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Legal News

The Legal Intelligencer Blog

From the oldest law journal in the United States.
By The Legal Intelligencer

Post Frequency: 4.6/day

Last Entry: March 29, 2011 at 14:24:47

Legal Services Get Modest Increase in State Budget

Posted on July 09, 2008
State funding for legal services organizations hurting from a drop in grants from interest on lawyer trust accounts increased only $526,000 in the state budget process last week, said Samuel Milkes, executive director of Pennsylvania Legal Aid Network, the statewide coordinating organization for 10 regional legal services programs and six specialized legal resource programs...

Sign Here, My Dear

Posted on July 08, 2008
This was the title of a series of lectures to help spouses, mostly wives, understand financial matters. It addressed a very real problem that families face when the “financial spouse” passes on. What bills do I have to pay? Will I have enough income to cover my expenses now that my spouse is gone? Will I [...

Allegheny County Children?s Court Launches Videoconferencing Pilot Program

Posted on July 07, 2008
In an effort to reduce trauma to children testifying - as well as court costs - Allegheny County Family Court has created a videoconferencing pilot program for its Children’s Court. Family Court Administrative Judge Kim Berkeley Clark and Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato announced Monday the launch of the program...

Gillison Speaks of Progress for Prison System

Posted on July 01, 2008
During a presentation to the Philadelphia Bar Association’s Criminal Justice Section last week, Philadelphia Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Everett Gillison said the city’s prison system wouldn’t dominate Mayor Michael Nutter’s criminal justice policy-making...

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The Wisdom of Dagwood Bumstead

Posted on June 30, 2008
Dagwood Bumstead, featured in the long-running comic strip Blondie, has worked for more than 70 years for J. C. Dithers, the model for many a law firm senior partner. But that was not the way he started out comic strip life. His saga tells an interesting story about family business succession...

Manufacturing Mootness

Posted on June 27, 2008
Federal courts of appeals deny petitions for rehearing every day and, unless a judge on the court dissents, there is seldom an opinion accompanying the denial. A case from the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals offers an exception to the rule and a lesson for lawyers who might be thinking about pushing the envelope [...

U.S. Supreme Court Ruling on Habeus Corpus Rights for Gitmo Detainees

Posted on June 25, 2008
A major topic of debate among Constitutional rights and immigration advocates was whether so-called ?terror? suspects had a right to challenge their detention in the civilian courts. Now, the U.S. Supreme Court has spoken. In a 5-4 decision, the justices handed the Bush administration yet another defeat in their quest to hold terror suspects indefinitely [...

First Civil Suit Filed Against Alleged Phila. ID Thieves

Posted on June 20, 2008
In what appears to be the first civil suit against a pair of identity thieves dubbed in the media as ?Bonnie and Clyde,? the salon and a hairstylist that helped bring the scam to light are suing for fraud, breach of contract and terrorist threats via text message...

My Country or Yours? Part Two: Litigating Hague Convention Claims

Posted on June 18, 2008
The Hague Convention is an international treaty that many countries have ratified, including the United States. The treaty prohibits parents from wrongfully removing and/or retaining a child from his or her home country. In order to seek relief under the convention, both the child’s home country and the country where the child was taken must [...

Friends of the Barnes Foundation Won?t Appeal Ruling

Posted on June 17, 2008
A group of art students, alumni and neighbors of the Barnes Foundation have joined Montgomery County in deciding not to appeal a court decision denying them standing to oppose the move of the Barnes Foundation’s $6 billion art collection to Philadelphia...

First Women in the Profession Summit Kicks Off This Week

Posted on June 17, 2008
The first-ever Women in the Profession Summit in Philadelphia will be held this week under the aegis of the Philadelphia Bar Association’s Women in the Profession Committee. The event will offer both substantive and ethics continuing legal education credits and the chance for women in the legal profession to erase the feeling that they’re isolated, said [...

Retirement Havens: Florida, Arizona?Pennsylvania

Posted on June 16, 2008
Part of planning for the future is deciding where to spend the golden years, as marketing types like to call them.� For those people who have an option where to live in retirement, there are the usual suspects: Florida, Arizona, North Carolina and there is the state that is one of the most popular among [...

Clarification Needed of Amendments to Rule 1925

Posted on June 13, 2008
Last year, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court adopted major amendments to Rule 1925 of the Pennsylvania Rules of Appellate Procedure, the rule requiring an appellant to list alleged errors by the trial court after a notice of appeal is filed.� While the purpose of the rule is to identify alleged errors so that the trial court [...

Pepper Shakes Up Litigation Dept. Leadership

Posted on June 12, 2008
Pepper Hamilton has made several changes to the leadership of one of its most well-known practices, the litigation and dispute resolution department. Frances P. Devine III, current chairman of the firm?s commercial litigation practice, and Laurence Z...

Recluse in Text-Obscenity Case Goes for Plea Over Facing Trial

Posted on June 11, 2008
Karen Fletcher, described by her attorneys as an agoraphobic who is afraid to leave her house, has decided to give up her fight in a text-obscenity case against her rather than go through the ordeal of a trial. An indictment was handed up against the Donora, Pa...

