Pennsylvania Criminal Defense

In our last blog post, we detailed the voluntary intoxication defense in Pennsylvania. While somewhat rare, that defense argues that a criminal defendant cannot be liable for a crime because they were too intoxicated to be...

Even though drinking alcohol or taking drugs can make people do things that they would not otherwise do, being drunk or high is almost never a defense to a crime. In fact, Pennsylvania has a law that specifically prohibits...

Crimes of moral turpitude are notoriously vague and difficult to define. Nevertheless, they are regularly used to determine the collateral consequences of a criminal conviction. For example, a crime of moral turpitude...

Many criminal defendants see probation as a Get Out of Jail Free card. And while this is correct in one sense – defendants sentenced to probation, quite literally, do not have to go to jail – probation does not mean...

After a criminal charge, if a defendant pleads guilty or gets convicted in a trial, the case will move to sentencing. Even though there has already been a conviction, a criminal defense lawyer is still essential at this...

Probation and parole are similar topics that have a lot in common. However, there are some important differences between the two that make them distinct from each other. These nuances are essential to keep in mind and avoid a...

One of the most important and well-known aspects of the law of driving under the influence (DUI) in Pennsylvania – and in all other states, for that matter – is that there is a presumption that a driver is too...

In our last post, we discussed the exclusionary rule – the legal doctrine that courts have fashioned over the years to penalize police when they violate a suspect’s constitutional rights. What we only briefly...

Many of the amendments to the U.S. Constitution protect the rights of people who are suspected or who have been formally accused of committing a crime. However, none of those amendments state exactly how that protection works....

Subpoenas are powerful legal tools that courts and lawyers in Pennsylvania use to force people to testify or provide evidence in a pending case. Getting subpoenaed is a serious legal event, though, as you could face penalties if...

When police suspect that a driver is under the influence of alcohol or drugs, they will pull them over and initiate a traffic stop. One of the things that the cop is almost guaranteed to do is ask the driver to take a breath...

In a recent blog post, we summarized the types of collateral consequences of a criminal conviction in Pennsylvania. One of them is the possibility that a defendant who is not a U.S. citizen can get deported if they get...

The Fourth Amendment is one of the most important protections that Americans have against police overreach. A bulwark of the Fourth Amendments is its requirement that police get a warrant before searching for evidence of...

A charge of driving under the influence (DUI) is serious for anyone. For commercial drivers, though, it can be a threat to their very livelihood. Worse, people with a commercial driver’s license (CDL) are held...

In our last blog post, we discussed the Fair Chance Act and how it could help people with a criminal history get a job with the U.S. government. The Fair Chance Act, though, is just a reaction to a serious problem in the...

The costs of a criminal conviction last well past the defendant’s release from prison. It even extends past the last day of their probation. People who have been convicted for a crime in the past can struggle to get a job....

Nearly all criminal laws in Pennsylvania can only be broken if the actor has the necessary level of intent. Each criminal statute is supposed to include what that level of intent is, though there are only four levels of criminal...

Grand juries are perhaps the least understood aspect of the criminal justice system, both in Pennsylvania and across the country. Of course, some of that confusion comes from the fact that different states and the federal...

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...