A Message from our President
Welcome to the Pennsylvania Defense Institute (PDI) website. For those of you who are PDI members, please
register and utilize the benefits of the Members Area of the website. For those
of you who are not members, please enjoy the public portion of the site and
consider joining PDI for all the benefits of our website and all the other
benefits available through PDI membership.
Last year was a very successful year for PDI through the able guidance of Past President, Craig Murphey and Executive Director, David Cole. Chief among our accomplishments was PDI’s effort to secure passage of the “Fair Share Act” as part of a coalition of business and insurance industry organizations committed to tort reform in Pennsylvania. Many PDI members contributed their time and efforts to accomplishing this important legislative reform. PDI published a “white paper” on the proposed legislation that served as the formal position of the coalition and which was well received by the legislature. Several PDI members testified at legislative hearings on the legislation. Additionally, without the assistance of our lobbyist, Tim Bittle of Bigley and Blickle and his consistent effort to keep PDI in the forefront of the tort reform fight, PDI would not have achieved its goal of not only assisting in having this very important legislation passed but in establishing the organization as a source of information to assist the legislature, business and insurance industry in analyzing and adopting legislation. PDI is a source of practical information from our members who are “in the trenches” and aware of the effects of legislation as it is implemented in the courts.
This year is intended to be a year of growth for PDI in a number of areas. As always, we want to increase our membership so that more defense attorneys and insurance industry managers can take advantage of the varied benefits of PDI membership. However, it is also our goal to increase the benefits that are available to our members and increase the use of these benefits by our members. We also want to increase the activity level of our members in the various educational and social events offered by PDI and make our committee system an active and beneficial part of PDI membership. We are also interested in growing our Young Lawyers Section and the activities for our young lawyers so that there continues to be a strong interest in PDI through our next generation of lawyers and to obtain new ideas as to how PDI can better serve the defense bar and insurance community. There are many opportunities for our members to demonstrate their high professional abilities through speaking at CLE’s, writing for our Counterpoint publication, writing amicus briefs for PDI, placing a blog on the website sharing information with other members, and participating in the various committees. We urge members to participate in PDI activities and committees in order to receive the full benefit of PDI membership.
Growth requires work, communication, participation and involvement by our members. We request that as a member you share your thoughts on how PDI can improve, what additional benefits would make membership more valuable, what additional activities would interest you, and any other ideas you have to assist me and your PDI Board of Directors to establish and implement programs that add value to PDI.
Finally, one of the benefits of membership in PDI is that we have a number of excellent sponsorship partners who are listed on our website and who are present at our regional CLE’s and our Annual Conference. They are essential to our continuing to provide the current services to our members and will serve as a financial foundation for future benefits and services that we will add over time for the benefit of our members. Please patronize our sponsor partners and visit with them at our CLE’s and the Annual Conference to learn more about their services and to let them know what services they can provide to you. They will serve you well!!
As indicated above, we welcome all your comments, suggestions and criticisms. Your Board of Directors is here to serve you and your needs. I can be contacted by email at cew@pwlegal.com or by telephone at [717] 238-7555 Ext. 110. You can also contact our Executive Director, David Cole at coled01@padefense.org and 800-734-0737. I thank you for your anticipated participation. I look forward to seeing and talking to you throughout this year at our various events.