Central Pa. lawyer who fumbled client’s personal injury case and lied about it has license suspended by Supreme Court

Pennsylvania Judicial Center

The Pennsylvania Judicial Center (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File) AP

A Dauphin County lawyer who bungled a client’s personal injury case, lied about it, and then used his own money to give her a bogus “settlement” had his law license suspended by the state Supreme Court on Tuesday.

That two-year consensual suspension of Peter Richard Henninger Jr.’s license is based on findings of the high court’s Office of Disciplinary Counsel regarding Henninger’s handling of the case of client who was injured in an elevator at the Hollywood Casino.

According to disciplinary office filings, the client was hurt in December 2014 when an elevator door shut on her leg. Henninger filed a notice to sue on the woman’s behalf in Dauphin County Court two years later.

Then, the disciplinary board contends, Henninger didn’t follow through.

He never responded to requests by Schindler Elevator Corp. for his client’s medical records, nor did he reply to the firm’s request for a settlement demand, the board claims. It claims Henninger didn’t respond to any filings the defendants made in the case for three years.

Finally, at the request of the defendants, a judge dismissed the case in February due that lack of activity.

Henninger didn’t tell his client about that, the board says. It claims he didn’t even return any of her phone calls until she filed a complaint with the Office of Disciplinary Counsel. Henninger told investigators the woman’s case had gotten “lost in the shuffle,” according to the board.

He also claimed, falsely, that he had been involved in negotiations to settle the woman’s case, investigators contend. They say Henninger then told the client that a settlement had been reached, used his own money to pay her $25,000, and filed bogus records of the nonexistent settlement.

Finally, after a probe of his actions, Henninger “acknowledged that he had lied to (the client) and the ODC about having obtained a settlement offer from Hollywood Casino when, in fact, he had not engaged in any settlement discussions,” the board’s complaint states.

Investigators concluded Henninger had violated the Rules of Profession Conduct for attorneys by failing to provide the client with competent representation, by failing to update her on the status of the case or respond to her requests for information, and by engaging in “conduct involving dishonesty, fraud deceit or misrepresentation.”

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