HARRISBURG – A 5-2 majority of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania has affirmed a state’s law permitting mail-in voting, reversing a contrary finding reached in the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania in January.
HARRISBURG – The Chairman of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives Judiciary Committee has introduced legislation to amend Pennsylvania’s constitution to prohibit venue shopping in medical liability cases, a potential game-changer for civil litigation statewide if it were to be passed.
HARRISBURG – A former employee of the State House of Representatives’ Republican Caucus who sued the body for discrimination, unlawful termination and retaliation, claiming he received prejudicial treatment for his practice of the Islamic faith, has settled his claims.
HARRISBURG – A 3-2 majority of the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania has ruled that the state’s law permitting mail-in voting is unconstitutional, a finding immediately appealed by the administration of Gov. Tom Wolf to the state Supreme Court.
PHILADELPHIA – A federal appeals court has overturned a lower court ruling which eliminated Gov. Tom Wolf’s unprecedented COVID-19 emergency restrictions, finding the issue to be moot because not only have those restrictions expired in the interim, but voters statewide have also since amended the state constitution to roll back a governor’s range of emergency powers.
PHILADELPHIA – An attorney representing Butler County, a county which contested the legality of Gov. Tom Wolf’s COVID-19 emergency measures before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, agrees with a federal judge that state officials should never again enact policies which violate the constitutional rights of Pennsylvanians.
HARRISBURG – The Pennsylvania House of Representatives has passed a broad-based liability shield for the COVID-19 pandemic for commercial businesses and health care entities statewide, in a bill that would protect them from lawsuit claims related to coronavirus exposure.
HARRISBURG – The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania has ordered that Election Day’s provisional ballots submitted to correct defects in mail-in ballots be segregated, pending further review.
HARRISBURG – In a 4-3 decision, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania decided to consider if county election officials are permitted to discard mail-in ballots purely predicated on comparing the signatures of voters on ballot envelopes and registration forms, prior to Election Day in less than three weeks.
HARRISBURG – The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has stayed a lower court’s ruling declaring Gov. Tom Wolf’s coronavirus emergency measures unconstitutional while the appeal process continues, thereby keeping restrictions on crowd sizes relating to the pandemic in place.
HARRISBURG – In a first-ever repudiation of policies taken by top state officials to protect the public during the coronavirus pandemic, a federal judge has declared parts of Gov. Tom Wolf’s virus prevention strategies to be unconstitutional.
HARRISBURG – Republican politicians in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives say they were justified in firing one of their former photographers for legitimate reasons and not for the unlawful reason he cites, which was his practice of the Islamic faith.
HARRISBURG – A federal judge has jettisoned some counts from a lawsuit brought by an ex-employee who alleged he received prejudicial treatment for his practice of the Islamic faith.
PITTSBURGH – A federal judge has ordered an expedient hearing for a complaint brought by 17 plaintiffs, including four Pennsylvania counties and four members of the state House of Representatives, seeking declaratory judgments that their constitutional rights were violated by Gov. Tom Wolf’s business shutdown orders in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
HARRISBURG – Seventeen plaintiffs, including four Pennsylvania counties and four members of the state House of Representatives, are seeking declaratory judgments that their constitutional rights were violated by Gov. Tom Wolf’s business shutdown orders in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
PHILADELPHIA – Despite the recent stall of a proposal to extend legal immunity to health care providers and their staff providing critical care in response to the coronavirus, trade organizations continue to support such a move for Pennsylvania.
HARRISBURG – The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania has formally denied an application for reconsideration and re-argument in a significant case that gave personal injury lawyers a boost by finding the seven-year time limit on filing medical malpractice lawsuits was “unconstitutional.”
HARRISBURG – For the second time, Pennsylvania’s GOP Caucus is trying to have dismissed the lawsuit brought by an ex-employee who alleged he received prejudicial treatment for his practice of the Islamic faith.
HARRISBURG – A Pennsylvania Senate Legislative Budget and Finance Committee (LBFC) report on the effects of changing current medical malpractice litigation venue rules is nearly finished and may be released in February, its executive director said.
