Category: Litigation / Personal Injury
Criminal Law: What is a Preliminary Hearing?
If you are arrested in Pennsylvania and charged with a serious crime, such as a misdemeanor or felony, a preliminary hearing before a magistrate will be scheduled promptly. In the first instance, the purpose of a preliminary hearing is to protect the right of the… Continue reading
What is Interpleader? (Stuck in the Middle Again…
Interpleader is a legal remedy designed to protect a stakeholder caught between two competing claimants who have sued or threatened to sue the stakeholder to recover money or other property. Easy to say but not always easy to comprehend. Perhaps the best way to understand… Continue reading
Statutes of Limitation
A statute of limitation is a law or rule that requires specific types of claims to be brought in court within a certain time frame, or be forever barred. Some limitation periods are short; others can be longer. Here is a chart showing the applicable… Continue reading
Sidewalk Trip-and-Fall — Who’s Liable?
Although the public has a right-of-way to use a sidewalk adjacent to a homeowner’s residence, the homeowner has an obligation to maintain the sidewalk so that pedestrians using it will not be at risk. This includes removing ice or snow within a reasonable period after… Continue reading
Pennsylvania’s Deficiency Judgment Act
When a real estate mortgage is foreclosed the underlying property is typically sold at a sheriff’s sale by the mortgage lender. The lender hopes to sell the property for a high enough price to cover the loan balance owed by the borrower. Sometimes, however, the… Continue reading
“Incompetent, Irrelevant and Immaterial”
In the courtroom, especially in the case of a jury trial, information which is presented to the court is subject to various limitations and controls. For example, in the case involving whether a driver ran through a stop sign in Pennsylvania without stopping it might… Continue reading
Small Claims Court
Pennsylvania’s small claims court system is a system of uniform statewide Magisterial District Justice courts. Each of the more than 500 Magisterial District Justices has exclusive jurisdiction over his or her specific geographic area. Civil claims can be brought in the district where the defendant… Continue reading
Fore II
In our continuing effort to keep you abreast of the latest news in golf liability (OK, it’s December – maybe we can’t play golf but we can write about it!) we bring you a recent case from New Jersey: A golfer playing a ball on… Continue reading
Protecting The Attorney-Client Privilege
The law recognizes certain communications as being so important as to warrant legal protection from mandatory disclosure in judicial proceedings. We have all heard of the physician-patient privilege and the clergy-penitent privilege, but the law also recognizes a privilege between attorney and client which protects… Continue reading
Crimes and Misdemeanors
The criminal law of Pennsylvania is largely codified in a lengthy statute known as the Pennsylvania Crimes Code, taking up several book volumes of the Pennsylvania Statutes. The Crimes Code covers everything from “petty theft” to “grand larceny”, from “simple assault” to “murder”. Criminal conduct… Continue reading