If you’re convicted of a crime in Pennsylvania, you have a limited time to file a challenge under the Pennsylvania Post-Conviction Relief Act (PCRA). But if you meet PCRA’s criteria, you could obtain a fair resolution, have your conviction overturned and/or your sentence reduced. The PCRA is a Pennsylvania law that allows you to file […]

Slip and fall accidents on sidewalks can cause serious injuries. Maintaining a safe sidewalk in front of a property, whether residential or business, is the responsibility of the property owner. But in Pennsylvania, a city or state agency can be secondarily liable to a person who slips and falls because of a defect in the […]

Motorcycles are more likely to be involved in fatal crashes than cars, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA),who takes a closer look in May at protective protocols for bikers during Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month. Based on miles traveled, motorcyclists are “about 27 times more likely than people in passenger cars to die […]

With almost 70,000 diseases and only 200 presenting symptoms, it’s no wonder that diagnostic errors are common, but medical misdiagnoses are not easily tracked or managed and could lead to devastating consequences, according to an article in The Doctor Weighs In. In fact, medical misdiagnosis is the third leading cause of death in the U.S. […]

A recent study found a sharp increase in deaths nationwide caused by drivers going the wrong way,  according to an article in the Pittsburgh Gazette. Researchers from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety reviewed nationwide data from 2004 through 2019. They found an average of 360 wrong-way crashes per year in 2004 compared to an average […]

Motorcycle accidents are on the upswing, according to the 2019 Pennsylvania Crash Facts & Statistics, a publication of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. While PA crashes in general were at a record low in 2019, motorcycle crashes and fatalities each increased 10 percent from the previous year. Pennsylvania’s roads and highways cover more than 120,000 […]

We get many questions from clients on criminal law in Pennsylvania, including, most recently, the one that headlines this blog: “Can I appeal a criminal conviction from a car search?” Thanks to a significant development just a few months ago, the answer may be ‘yes.’ Back in 2014, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court cleared the way […]

Even though the calendar has moved into springtime, legislators in several states are still thinking about winter. Specifically, significant fines for drivers who don’t remove snow and ice from the tops of their vehicles, according to an article in Land Line. While the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and other states already have laws in place, the […]

Recently, Ontario  enacted a law giving people just 60 days to file a slip and fall claim, a substantially shorter time frame than the two years it previously allowed for filing claims. Proponents of the new law said the longer span of time made it difficult to defend against such claims, as evidence may be […]

The agency that handles workplace safety hasn’t done enough to confront COVID-19 offenses, according to a recent investigative report in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ). COVID-19 is the biggest workplace safety challenge in the history of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), yet the agency has taken only limited action during the pandemic, missing […]