Superior Court Erodes Pennsylvania’s Fair Share Act
5/17/21
By: Erin Lamb In 2011, Pennsylvania enacted the “Fair Share Act,” Senate Bill 1131. The bill substantially limited the applicability of joint and several liability in civil cases. There is no question that it was the goal of the legislature and then-Gov. Corbett for the bill to do exactly that. As enacted and as applied…
PA’s Prevailing Wage Law Shows Its Teeth
5/7/21
By: Joshua Ferguson and Courtney Mazzio Pennsylvania’s Prevailing Wage Law was enacted in 1961 to protect construction workers from out-of-state competition, mandating those contractors pay the wages that “prevail” in each region on all government construction projects more than $25,000. Violations of this state labor law has caught the attention of the Attorney General in Pennsylvania, who has used the violations as justification…
1/28/21
By: Sean Riley In Del. River Joint Toll Bridge Comm’n v. Sec’y Pa. Dep’t of Labor & Indus., No. 20-1898, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 895, at *2 (3d Cir. Jan. 12, 2021) the Third Circuit Court of Appeals recently held that Pennsylvania had ceded its authority to enforce building safety regulations for the construction of an…
Sudden Emergency Defense- Suddenly disappears in Pennsylvania?
1/7/21
By: Josh Ferguson The Pennsylvania Supreme Court recently issued an opinion that appears to limit, if not eliminate, the sudden emergency defense in motor vehicle accident claims. Graham v. Check, No. 42 WAP 2019 (Pa. Dec. 22, 2020). In that matter, Plaintiff was a pedestrian who was struck and seriously injured by Defendant. In the case the…
Philadelphia and Pennsylvania Announce New "Safer at Home" Restrictions
11/18/20
By: Justin Boron The City of Philadelphia and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania announced new measures this week aimed at curbing the spike in COVID cases in the region, but neither appear to be ready to initiate a broad-based shutdown like the one that began in March earlier this year. Set to take effect Friday, the…
9/21/20
By: Ashley Hobson On Monday, September 14th a federal judge in the Western District of Pennsylvania struck down the Governor’s restrictions on the size limitation of persons at gatherings and the mandatory closure of “non-life sustaining” businesses. The restrictions, which were similar to those across many states, have since been lifted as all counties entered…
Pennsylvania Opens Flood Gates to Unlimited Video Footage Discovery Requests
8/28/20
By: Erin Lamb The Pennsylvania Supreme Court declined to review a Superior Court opinion issued in the case of Marshall v. Brown’s IA, LLC, that found that Plaintiff was entitled to a new trial in a case where the trial judge declined to give an adverse inference jury instruction when the defendant produced only portions…
Massachusetts Enacts Legislation Authorizing Virtual Notarization During COVID-19 State of Emergency
4/30/20
By: Jennifer Markowski On April 27, 2020, Governor Baker signed into law An Act Providing for Virtual Notarization to Address Challenges Related to COVID-19 (the “Virtual Notarization Act” or the “Act”). In doing so, Massachusetts joins a number of other states, including Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, New Hampshire and Georgia (among…
4/2/20
By: Sean Riley Governor Tom Wolf has issued an executive order closing all businesses in Pennsylvania that are not deemed to be “life-sustaining.” Residential and non-residential building construction, as well as utility subsystem, road and bridge construction are all specifically listed as businesses that must immediately cease physical operations. However, “emergency repairs” and “construction of…
PA Supreme Court Elevates State Pay Standards Above the FLSA on Fluctuating Work Week
2/12/20
By: Justin Boron Going forward, Pennsylvania employers should be wary of relying on federal rules for their pay policies. As a general principle, courts and regulators interpret Pennsylvania’s wage and hour laws consistently with the Fair Labor Standards Act. But the Pennsylvania Supreme Court called this principle into question when it held that the fluctuating…
Pennsylvania Taking Steps to Help the Small Contractor
11/21/19
By: Josh Ferguson There are currently two bills in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives intended to limit the ability of property owners, managers and general contractors from pushing their liability onto the sub-contractors. Pennsylvania State Representatives introduced House Bill 1887, which would allow for only limited indemnification within construction contracts. The Bill would amend Act…
8/26/19
By: Sean Riley Pennsylvania recently became the first state in the country to enact clean slate legislation, which provides for the automatic sealing of non-violent misdemeanor criminal records for those who qualify after a set period of time. The law is expected to seal approximately 30 million cases by June 2020 which corresponds to roughly…