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Reviewed 15 September 2013 E-mail: Administrator@LawSource.com

Pennsylvania Court Decisions



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Pennsylvania Constitution and Legislation

See also a database of statewide ballot measures maintained by the National Conference of State Legislatures.

  1. Constitution (Pa. Const.)

    Additional Resources
    Pennsylvania Constitution Web Page … [Duquesne Univ. Law Sch.] — “This site is meant to be a primary source of information about the: text, history, and meaning of the Pennsylvania Constitution. Lawyers, journalists, and members of the public are welcome to start here when beginning research about the Pennsylvania Constitution, Pennsylvania constitutional law cases pending in various courts, and current public policy debates concerning the State Constitution.”

  2. Bills
    See also the Pennsylvania General Assembly web site.

  3. Laws of Pennsylvania (Pa. Laws)
    Note—The legislature’s web site provides links to the texts of enacted bills that were approved (and so became session laws), from 1975 to the present. Alternatively, those bills are presented as pamphlet laws, from 1980 to the present, on the web site of the Legislative Reference Bureau.

  4. Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes
    Note—The official codification, Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes, is not currently available on the legislature’s web site. The principal unofficial codification, known as Purdon’s Pennsylvania Statutes, is available free on the internet at the Thomson/West web site.

    Additional Resources
    “Pennsylvania Legislative History — A How To Guide” … [Jenkins Law Library (Pa.)] — Note: Legislative histories on the provider’s web site are not available free.Unofficial Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes … [Martin Law Offices, L.L.P. (Pa.)] — This collection is maintained by a district court judge.
    Inheritance and Estate Tax Act … [Daniel B. Evans, Esq. (Pa.)]


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Pennsylvania Rules of Procedure and Practice

  1. Rules of Procedure • State Court Rules

    See also a collection of so-called general rules for the judicial system.
  2. Local Court Rules • U.S. Court Rules

    See also a page of links to local court rules.
  3. Rules of Practice • Judicial Rules • Professional Ethics Decisions
  4. Rules and Regulations for Continuing Legal Education

    Additional Resources
    Orphans’ Court Rules … [Daniel B. Evans, Esq. (Pa.)]
    Selected rules of practice and procedure … [District Court 15-4-04 (Chester County)] — Incomplete collections of the rules of civil and criminal procedure.
    Summary of district court procedure … [District Court 15-4-04 (Chester County)] — A fairly comprehensive summary of procedure (and jurisdiction and venue) as well as a brief history of Pennsylvania district justice Courts (located at the end of a home page; scroll down the page to find this).


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Pennsylvania Administrative Law Sources

See also a page of links to sources of rules, maintained by the Administrative Codes and Registers Section of the National Association of Secretaries of State.
  1. Regulations
  2. Opinions • Decisions • Orders • Rulings
  3. Liquor Control Board Advisory Notices


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Pennsylvania Ordinances and Home-Rule Charters

Ordinances are local laws, commonly organized into codes, that have been enacted by municipalities — cities, towns, etc. — and counties. Charters are organic laws (similar in function to a constitution) of those local government entities for which “home rule” is authorized by state law. For local laws not found through the links given here, try the county web sites and municipality web sites at “State and Local Government on the Net” by Piper Resources, or a publisher’s web site:
  • American Legal Publishing Corp.
  • Code Publishing Co.
  • General Code, LLC
  • Municipal Code Corp.
    1. Charters
       
      Note that a charter could be included in a collection of ordinances (see below) instead of being separately accessible.
    2. County Ordinances
        
      Click on the button keyed to the name of the county. NOTE: On some web sites, selecting the state is necessary for access to the ordinances link.
    3. Municipal Ordinances
           
      Click on the button keyed to the name of the municipality. NOTE: On some web sites, selecting the state is necessary for access to the ordinances link.
    4. Additional Resources
      ¶ Philadelphia Charter and Municipal Code — Amendments … [LocalLaw Publications, Inc. (Pa.)] — Find amendments since 1997 by entering a keyword, or an ordinance number, or a code section number, in a search form.


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    Pennsylvania Law-Related Periodicals

    Periodicals providing on-line articles are linked here. See also links to all Pennsylvania law-review web sites as well as links to web sites of all U.S.-published law reviews and periodicals.

