Pennsylvania Criminal Defense

In Pennsylvania, a crime only becomes a “crime of domestic violence” if two conditions are met: It is a certain, eligible type of offense under the state’s domestic violence statute It is committed against a certain...

In our last blog post, we discussed the difference between blood alcohol content (BAC) and breath alcohol content (BrAC). While police often insist that they are the same, BrAC is far easier to measure. However, it is also...

One of the most important numbers in the law of driving under the influence (DUI) is a driver’s blood alcohol content, or BAC. But if your BAC is the amount of alcohol that is in your blood, how can police get a...

Pennsylvania’s criminal law allows police to conduct sobriety checkpoints to enforce the state’s laws against driving under the influence, or DUI. However, not all states in the U.S. permit sobriety...

Law enforcement officials at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) went to great lengths to investigate and charge international students with visa fraud. So far, in fact, that the defendants might be able to raise a strong...

In Philadelphia, there are five ways for a driving under the influence (DUI) to begin: After police notice a driving infraction During a pretextual stop After a single-vehicle car accident, or a crash that only damaged...

The police union in Philadelphia has vowed to appeal a court’s ruling that the city’s district attorney, Larry Krasner, could refuse to call certain police officers to the stand who had been labeled as unreliable...

A woman in Delaware is being accused of child abuse after one of her children was brought to the hospital with facial injuries. The case involves some disturbing facts that could be used to prove that she acted knowingly...

In our last blog post, we discussed hearsay and why it matters, as well as why it’s been in the news so much lately. While any single blog post will always fail to convey all of the intricacies inherent in hearsay law,...

One of the most important and most complex legal topics is also one of the most difficult legal topics to explain, largely because so few people hear about it or have to worry about it on a daily basis. Recently, though, that has...

In our last blog post, we looked at a hit-and-run accident that killed a Vietnam veteran. In the post, we discussed how some states try to protect certain classes of people – typically cops – by increasing the penalties...

In a recent blog post, we detailed a strange possibility in Pennsylvania’s domestic violence laws: Under the terms of the statute, “current or former sexual or intimate partners” are included in the...

An apparent hit-and-run accident in Pennsylvania killed a Vietnam veteran right before Veteran’s Day. While the media is making much of the man’s prior military record, the law in Pennsylvania – unlike in some other...

Police in Philadelphia are investigating an apparent murder and robbery that may have been committed by a prostitute. While lethal crimes cannot be crimes of domestic violence, the situation raises an interesting hypothetical...

An investigation by The New York Times found what criminal defense attorneys have known about driving under the influence (DUI) law for some time, now: Breath testing machines are not always...

The state of Pennsylvania is going to be providing nonprofits and churches with millions of dollars to enhance their security against hate crimes. The impetus provides a great way to examine what a hate crime is, and how the law...

A Philadelphia area man is facing some serious criminal charges after he was involved in a fatal collision in West Caln Township. Police who responded to the crash discovered that he showed signs of intoxication and arrested him...

A botched armed robbery led to a strange turn of events when the store clerk locked the robber inside the building until the police showed up. The unique facts of the case provide an opportunity to talk about the legal...

A Philadelphia police officer is facing criminal charges for stalking and harassing a woman he dated several years ago. He has been suspended from the force and will likely be fired if the charges go anywhere....

Police near Philadelphia conducted an impromptu and unprecedented sting operation for underage drinking and fake identifications in Bryn Mawr. A criminal charge for having a fake ID is surprisingly serious because...