Notable Accomplishments
- In the words of the Editorial Board of The Wilmington News Journal, “Mr. Neuberger never gave up his fight to receive justice for his abused clients” in the Diocese of Wilmington bankruptcy.
- Together with co-counsel Jacobs & Crumplar, successfully represented 99 of 146 childhood sexual abuse survivors in the recovery of $77.425 million and numerous non-monetary terms in the Diocese of Wilmington bankruptcy case.
- Fought for nearly four years to defend and uphold the constitutionality of the landmark Delaware Child Victim’s Act of 2007, 10 Del.C. § 8145 – which created a retroactive two year civil statute of limitations window for childhood sexual abuse survivors to hold accountable those who abused them and their enablers – over state and federal due process challenges brought by the Roman Catholic Church. After successfully defending the constitutionality of the Act before the Delaware Superior Court in Whitwell v. Archmere Academy, Inc., 2008 WL 1735370 (Del.Super. April 16, 2008), and again in Sheehan v. Oblates of St. Francis de Sales, et al., C.A.No. 07C-11-234 (Del.Super. Oct. 27, 2009) (slip. op. at 9), finally in February 2011 the Delaware Supreme Court, sitting en banc, unanimously upheld the constitutionality of the CVA in Sheehan v. Oblates of St. Francis de Sales, 15 A.3d. 1247 (Del. 2011).
- Together with co-counsel Jacobs & Crumplar, represented abuse survivor John M. Vai in his trial against Father Francis DeLuca and St. Elizabeth’s Roman Catholic Church, and achieving the first jury verdict to ever hold accountable an individual parish for its long, despicable cover up of the sexual abuse of its young parishioners by its parish priests. Following a nearly eight week trial, a Kent County Delaware jury found St. Elizabeth’s liable for $3,000,001 in compensatory and punitive damages and Father Francis DeLuca liable for $60,000,000 in compensatory and punitive damages for the abuse inflicted on John when he was just a young boy.
- Largest priest-pedophile federal jury verdict in the history of the State of Delaware; $41,000,000 in Whitwell v. Smith, C.A.No. 05-796-SLR (D.Del.).
- Achieved first State of Delaware court decision recognizing repressed memory or traumatic amnesia as a valid means of tolling the statute of limitations in cases of childhood sexual abuse in Eden v. Oblates of St. Francis de Sales, 2006 WL 3512482 (Del.Super. Dec. 4, 2006).
- After a three year federal court battle, forcing the Pentagon to nullify a written reprimand given to decorated Air Force Sergeant Jason A. Adkins after he spoke out against a tainted anthrax vaccine being administered to servicemen and women at Dover Air Force Base. After repeatedly defeating the federal government’s efforts to dismiss the entire case, the Pentagon finally settled and agreed that the reprimand was nullified and “deemed to be of no effect.”
- Protecting the rights of dedicated psychiatrists such as David T. Springer, M.D., to blow the whistle on patient abuse and expose grave threats to the health and safety of patients in state psychiatric hospitals and be protected from retaliation for doing so.