About Joseph DeRita, Esquire

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Joseph "Joe" DeRita is a partner in the law firm of Shor, Levin & DeRita. For the past 20 years he has represented injured workers and their families as well as personal injury lawsuits for motor vehicle accidents, truck accidents, premise negligence, and product liability. 

Joe was born and raised in Philadelphia, graduated from Cardinal Dougherty High School in 1979. He received his B.A. in Industrial Relations from St. Joseph’s University in 1983 and his J.D. from Widener School of Law in 1986.  In 2005, Joe earned a master degree in law (LLM in Trial Advocacy) at Temple University and received the prestigious Faculty Achievement Award for Top Honors. 

Joe is a member of the American Trial Lawyers Association, Pennsylvania Bar Association Workers’ Compensation Section, Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers Association Workers’ Compensation Section (PaTLA), Philadelphia Bar Association, and Montgomery County Bar Workers’ Compensation Sections.  He served as Chair and Co-Chair of the Trial Lawyers Workers’ Compensation Section from 1996 to 1998. 

He is a three term member of the Philadelphia Bar Association Executive Committee and is a past Chair of the Workers’ Compensation Section.  Joe is past chair of the Workers’ Compensation Section of PaTLA and served on the organization’s Board of Governors from 1996 to 1998.  He is a frequent lecturer, course planner, and author in the field of workers’ rights, including vocational placement, medical reimbursement, legislative updates and expert testimony.

Joe has successfully handled and tried personal injury cases in the various county courts throughout Pennsylvania, including federal court cases in the Western, Middle and Eastern District Courts. 

Joe has a favorite quote that he lives by and practices law by:

"It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes up short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best, knows the triumph of high achievement; and who, at the worst if he fails at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat." -Theodore Roosevelt