The Legal Intelligencer Blog

Fresh Ink: Inside Today's Legal

Welcome to your Thursday morning round-up of stories in today’s edition of The Legal Intelligencer. All of the links below will take you directly to today’s stories, or you can head straight over to The Legal’s homepage. (Some stories may require registration or a paid subscription.)

Today’s top story entails a former Pennsylvania legislative staffer who was arrested on Computergate-related charges and is now suing K&L Gates and Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney for legal malpractice. As reporter Gina Passarella writes, Elmer “Al” Bowman is alleging that the law firms’ ties to legislators caused them to ignore his pleas to strike a deal with prosecutors and testify against the legislators. In his complaint, Bowman alleged legal malpractice, breach of fiduciary duty and breach of contract claims against all the defendants.

Also on Page 1 of today’s Legal, reporter Amaris Elliott-Engel writes that the state Superior Court restored $28 million in punitive damages to an Illinois plaintiff who said drugmakers Wyeth and Pharmacia & Upjohn Inc. failed to warn her doctor of the risks of breast cancer from using hormonal drugs. The award was initially given by a Philadelphia jury, then reduced to $1 million by a trial judge.

Montgomery County Common Pleas Court Judge Richard J. Hodgson is ending his term as the court’s leader this week, but first he sat down with Amaris Elliott-Engel to analyze the civil and specialty courts from his perspective in today’s Page 3 story.

As always, our People in the News section is on Page 2, and the top stories from our sister publications across the country make up the Page 4 National News section, including the Montana Supreme Court defying the recent Citizens United ruling.

This week’s Public Interest column is on Page 5, as David M. Rosenblum writes about misconceptions regarding the way the law affects LGBT clients. Rosenblum analyzes common misconceptions one by one in an insightful piece.

The Young Lawyer page this week, on Page 7, has a story written by Christian Nolan discussing a recent essay by two Yale University Law School professors who have suggested that law schools work out an arrangement to pay struggling students who might be better off leaving school after their first year. The professors proposed a half-tuition rebate, to split the loss between the school and the student and prevent students from feeling forced to remain in school due to the financial commitment.

If you have questions or comments about any of today's stories, or our coverage as a whole, we invite you to e-mail any of the reporters directly. We hope you'll enjoy today's Legal.

Montco DA Writes Children's Book About Online Dangers

By Amaris Elliott-Engel
Of the Legal Staff

Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman has written a children's book to help parents talk with their kids about surfing the Internet safely.

The book, "The Mouse Who Went Surfing Alone," is being released today.

The book is illustrated by Stephen Herko and was put together with the help of Diccicco Battista Communications.

According to the news release, the book tells the story of a young mouse who loves to surf and uses the metaphor of surfing on the ocean to teach a lesson about safe surfing on the Internet. The mouse goes surfing alone and encounters dangerous predators, but with quick thinking he is able to get home safely.

All proceeds of the book will benefit Mission Kids, a Montgomery County nonprofit that Ferman helped to found in September 2009 that streamlines the multiple child abuse investigative processes of police departments, prosecutors and child welfare workers to minimize the number of interviews alleged child abuse victims must go through.

Amaris Elliott-Engel is a reporter for The Legal. She can be contacted at aelliott-engel@alm.com. Follow her on Twitter: @AmarisTLI

MontCo Pro Bono Opportunity Tomorrow: Wills For Heroes Needs Your Help!

By Jaime Bochet
Of the Legal Staff

We at the Legal know how important pro bono work is, both for attorneys and for the communities they serve. We devote an entire publication to it every other year, as well as a page in the paper each month, working in collaboration with  local public interest groups and bar associations.

If you've been thinking about getting involved but aren't sure how to begin, the Montogmery Bar Association has you covered. Wills for Heroes has scheduled an event this Saturday, March 26, for the Norristown Police Department at the Human Service Center in Norristown (1430 DeKalb St.). Several lawyers and paralegals are needed to help at this time.

Wills for Heroes is a pro bono program that provides free wills, living wills and financial powers of attorneys to first responders and their spouses/partners. At the conclusion of their one-hour appointments, first responders and their spouses/partners are able to leave with notarized, legal documents.

You do not need to practice trust and estate law to volunteer, and a mini-course will be offered from 9 to   11 a.m. that morning to familiarize you with all the information you'll need to know. Several lawyers well-versed in estate planning will also be on hand to answer questions that may arise. Following the training session for new volunteers, Wills for Heroes events typically run from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

For more information, contact Lisa Shearman, Esq. by calling 215-576-1730 or e-mailing las@plotnickellis.com.

Jaime Bochet is the Magazines & Supplements Editor for The Legal Intelligencer. Follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/JaimeBochetTLI or e-mail JBochet@alm.com.

Montco Starts Juror Donation Program

By Amaris Elliott-Engel
Of the Legal Staff

Taking a cue from other jurisdictions, Montgomery Common Pleas Court has started a program that enables jurors to donate their fees to charity.

The program was officially announced Monday by Common Pleas President Judge Richard B. Hodgson and Jury Commissioners Joanne C. Olszewski and Marie N. Cavanaugh.

