as an expert in crime scene reconstruction and the science of fingerprints in both state and federal courts in Florida.
Significant Representative Matters
- Successfully defended a case in which two police officers Tasered a suicidal man a total of seven times before he could be disarmed. Summary judgment was granted as to the entire case.
- Successfully defended two separate death cases brought under the State Created Danger Theory. In one case, brought in state court, the decedent left the scene of a minor traffic accident and, upon arriving home, committed suicide. In the other, filed in federal court, a police officer stopped a suspect leaving the scene of a domestic incident. Twenty minutes after leaving the scene of the traffic stop, the suspect died in a one-car accident. His blood alcohol level was three times the legal limit. Both suits were dismissed by way of summary judgment.
- Selected as lead defense counsel for all litigation arising out of the Group of 20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors’ Conference (“G20”) which occurred in Pittsburgh on September 24 and 25, 2009. Cases filed thus far include numerous First, Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment claims.
- A jury returned a defense verdict in a case in which a corrections officer was accused of using excessive force to break up a fight between inmates.
- A jury returned a defense verdict in a case in which a logger was accused of unlawful timbering practices.
- Successful defense of a mandamus action against a sewer authority in which the authority was accused of imposing arbitrary standards for sewer hook-up in a case that had the potential of effecting 28,000 customers.
- A jury returned a defense verdict in a case in which a dog track was accused of negligence in the deaths of racing dogs and in which the dog owners were permitted to present damages in the amount of $3.6 million.
- A jury returned a defense verdict in a case in which a police officer was involved in a police pursuit which ended with the death of the individual being pursued and where the plaintiff, an innocent third party, suffered the loss of a leg and catastrophic brain injuries. This was the second defense verdict in this case, the first verdict rendered at the close of a summary jury trial.
- A district court judge granted defendants' motion to dismiss at the close of plaintiff's case in a matter in which a police officer accidentally shot and killed plaintiff's decedent. The appeal of the dismissal was upheld by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in which the court focused on whether a prima facie case existed as against the municipality for failing to require its officers to carry less than lethal weapons.
