The Pennsylvania Senate Caucus filed suit trying to force the Governor to honor a legislative resolution challenging his executive order in response to COVID-19. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court denied the request, upholding the Governor’s orders. So wear your masks and let’s get through this together.
A firefighter was justly compensated for his work-related injuries, but the workers comp payout caused a fight between Asbury Park and its insurance carrier. In this certified question the from the 3rd Circuit, the Supreme Court held that the contract between the insured city and the insurer controlled the allocation of funds recovered from a … Read more
The Supreme Court exercised its King’s Bench authority to consider whether Lebanon County courts and probation department can prohibit a probationer from using medical marijuana where that probationer otherwise is in compliance with Pennsylvania’s Medical Marijuana Act. Simply put, the Court held that the courts and probation department could not prohibit medical marijuana use by … Read more
Miller submitted a Right to Know Law (“RTKL”) request to the District, seeking a copy of surveillance video from a school bus. The District denied the request. Miller appealed to the Office of Open Records (“OOR”), which ordered the District to disclose the video. The District appealed to the court of common pleas, which agreed … Read more
While the instant action was proceeding on direct appeal, the Supreme Court ruled in Protz v. Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board, 161 A.3d 827 (Pa. 2017) that a certain potion of workers’ compensation benefits statutory law was unconstitutional. The claimant in the instant matter properly raised and preserved the same issue for his case and now … Read more
Father, a Colorado resident, executed a consent to adoption to allow his children’s step-father to adopt the them. The consent complied with Pennsylvania’s Adoption Act. But it did not comply necessarily with Colorado’s corollary statute. Father later tried to revoke that consent and claimed that, under Section 2711(c) of the Adoption Act, he was entitled … Read more
The Chester County Court of Common Pleas declared Subchapter H of the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (“SORNA”) unconstitutional as violative of several provisions of both the United States and Pennsylvania Constitutions. The PA Supreme Court vacated and remanded. The Court began its discussion with an in-depth analysis of the developments in PA case … Read more
Under Pennsylvania’s Right-to-Know Law, the state police provided a heavily-redacted copy of investigation regulations to the ACLU along with a letter indicating that the redactions were necessary under the RTKL’s public-safety exception. The ACLU filed an appeal with the Office of Open Records, seeking an unredacted copy. The OOR received an unredacted version for in … Read more
Harrison sued her former employer alleging Retaliation pursuant to Pennsylvania’s Whistleblower Law. The trial court dismissed the suit, holding that the claim was improperly filed, because, since Harrison was not a member of a protected class, the claim should have been filed pursuant to the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act (PHRA). The Superior Court disagreed, and the PA … Read more
Appellant challenged his sentence for failing to register as a sex-offender under the 18 Pa.C.S. § 4915, which since has been ruled unconstitutional. The Supreme Court held that his sentence on this void statute is an illegal sentence and vacated the judgments of sentence.