Hodgson said in a previous interview with The Legal that he wanted to start the program because juror pay is modest anyway and because other jurisdictions have successfully developed significant donations because of such programs.

Jurors can contribute their pay to the Montgomery County Child Advocacy Project, which provides legal representation and social services to children who are victims of abuse and neglect; Hedwig House, which specializes in rehabilitation for people recovering from mental illness; and the Women's Center of Montgomery County, which operates a 24-hour domestic violence hotline and other services.

Jurors are paid $9 a day for their first three days of service, and $25 a day for four days or more of service.

Olszewski said in a news release the program is voluntary because of the understanding that many people they do not get paid by their employers while they serve on juries.

Montco Attorney Announces Commissioner Bid

By Amaris Elliott-Engel
Of the Legal Staff

Montgomery County attorney Catherine M. "Kate" Harper announced today that she will run as a Republican candidate for Montgomery County Commissioner.

All three commissioner slots are up for election this year.

Harper, of Lower Gwynedd Township, also is a House of Representatives member and a partner with Timoney Knox in Fort Washington. Harper's practice focuses on municipal law, real estate and civil litigation.

"Serving in the House of Representatives has been one of the best experiences of my life and I believe I can accomplish even more for the taxpayers in the role of county commissioner,” Harper in a news release. “But Montgomery County, like the rest of the commonwealth, is facing unprecedented tough times and we need a common sense approach to getting back on track. And that means new leadership.”

Harper's district includes portions of Plymouth, Whitpain, Lower Gwynedd, Upper Gwynedd, Montgomery and Towamencin townships and North Wales Borough.

According to media reports, also running for the Republican nomination are Montgomery County Jury Commissioner Marie N. Cavanaugh and attorney Jenny Brown of Brown & Silbergeld in Bridgeport, who is also a Lower Merion Township commissioner. Commissioner Chairman James R. Matthews and Commissioner Bruce L. Castor Jr., both Republicans, and Vice Chairman Joseph M. Hoeffel III, a Democrat, also are expected to seek re-election.

Montco Courts Seek Waiver of Budget Cuts

By Amaris Elliott-Engel
Of the Legal Staff

After Montgomery County introduced a budget this week planning for a flat 5 percent cut for every county department, the county's common pleas court, district justices, drug court and correctional facility, among other justice agencies, sought waivers from the cut.

Commissioners James R. Matthews, Joseph M. Hoeffel and Bruce L. Castor seemed sympathetic today to court leaders as well as the county correctional officials seeking a waiver of the 5 percent cut.

The common pleas court is seeking a waiver of only part of the 5 percent cut, Court Administrator Michael Kehs said. The court said it could afford to cut its budget by $260,000, but not to cut the $700,000 that the 5 percent budget would call for. The court's budget is now $13.9 million.

Chief Adult Probation and Parole Officer Michael P. Gordon asked for a waiver because a 5 percent cut would require laying off eight officers and 2.5 support staff. American Probation and Parole Association standards call for probation and parole officers to only carry a caseload of 50 offenders, but Montgomery County's officers carry 128 offenders for every officer, Gordon said. Cutting eight officers would make the case load rise to 168 offenders per every officer, Gordon said.

There are 14,000 offenders supervised by the department, Gordon said. The department's budget is $1.53 million this year.

Montgomery Common Pleas Judge Steven T. O'Neill, the liaison judge to the probation department, said the department is using evidence-based practices such as house arrest to bring down the number of cases in ratio to the number of officers.

The commissioners also did not discuss the elimination of the drug court, which was a proposal on the table two years ago.

Common Pleas President Judge Richard B. Hodgson said that according to the most recent figures, there were 83 defendants participating in drug court who otherwise would have been in county lockup.
The drug court's budget is $585,000 this year.

District justice officials reported that under Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Court recommended guidelines, the department should have 144 employees to administer the county's district courts, but the office is asking for 135 employees in 2011. The district justice budget this year is $9.8 million.

A funding issue emerged for the county correctional facility during today's hearing. The department's proposed budget does not include the costs of a 512-bed, minimum-security facility that is going to be opening next year, Commissioner Julio Algarin said.

The addition will cost $1.8 million to operate every fiscal year, Algarin said.

Castor stressed that housing immigration detainees facing deportation by the federal government could cover the county cost of running the expansion. County Solicitor Barry Miller and Algarin said that the ability to house federal immigration detainees is dependent upon the success of getting more minimum-security inmates out on work release. The minimum-security facility can be used for work-release defendants, driving under the influence defendants and technical probation violators, Algarin said, but it can't be used for the federal detainees. If the number of work release inmates could be increased from 150 to 200, the viability of moving more of those inmates out of the current correctional facility to the minimum-security part would allow for the county to contract with the federal government for guarding detainees in the more secure part of the facility, Algarin said.

The correctional facility budget is $28.5 million this year.

More waiver hearings are scheduled for Tuesday, and the commissioners' decision on which departments will receive a waiver will come after the hearings. The Public Defender's Office and the District Attorney's Office still have their waiver hearings pending.