Melissa Lang
Partner
E-mail: mlang@pmtlawfirm.com
Offices: Philadelphia, PA
Melissa Lang has over 35 years of civil litigation experience, earning an AV rating from Martindale-Hubble. The primary focus of her practice is on coverage for both first party and third party commercial and personal lines claims. Outside of her coverage work, Melissa has managed the defense of complex class actions, large property losses, and catastrophic injury and death claims. Resolution of claims for individual and group accidental death, disability, and life insurance benefits, both ERISA and non-ERISA, is her sub-specialty. Melissa has also defended and prosecuted sales practices claims against producers and insurers.
In addition to litigation, Melissa advises institutional and individual clients seeking amicable resolution of contract and payment disputes to structure results and promote commercial growth where adversarial actions may serve to destroy viable relationships which hold future
profit potential.
Melissa’s efforts on behalf of a broad range of clientele have resulted in a positive impact in the areas of contract interpretation and the scope of duties owed by insurers to insureds and third parties.
Reported decisions of note are:
- McGill v. Minnesota Mutual Life Insurance Company, 285 Fed. Appx. 765 (1st Cir. 2008) (Sandra Day O’Connor, Associate Justice (Retired) (fraud in the sale of individual disability coverage).
- Weisblatt v. Minnesota Mutual Life Insurance Company, 4 F.Supp.2d 371 (E.D. Pa. 1998) (widely cited in jurisdictions throughout the US and in learned treatises and law review articles as to the scope of insurance brokers’ and agents’ duties to obtain coverage consistent with the insureds’ needs)
- SuperMedia LLC v. Morley, 2014 WL 502338 (E.D. Pa. 2014), following SuperMedia v. Affordable Electric, Inc., 565 F.App’x 146 (2014) (addressing alleged pre-litigation spoliation of evidence)
- Ziegler v. Easton Suburban Water Authority, 243 A.3d 553 (Pa. Cmwlth. 2012) (addressing admissibility of non-expert opinion evidence in property damage claims)
Professional Affiliations
Philadelphia Bar Association
DRI
Distinctions
Melissa is a Judge Pro Tempore for the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas – Civil Division
AV Rated Martindale-Hubbell
