A Conversation With: Jennifer Kline

Jennifer Kline, 54, started her law career in 1992, representing employers and insurance companies in workers’ compensation claims. She later joined Katherman, Briggs and Greenberg LLP and began representing employees in those cases. She is a member of the York County Bar Association and the Pennsylvania Bar Association. She is a member of the PBA section on workers’ compensation law as well as the Pennsylvania Association for Justice‘s workers’ compensation rules committee, the latter position appointed by the secretary of labor and industry.

Kline earned a bachelor’s degree in government and English from Franklin & Marshall College and a juris doctorate from Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Conn.

She lives in Spring Garden Township and is the mother of two sons.

Q: In your career, you have represented clients on both sides of workers’ compensation claims. What are some misconceptions you see regarding these cases?

A: Early in my career, I represented the employers and the insurance company, and I was defending workers’ comp claims brought by the injured workers, and even then at times I believed there were misconceptions on the part of the employers and insurance companies regarding the injured workers’ desire to continue working or to return to work following an injury, and how their inability to return to work as a result of the injury truly impacted them and their families. Now that I’ve represented injured workers for almost 25 years, one of the misperceptions many injured workers have is the sense the employer or insurance company is out to get them because they’ve sustained a workplace injury. Having represented clients on both sides has given me the ability to understand the thought processes from the employer and the insurance companies’ perspective. It really allows me the ability to compassionately represent my client in what has become a very complex system of laws. For many of my clients, it’s their first experience dealing with a workplace injury they never wanted, never anticipated, never expected. It’s good to have the perspective from both sides.

Q: How does that perspective help you in your current practice?

A: Having represented the insurance companies, having dealt with adjusters and employers on a day-to-day basis, you realize they are not evil people. Now that I’m on the claims side, you see these injured workers are really in a quandary when they get hurt. They’re off work, they have no income coming in. The system is adversarial by nature, that’s the way it’s designed, but I think both sides have misperceptions about the other and having been on both sides enables me to represent my clients more compassionately.

Q: You also serve on the Pennsylvania Bar Association section on workers’ compensation law and the Pennsylvania Association for Justice’s workers’ compensation rules committee. Why is it important for you to take on these additional roles?

A: I handle workers’ comp cases and I litigate those cases in Pennsylvania, and there are rules that govern the practice and procedures and how we are handling our cases and how we interact with the workers’ comp bureau, judges and other lawyers. Having handled workers’ comp cases for so many years, I felt my personal experiences in making recommendations for implementing changes to some of the existing rules would be helpful from a practical, day-to-day application standpoint. It’s also important that there be a balance on a committee like that, because you need attorneys who represent an injured worker and you need attorneys who represent the insurance company and you need employees from the bureau of workers’ comp, so it reflects rules that are fair to all parties in litigation.

Q: Do you decorate for Christmas the day after Halloween or do you wait until December?

A: I wait until December. I have always enjoyed Thanksgiving and I love celebrating Thanksgiving and I love the tradition of starting to decorate after Thanksgiving is over, and just from a practical perspective I couldn’t stand having drying trees in my house for more than three weeks. I’m happy to get it up and happy to get it down.