About Pa. Cases

The Pennsylvania Cases website - www.pacases.com - reports summaries of the latest opinions from the Supreme Court of the United States, the Third Circuit, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, and the Superior Court of Pennsylvania.  The updates are provided  for court-watchers and professionals, free of charge, but mostly as a means for the author to organize his own research.

This site does not include decisions from the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania denying allocatur, nor does it include administrative decisions from that Court (e.g. decisions regarding disciplinary matters, magisterial districts, appointments, or ethical decisions).  Opinions that are decided wholly based on the standard of review, or that are so fact-dependent as to be of little precedential value to the author are generally not summarized.

J. Larkin is a Pennsylvania attorney who specializes in litigation and appeals.  He has particular expertise in technology law and emerging legal issues in scientific fields like the environment, encryption, and the Internet.  He currently practices at Gawthrop Greenwood in West Chester, Pennsylvania.  He previously practiced as an Assistant District Attorney in the Appeals Division of the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office, where he argued regularly in front of the Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas and Superior Court. 

Mr. Larkin's published works have appeared in law journals at the Georgetown University School of Law, Vanderbilt Law School, the University of Florida Law School, and the American Journal of Trial Advocacy, as well as in the Pennsylvania Bar Association's At Issue publication.  He also contributes to PaCases.

Luke Wilson is an international law practitioner based in the District of Columbia and Massachusetts, where he practices primarily in the area of sovereign representation, with a focus on State-to-State disputes, international arbitration and public international law.  After graduating with his law degree in 2009, Luke clerked at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, before returning to get his LL.M. in International and Comparative Law.  While pursuing his LL.M., Luke served as a legal assistant to an international arbitrator in investor-state disputes and as a legal counselor to a member of the International Law Commission.  Currently, Luke works as a private legal consultant, providing assistance in international law to arbitrators, private clients and other lawyers who require  assistance with international law issues in litigation and other matters.

This site is not a substitute for a lawyer, a law library, or a legal search-engine.  Not every decision from every American court is included on this site.  Not even every Pennsylvania court decision is reported on this site - the Commonwealth Court, for instance, the District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and the several Courts of Common Pleas, are not included at all.  New opinions are updated sporadically, and may not be included at all, due either to oversight or to editorial discretion.  Not every opinion is summarized, and not every summary is comprehensive, or even guaranteed to be correct.  Not every summary is written by an attorney.  As the name of the site implies, the authority of many of the opinions and summaries on this site are confined to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and are not automatically binding on any court outside of that jurisdiction.

If you are a party to a lawsuit or a criminal prosecution, be aware that many attorneys, almost certainly including some in your area, offer free consultations; speak with one of them before making a legal decision.