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Trials & Litigation

Attorney Vilified Over Lawsuit He Filed for Estate of Dead Child

Posted Aug 15, 2008, 06:09 pm CDT
By Martha Neil

A Pennsylvania lawyer has hired legal counsel of his own to help him deal with harsh public criticism of his role in filing a lawsuit for the estate of a disabled child who was allegedly killed by her own parents through neglect that caused her to starve to death.

Andrea and Daniel Kelly, the parents of the dead 14-year-old, have been castigated by government officials for their role in seeking damages for their daughter's death, although they don't necessarily expect to collect personally, the Philadelphia Inquirer. And that criticism has also spilled onto attorney Brian Mildenberg, one of two lawyers representing the teen's estate.

Now Mildenberg has retained George Bochetto, a veteran Center City litigator, to set the record straight about his role in the case and what it is likely to accomplish. Mildenberg has been getting death threats, as a result of inaccurate and "intentionally inflammatory" reporting by Philadelphia media, says a August_18,_2008_News_Release.pdf (PDF) issued by Bochetto & Lentz law firm.

As discussed in an earlier ABAJournal.com post, the parents may well collect nothing, with any and all damages going to their other children, who are in foster care.

"Brian Mildenberg is being vilified," says Bochetto, "when he should be applauded for courageously taking on a difficult case out of a sense of professional responsibility."

Updated at 3:30 p.m. on Aug. 20, 2008, to include Bochetto & Lentz press release.

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