kmbApr14
November 3, 2008
Recently, court documents were uncovered from a successful civil case involving some notorious nineteenth-century defendants who were better known for avoiding the legal consequences of their acts: Jesse and Frank James. Not surprisingly, the case against the James brothers stemmed from one of their signature activities, a bank robbery. During an attempted bank robbery by […]
kmbApr14
October 18, 2008
An injured worker with a physician’ s prescription for massage therapy was denied coverage for the prescribed treatment, while another injured worker without any prescription was awarded a wheelchair-accessible van. What made for the different results? No Massage Therapy The worker who received massage therapy had been injured on the job when he strained his […]
kmbApr14
October 4, 2008
When a Pennsylvania car dealer clashed with his township zoning board over his use of portable searchlights, he found that the law was not on his side. The car dealer wanted to use portable searchlights to “call attention generally to the business locations” and occasionally to highlight promotional events. The local zoning board banned the […]
kmbApr14
September 30, 2008
When the child of separated parents was killed in an automobile accident, the parents both filed claims against their automobile insurance companies, with very different results. The child died after he was struck by a car while he was attempting to cross the street in front of his mother’ s home. The child resided primarily […]
kmbApr14
July 1, 2008
Teachers are not entitled to collect unemployment benefits during school breaks or summer vacation if they have a “reasonable assurance of continued employment” in the next academic year. Recently, a Pennsylvania Head Start program successfully objected to the unemployment claims of several of its employees. The employees taught low-income, prekindergarten children basic reading and counting […]
kmbApr14
June 30, 2008
Public school districts are government bodies. Because of this, their decisions are government actions and thus are limited by the constitutional rights of the persons affected. Public school employees enjoy broad constitutional protection in their district’s hiring and firing decisions. In addition, most public school employees have union contracts that give them additional job protection. […]
kmbApr14
June 26, 2008
A year after an 82-year-old Pennsylvania woman was admitted to nursing care, she changed her will. Her previous will had divided her estate among her three daughters. The new will gave more than 90% of the estate to only one daughter. The two daughters who were virtually eliminated as heirs discovered the new will and […]
kmbApr14
June 24, 2008
Those of us who are over 30 years old may remember Pennsylvania’s “peace bonds,” orders issued by justices of the peace requiring that a troublesome person leave others in peace. Peace bonds were abolished many years ago and were later replaced in part with the Protection from Abuse Act. The Protection from Abuse Act gives […]
kmbApr14
June 21, 2008
Pennsylvania law clearly and strongly requires that all drivers maintain automobile insurance coverage at all times. The Motor Vehicle Code provides that when a driver fails to maintain insurance coverage on his or her car, the registration of the car must be suspended by the Department of Transportation (PennDOT) for three months. A suspension of […]