    1. East Asia Law Review (E. Asia L. Rev.) … [Univ. of Pennsylvania Law Sch.]
    2. Penn State Law Review (Penn St. L. Rev.)
    3. Temple International and Comparative Law Journal (Temple Int'l & Comp. L.J.)
    4. Temple Journal of Science, Technology & Environmental Law (Temple J. Sci. Tech. & Envtl. L.) … Formerly titled Temple Environmental Law & Technology Journal (until 2004).
    5. Temple Law Review (Temple L. Rev.)
    6. University of Pennsylvania Journal of Business Law (U. Pa. J. Bus. L.) … Formerly titled Journal of Labor and Employment Law (until 2007); Journal of Business and Employment Law (until 2008).
    7. University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law (U. Pa. J. Const. L.)
    8. University of Pennsylvania Journal of International Law (U. Pa. J. Int'l L.)
    9. University of Pennsylvania Journal of Law and Social Change (U. Pa. J.L. & Soc. Change) … Formerly titled HYBRID (until 2002).
    10. University of Pennsylvania Law Review (U. Pa. L. Rev.)


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    Other Pennsylvania Commentary

    1. Newspaper Handbook … [Pennsylvania Newspaper Publishers’ Ass’n] — A legal reference tool for newspaper publishers, editors, reporters, and business personnel. It contains summaries of laws that affect the editorial, operational, and advertising functions of a newspaper (but are generally useful beyond the scope of a newspaper business).

    2. The Pennsylvania Manual … [Pennsylvania Dep't of Gen. Servs.] — Information presented in nine sections with these titles: Pennsylvania Past and Present; Constitution of Pennsylvania; General Assembly; Executive; Judiciary; Local Government; Elections; The Federal Government. Includes an appendix (miscellaneous information) and two indexes.

    3. Legal Guide to Doing Business in Pennsylvania. Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott, LLC. … [Lex Mundi]


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    Pennsylvania Law-Related Topical Web Sites



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    Pennsylvania Court Information

    Each county is assigned to a numbered judicial district. There are 67 counties and 60 judicial districts (some districts comprise more than one county). See also links to state court web sites, maintained by the National Center for State Courts. Additionally, the Ballotpedia.org web site presents information about courts and judges in the state, covering both state courts and federal courts, in a Wikipedia-style format.
    1. Web Sites
    2. Addresses • Names • Numbers


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    Pennsylvania Forms

    1. Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts — Forms

    2. Court Forms
    3. State Agency Forms
      1. Revenue Department
      2. Tax Forms and Publications … Documents are in PDF files.
      3. Department of Transportation
      4. Driver and Vehicle Services Forms

    4. Business Entity Forms …[Paracorp, Inc. (Cal.)] — Convenient interface to view and print in-blank official state forms (in PDF files) for filing by business entities. A JavaScript-enabled browser is required.


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    Other Pennsylvania Resources

    1. Government-Related Web Sites

      See also the Piper Resources list of sites.
    2. Additional Resources
      ¶ Vital Records — Contact Information … [Elizabeth Orsay (Ind.)]
      ¶ Workers’ Compensation — Agency Contact Information … [Robert W. McDowell / N.C. Indus. Comm’n]

    3. Bar Associations • Law-Related Organizations

      See the National Federation of Paralegal Associations for links to websites of member organizations.
    4. Law Schools • Admission to Practice • Continuing Legal Education
    5. Consulate General of Mexico in Philadelphia • Consulado General de México en Philadelphia


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    Legal Research and Assistance

    1. Law Libraries

      See also links to web sites of public law libraries and catalogs of academic law libraries, maintained by the library at Washburn University School of Law; and the LibrarySites.Info database of library web sites (“Libcat”).
    2. Bankruptcy Law and Procedures for Pennsylvania Residents … [Calicchia & Kinast LLP (Ohio)] — This web site, presented by a Cleveland bankruptcy law firm, covers basic information about the bankruptcy process, describes debt consolidation and credit counseling as alternatives to bankruptcy, lists the property that an individual is allowed to keep (with citations to governing provisions of Pennsylvania law), and gives information about the bankruptcy courts and how to contact bankruptcy attorneys in Pennsylvania.

    3. Low-Cost Legal Aid … See also the web site for LawHelp.org and the web site for SelfHelpSupport.org.
      1. Pennsylvania Legal Help for the Poor … [Am. Bar Ass’n] — Contact information for statewide and local legal-aid programs, from the ABA’s Directory of Pro Bono Programs. The ABA also provides a page of links to pro bono programs’ web sites.
      2. WomensLaw.org — Sources of Legal Help … [WomensLaw.org (N.Y.)] — Sources of legal help (not limited to legal help for women) include statewide domestic-violence resources, local domestic-violence resources listed by city or town, free or low-cost legal services, and lawyer referral services.

     

     


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