Attorney Profiles

Experience:
William Roeger is a partner in the litigation department at Hamburg, Rubin, Mullin, Maxwell & Lupin. He concentrates his practice in a wide variety of areas of litigation. While Mr. Roeger is located in our Bucks County office, he has handled cases throughout eastern Pennsylvania. Specifically, he has tried cases in the following 9 county area: Bucks, Montgomery, Philadelphia, Lehigh, Northampton, Carbon, Monroe, Berks and Chester.

Areas of Concentration:
Personal Injury Litigation
Bill's experience has run the gamut from representing victims and defendants (on behalf of insurance companies) in various motor vehicle and premises liability cases. Bill has successfully handled a wide variety of complex personal injury matters Bill's undergraduate degree in physics, and the fact that he is ably supported by his Medical Assistant/Paralegal, provides him with an edge that other attorneys do not have.

Bill routinely is involved with cases where liability is established through accident reconstruction, including trucking cases and multi-car collisions. In one notable case, Bill represented a decedent passenger in a vehicle which turned left in front of an oncoming tractor trailer. While the liability of the turning driver was obvious, Bill was able to establish that the accident was, at least in part, caused by a perception delay by the operator of the tractor trailer, resulting in a settlement of $800,000.

In a complex multi-car crash, Bill represented a seriously injured passenger, in what initially appeared as a two-vehicle collision. Using accident reconstruction techniques, Bill was able to establish that a third vehicle was involved in racing against the striking vehicle at the time of the accident and that the accident was triggered by a fourth vehicle improperly pulling out causing the mechanism of the collision.

What do you do when your client dies in a collision after having driven onto the wrong side of the road and isn't there to explain why?  Bill was able to establish through investigative techniques, coupled with an accident reconstruction, that the decedent was forced onto the wrong side of the road and into a head-on collision that killed her by a man who had improperly turned left in front of her.

Bill represented a high-income individual who was struck from the rear, but experienced a mild closed-head trauma in the accident, which in turn affected his ability to earn income. In a county known for low jury awards, Bill used creative techniques to resolve the matter for $850,000.

Bill has tried various cases involving RSD (Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy or, as it is now known, Complex Regional Pain Syndrome.) In one case of note where liability was not the issue, Bill rejected the defendant's offer of $15,000 and the Judge's recommendation of $75,000 and tried the case to a verdict of $285,000.

Bill was retained to represent a high net worth individual who had shot and killed one of his employees while hunting in Bradford County. The employee's estate was represented by one of the nationally premier personal injury firms. The settlement demand was in excess of $5 million. After various transfers of venue, the case lodged in the Federal Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and Bill was brought in as lead trial counsel. Bill employed various creative ways to graphically disprove plaintiff's theory of liability, resulting in a settlement on the eve of trial of approximately $100,000.

Bill is extensively involved in uninsured motorist and underinsured motorist arbitrations, as both a litigator and as an arbitrator. He has served as the plaintiff's arbitrator, defense arbitrator, and neutral arbitrator in such cases. He is well respected for his knowledge of the law and damages, as well as his integrity and common sense approach in resolving such cases.

Commercial Litigation
Bill has handled a wide variety of commercial litigation matters in a number of venues, including county courts and contractual arbitrations.

Bill has been involved in litigating numerous cases involving covenants not to compete, representing either the company or the individuals involved. In one particular case, Bill became involved early and was able to establish the case using e-mails left on the company owned computer system, as well as the company owned cell phones.

One niche area of Bill's commercial litigation practice involves representing employers in embezzlement cases.  In several separate and unrelated cases, accounting firms and other law firms who discovered that their clients were the victims of major embezzlement have brought Bill in to assist the company and then aggressively pursue the embezzler to recover funds.

In a wide variety of business break up cases, varying from typical family businesses to multi-physician practices, Bill has been brought in to resolve, and, as necessary, litigate the issues to a successful conclusion.  In one particular case, Bill was brought in as special trial counsel to represent one side in a very contentious family business break-up litigation, where one side challenged that the other side had committed fraud when they forced a buyout of the other's interest. Largely, through Bill's efforts, this long-standing dispute was resolved by the withdrawal of the case by the other side.

Transactional Matters
Bill's prior experience as a corporate attorney, when coupled with his science background and problem solving approach, has led him to the position of general counsel of a number of mid-sized firms. In this capacity, Bill advises the client in a wide variety of areas and handles the litigation matters that those companies have. In this capacity, he also uses the litigation experience that he has developed to position the companies, both structurally and factually, to defend against claims that may be brought against them.