Recluse in Text-Obscenity Case Goes for Plea Over Facing Trial

High Court Quibbles Over Definition of ?Proceeds?

Posted on June 11, 2008
Most decisions issued by the United States Supreme Court include a majority opinion, supported by at least five of the court?s justices (assuming full participation by the court?s nine justices).� Yet, occasionally, the court is fractured, with no five justices agreeing on a single rationale for disposing of the case...

Supreme Court Accepts Lawyer?s Resignation From Pa. Bar

Posted on June 09, 2008
A criminal defense lawyer sentenced 25 to 50 years in prison for sex crimes with minors, including an estimated five incidents in the Criminal Justice Center, has voluntarily resigned from the Pennsylvania state bar. Larry Charles’ Feb. 28 resignation from the bar was accepted by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court Thursday...

Send Lawyers, Internal Revenue Codes and Money

Posted on June 09, 2008
Actually, the Warren Zevon song refers to “Lawyers, Guns and Money,” but the Internal Revenue Code can also be a dangerous weapon. Now that the campaign for president has reached the general election stage, it’s time to realize that whoever wins the election; there are massive changes in our federal tax system looming ahead...

Castille to Speak at Closed Chamber Event

Posted on June 05, 2008
Pennsylvania Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald D. Castille is speaking today at the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce in what’s billed as his first address as chief justice to the business community. The event was marketed to the legal community to encourage attendance of the event, but the event is billed as off-the-record and is closed [...

Branches of City Government Ready Mortgage Foreclosure Protection Plan

Posted on June 04, 2008
Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter has proposed $2 million in public funding to help Philadelphians impacted by the foreclosure crisis’ perfect storm of ballooning adjustable rate mortgages, predatory lending and slowing economy. The City Council passed a resolution in March for a moratorium on sheriff’s sales of foreclosed homes, spurring Sheriff John Green’s delay of sheriff’s sales [...

Family Court Keeps Current Home Pending Budget Approval

Posted on June 03, 2008
The First Judicial District’s Family Court plans to keep its domestic relations branch at 34 S. 11th St. until a new court building is approved by Harrisburg has been finalized. The court signed a five-year lease a few weeks ago with the building’s owner, Trinity Capital Associates, according to Jeff Jubelirer of the Ceisler Jubelirer public [...

Social Security: Did We Solve That Problem Yet?

Posted on June 02, 2008
� � I know it was discussed extensively over the past few years, but is it no longer front-page news because the problem has been fixed? Apparently not. It?s more likely that the nation is suffering from attention deficit disorder and can only think about high gas prices right now...

Dembe Discusses Pilot Jury Selection Program

Posted on May 29, 2008
Philadelphia Common Pleas Judge Pamela Pryor Dembe, supervising judge of the criminal branch, had a load of news for the criminal justice section of the Philadelphia Bar Association during its meeting Tuesday. In addition to Dembe?s critique of the Clerk of Quarter Sessions? Office and reporting that the First Judicial District is thinking about taking over [...

?You Kids Can Work It Out?

Posted on May 27, 2008
This is what a father wrote in a will that was brought to me. It illustrates another fundamental point about estate and retirement planning. The father had decided to make his estate planning easy. ?I?ll just buy CDs in my name and in the names of each of my children...

Immigrations and Customs Enforcement Initiatives Against Human Trafficking, Smuggling

Posted on May 23, 2008
Human trafficking is the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision or obtaining of a person for labor or services through the use of coercion, force or fraud. Human trafficking is usually for the purposes of subjecting an individual to involuntary servitude, debt bondage or slavery...

Girard-diCarlo to Get Ambassador Appointment

Posted on May 22, 2008
The White House announced on its personnel page that the president intends to nominate Blank Rome Chairman David. F. Girard-diCarlo as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Republic of Austria. Girard-diCarlo has been a major donor and fundraiser for President George W...

Saul Ewing Names New Co-Chairs of Bankruptcy Dept.

Posted on May 21, 2008
With the departure of bankruptcy chairman Norman Pernick over Saul Ewing?s policy change to accept financial institutions as clients, the firm had some leadership spots to fill. It announced today that Jeffrey C. Hampton, previously vice-chairman of the group, and Wilmington-based partner Mark Minuti will serve as co-chairman of Saul Ewing?s bankruptcy and restructuring department...

?Lawyers Are Good?

Posted on May 21, 2008
I adapted this motto from that of Faber College (”Knowledge Is Good”), to illustrate a point about trust and estate planning. Lawyers are specially trained in the law and in legal writing for an important reason, which is so they can write documents that make sense and accomplish what they are supposed to do...

Clause Bars Candidates from Campaign Commitments

Posted on May 20, 2008
A change made to the Pennsylvania Code of Judicial Conduct earlier this year clarified the clause prohibiting judicial candidates from making statements that ?commit or appear to commit? candidates regarding cases. Similarly, the rule governing the political activity of non-judicial members of the Pennsylvania Court of Judicial Discipline also was changed earlier this year in [...

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