Category: Litigation / Personal Injury

You are sitting in your living room in a placid state when the bell rings; it’s the county sheriff, and he serves you with a complaint from your next-door neighbor, alleging that last summer’s addition to your garage has caused a flood in his basement,… Continue reading →

In a civil case, when the plaintiff is successful in proving his case, he obtains a judgment against the defendant. If the case seeks recovery of money damages, the judgment will be for a specific dollar amount of recovery.The story does not end here, however.… Continue reading →

What is an integration clause? Before you start thinking it has something to do with affirmative action, let’s set the record straight. Integration clauses typically are included at the end of most contracts and provide, in express terms, that the written contract represents the entire… Continue reading →

From the beginning of American jurisprudence, our law of contracts has required the presence of “consideration” in order for a contractual obligation to be enforceable. Stated simply, both parties to a contract must be required to give up something and receive something as part of… Continue reading →

A recent reported case involved a golfer struck by a golf ball on the course. He sued the player who hit the ball because he failed to shout “fore”.The Court sided with the errant ball-striker, holding that a golfer is deemed to be on notice… Continue reading →

In any negotiation each side has certain leverage which enhances its ability to negotiate favorable terms; however, once an agreement of sale is fully executed, terms are set, and most leverage disappears.As the title of this article suggests, if you elect to have an agreement… Continue reading →

Litigation is rarely a tidy or expeditious process. Parties to lawsuits generally are impatient and angry not only at the other party but at the plodding and often very expensive system. All of the problems seem to be exacerbated with celebrity litigants, especially when the… Continue reading →

Most people think of our courts as courts of law – places where we go to enforce legal rights and to seek remedies when our rights are violated. Historically, however, our court system is actually a combination of law courts and courts of equity. Courts… Continue reading →

The law recognizes certain communications as being so important as to warrant legal protection from forced disclosure in judicial proceedings. We have all heard of the doctor-patient privilege, and perhaps the priest-penitent privilege (more modernly, the clergy-penitent privilege), but the law also recognizes a privilege… Continue reading →

In recent months, the media tracking the Clinton-Lewinsky saga have been tossing around allegations of possible “perjury.” What the media have not done is provide a clear explanation of what perjury is. Pennsylvania’s perjury statute, 18 Pa.C.S. 4902, is typical of perjury laws throughout the… Continue reading →