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Lawyer's personal assets, bank accounts at risk as opponents seek to collect $1M sanction

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Lawyers for a cancer patient’s family are seeking to collect a $1 million sanction imposed on a Pennsylvania lawyer for allegedly allowing an improper reference in a medical malpractice case.

The lawyers filed a writ of execution in an effort to obtain assets from the sanctioned lawyer, Nancy Raynor of Malvern, Pennsylvania, the Legal Intelligencer (sub. req.) reports. Raynor’s lawyer, Jeffrey McCarron, told the publication that the lawyers are seeking Raynor’s business bank accounts and personal assets.

Judge Paul Panepinto of Philadelphia imposed the $1 million penalty on Raynor in November after concluding that Raynor allowed an expert witness to refer to a lung cancer patient’s history of smoking during a May 2012 medical malpractice trial. Panepinto declared a mistrial as a result; in the November retrial, jurors awarded $2 million to the cancer patient’s daughter.

The $1 million is for attorney fees and would be paid to the cancer patient’s daughter and her lawyers.

McCarron filed an appeal of the sanction order and is seeking to delay payment. Raynor is “obviously in distress and very concerned about the impact this activity will have on her personally and professionally,” he told the Legal Intelligencer.