Child custody trials can be interesting; alas, not as riveting as the clients seem to think. The Parnell trial pitted an ex Army ranger turned novelist/ U.S. Senate candidate against
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Protection from Abuse
The Kiddie Hearsay Statute: Not Just for Criminal Lawyers
By Mark Ashton on
In 1989 the Pennsylvania General Assembly adopted an oddly named law of evidence titled: “Admissibility of Certain Statements.” The thrust of the statute is that under limited circumstances, if a…
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SEARCHING OUR ELECTRONIC PAST: The Protection from Abuse Gloves Come Off in Pennsylvania’s Senate Race
By Mark Ashton on
This writer grew up as a Republican and recalls with some fondness the wars in the 1970s between liberal “Rockefeller” Republicans and conservative “Reaganites.” The fight was for the soul…
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Lessons from the Lauren McCluskey Tragedy
By Mark Ashton on
She was 21 and a college student. Anyone who recalls being 21 will also recall that it is an age of experimentation. Today she is dead, murdered by a person…
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DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AND THE “WILLOUGHBY MOMENT”
By Mark Ashton on
2017 was a remarkable year in many ways. In late Spring we watched one of America’s favorite entertainers tried for sexual assault. In October, prominent producer Harvey Weinstein was accused…
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Domestic Violence: A Report From The Data
By Mark Ashton on
October is Domestic Violence Awareness month. And, earlier this month the Administrative Office of the Pennsylvania Court (“AOPC”) issued its summary of statistics related to this form of action.
A…
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Facebook Antagonist Has Conviction Reinstated
By Aaron Weems on
We’ve reported on the United States v. Elonis in the past. This case involved a Northampton County man who made a series of threats on his Facebook page directed…
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Post on Social Media, Go to Jail – How a Facebook Post Violated a Court Order
By Aaron Weems on
A recent criminal case addressed, in part, an issue we saw in the case of Elonis v. United States. The Elonis case went to the U.S. Supreme Court which …
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“They Lied: Make Them Pay”
By Mark Ashton on
For those who practice in the domestic relations world, one of the great frustrations comes when a client asks us to extract a sometimes appropriate pound of flesh as compensation…
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Can Social Media Speech Violate Protection from Abuse Orders?
By Aaron Weems on
I recently wrote a column for The Legal Intelligencier about the Supreme Court’s decision in the Elonis v. United States to overturn Elonis’ criminal conviction and forty-four month prison term…
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