Category: Spring 2009 Office Newsletter

Pennsylvania’s Right to Know Law, also sometimes called the Open Records Act, requires that government agencies share documents and records with members of the public. The law was amended in 2008 to broaden the scope of open records and to set up an agency to assist citizens who seek access to public records. The Office […]

When Are Trees Just “Timber”? A Pennsylvania man recently learned the tough answer to this question when he mistakenly cut down 13 mature trees on a wooded slope between his undeveloped lots and a neighbor’s home. No one disputed that the man was honestly mistaken in thinking the trees were on his own land. No […]

When an 88-year-old Pennsylvania businessman died without life insurance coverage, his family business was able to have its canceled life insurance policy reinstated when a Pennsylvania court declined to apply a law called “the mailbox rule.” The businessman was a partner in his family business. For many years the business itself had carried a life […]

njuries from spoiled food range in severity from the minor upset stomach to the tragic death of a child. The law of foodborne illnesses is a tangled web of federal and state law. Many food industries have secured some federal protection from liability to consumers. Pennsylvania, like most states, treats retailers, wholesalers, restaurants, caterers, and […]

If you own a business that takes deliveries from trucks, start your stopwatch when the truck driver arrives. And if you own or rent any property where any deliveries are made by commercial trucks or where any commercial trucks regularly park, you must post signs against diesel engine idling and actively take steps to prevent […]