Real Estate Litigation
Bill has been involved in various types of real estate litigation matters, involving lease provisions, common area maintenance charge calculations, and claims against architects. In one particular matter, Bill brought litigation against a major architectural firm for their mismanagement of a project.

Orphans' Court Litigation
Bill has represented clients in various types of cases involving litigation before the Orphans' Court. In one case in particular, which grew out of a personal injury matter, Bill was asked to represent the mother of a deceased infant child, who sought to be named Administratrix of the child's estate for the purpose of pursuing the personal injury litigation. The decedent's father had also sought to be named Administrator of the child's estate. The matter proceeded through a hearing before the Register of Wills and eventually a full trial before the Orphans' Court Judge, resulting in a reported opinion in Bill's client's favor.

Miscellaneous Litigation

Bill has also handled a variety of other litigation matters that are of note:

1. Pennsylvania has a statute entitled Wrongful Use of Civil Proceedings, which is designed to discourage what some people call frivolous lawsuits.. Bill has handled a variety of such cases and has been used as an expert in one such case.

2. While criminal cases can often be mundane, especially those involving claims of drunk driving, that is not always the case. Two individuals were up all night working on putting a new engine in a high performance car. In the morning, after the engine was installed and had been warmed up, the two took the car out for a short ride to check out the engine. Less than a mile down the road, the car crashed at a high speed and the passenger was killed and the driver injured. The driver, who was amnesic as to the events, was charged with homicide by vehicle, DUI related a serious charge. Bill was brought in to try the case. After conducting a thorough investigation as to the history of the car and its components, Bill tried the case as a products liability case in a criminal setting and used various automotive experts. He was able to establish to the jury's satisfaction that the accident was caused by a frayed throttle cable, which had stuck wide open and caused the car to accelerate out of control. The jury returned a verdict of not guilty.

Professional and Civic Activities:
Bill received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Physics from Muhlenberg College in 1969. Thereafter, he was a Distinguished Graduate from the United States Air Force Officer Training School in 1970. He subsequently attended the Dickinson School of Law (now part of Pennsylvania State University) and was graduated with a Juris Doctorate Degree in 1973.

Bill began his legal career drafting legislation for the Legislative Reference Bureau, which is part of the Pennsylvania Legislature. Upon graduation from law school, he took a position as part of the Corporate Law Department of the Pennsylvania Power & Light Co., handling a wide variety of legal matters. After approximately six months, and particularly in view of his physics background, he was selected as lead counsel on the billion dollar nuclear power plant that was being built by PP&L at the time.

In 1975, Bill entered private practice in Bucks County as a principal in the long established Perkasie law firm of Donald B. Smith & Associates. In 1986, Bill Roeger along with Jim Walker formed their own firm, Roeger & Walker, with offices in Bucks and Lehigh Counties. At the beginning of 2004, Bill and Jim merged their practice with the law firm of Hamburg, Rubin, Mullin, Maxwell & Lupin.

Bill has been an active member of the Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers Association throughout his career. He has been on the Board of Governors of that organization from 1980 until the present and spent approximately 18 years of that time period on its Executive Committee. From 1991 through 2003, Bill served as the Comptroller of PaTLA.

Bill is also a member of the American Bar Association, the American Trial Lawyers Association, the Pennsylvania Bar Association, and the Bucks County Bar Association.

Bill has been a frequent lecturer for the Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers Association, as well as other medical-legal organizations. He has lectured in the fields of accident reconstruction, motor vehicle law, matrimonial law, civil procedure, municipal liabilty in motor vehicle cases, and ethics.

Bill is well grounded in the communities in which he serves. With the exception of the three years he spent in central Pennsylvania attending law school, Bill has spent his entire life in Bucks and Lehigh Counties. Bill is married to Ellen (Ball) Roeger and has been since 1970. They have two children, William C. Roeger, III and Matthew Barton Roeger.

Bill and his wife are active members of Peace Lutheran Church and have both served on its Church Council at various times. Bill has been a member of the Perkasie (Bucks County) Rotary Club since 1975 and has served as President of that organization. Bill has been very involved in politics and served on the Bucks County Republican Executive Committee from 1978 through 1995. He is also involved in a variety of other community organizations.