Articles

Steven Fairlie presented a seminar for lawyers today at the Montgomery Bar Association entitled “So Your Client Had A Gun? Don’t Shoot From The Hip.” The seminar deal with substantive gun crimes like Persons Not to Possess Firearms, Carrying a Firearm Without a License, Robbery, and other crimes. It also covered sentencing issues that arise […]

Pennsylvania Senator Vincent Fumo was convicted in July of last year of 137 counts of Fraud, Tax Evasion and Obstruction of Justice. Among other things, the evidence showed that he used public employees and services for his private gain and ran the nonprofit Citizen’s Alliance for Better Neighborhoods for personal gain. The trial judge was […]

Former Luzerne County Judge Mark Ciavarella Jr. was sentenced today to 28 years in prison for accepting one million dollars in bribes to place children in two juvenile detention facilities built by the man who paid the Judge. Many of the children sentenced to the facilities were first time offenders and some were as young […]

Most Americans believe spanking has its place.  According to a recent ABCNEWS poll the public, by a 2-1 margin, approves of spanking children in principle. But what are the laws surrounding this issue? Generally, when you strike another you can be liable for assault and battery (among other offenses). However, there are a few exceptions […]

The Pennsylvania Superior Court has dramatically limited the manner of attacking criminal convictions for ineffective assistance of counsel. Whereas a clear cut case of ineffective assistance of counsel could previously be litigated on direct appeal (so long as a record had been made) even after Commonwealth v. Grant, it now must await PCRA review. This […]