Articles

The United States Supreme Court has denied the appeal of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s  ruling that Pennsylvania’s sex offender registration law was unconstitutional . Example sex offender registrant under Pennsylvania Law. This past summer, Jose Muniz, convicted in 2007 of indecent assault against a minor and a required registrant under the Sex Offender Registration and […]

Many accountants have been advising their clients to prepay their 2018 property taxes at the end of 2017, as they will not be deductible in 2018.  However, many don’t realize that most  Pennsylvania counties won’t accept the prepayments.  Home Rule counties like Philadelphia are accepting them, but others like Montgomery County and Bucks County will […]

There are three categories of interaction that occur between an individual and a police officer: 1) a mere encounter; 2) an investigative detention; and 3) an arrest. A mere encounter is a request for information and need not be supported by any level of suspicion. In Terry v. Ohio, the US Supreme Court described an […]

At the end of 2014, Pennsylvania’s new Good Samaritan Drug Overdose Immunity Law went into effect. The law provides major changes to Pennsylvania’s drug laws by providing immunity for both individuals experiencing an overdose and those who attempt to save their lives. In an effort to encourage bystanders and/or friends of an overdosed person to […]

On November 8, 2017, the Pennsylvania Superior Court determined that applying the Tarbert/Blouse guidelines is improper in cases involved with the traffic stop of a commercial vehicle and suppression of evidence related to that stop. The PA Superior Court explained their holding in Commonwealth v. Maguire, No. 654 MDA 2016 (November 8, 2017).  The case […]