Articles

Deal or No Deal: U.S. Supreme Court Finds Defense Counsel Ineffective for Advice on Plea Bargains

Filed under: Criminal Law, News Tags: by Steven F. Fairlie @ April 5, 2012

The United States Supreme Court has established a new constitutional remedy—to challenge the results of a plea bargain that was accepted or rejected because of bad legal advice. In a pair of cases from Missouri and Michigan, a divided Supreme Court ruled that when a lawyer representing a criminal defendant acts incompetently when advising whether […]

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Pennsylvania Superior Court Banishes Ineffective Assistance of Counsel Claims to PCRA only

Filed under: Criminal Law, News Tags: by Steven F. Fairlie @ July 25, 2011

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 […]

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