Pennsylvania Criminal Defense

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...

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...