Articles

The Montgomery County PA Court of Common Pleas recently announced the implementation of a Pretrial Services Program in criminal cases. The program will be responsible for making bail recommendations and setting treatment requirements for those involved with addictions. The Court is also looking at setting up a “risk assessment tool” which would provide judges with […]

Pennsylvania’s criminal defense lawyers have fought a long and arduous battle against the notion that a Preliminary Hearing wherein a police officer testifies to what various witnesses told him satisfies due process. Having been dragged to the very bottom of this slippery slope, and watched Preliminary Hearings take place without a single witness with first-hand […]

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court just struck down Lebanon County’s ban on the use of medical marijuana by people who are on probation. Many other Pennsylvania counties, including Montgomery County, have the same rule, so the decision will have a significant impact. The Court’s reasoning was that the legislature has permitted medical marijuana so the probation […]

Governor Wolf has just ordered the Pennsylvania State Correctional system to start releasing “nonviolent” state correctional inmates to house arrest who are within 9 months of their minimum eligibility for parole. This is a huge development as Pennsylvania’s state sentences require a minimum parole date and a maximum date such as 10-20 years. This means […]

‘Forced Social Distancing’: Courts Urged to Prevent Prisons From Becoming Vector for COVID-19 Philadelphia-area courts and criminal justice lawyers have been working to develop procedures to handle cases as quickly as possible. By Max Mitchell | March 31, 2020 at 06:59 PM      Prison officials throughout Pennsylvania have been scrambling to contain the outbreak of COVID-19 in correctional facilities, […]