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Fresh Ink: Inside Today's Legal

Welcome to your Monday 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.)

The top story this morning is reporter Ben Present’s preview of the state Supreme Court hearing oral arguments this week in Philadelphia. Among the cases to be heard during the two-day session beginning Tuesday are several important workers’ compensation cases and one relating to MySpace and its use for communication between a man under house arrest and gang members with whom he was instructed to avoid communication.

Below the fold on Page 1, reporter Zack Needles writes that a federal judge has ruled that the language in an underinsured motorist coverage waiver may not be altered. The judge ruled that the existence of a single additional word in an underinsured motorist coverage waiver violated the Pennsylvania Motor Vehicle Financial Responsibility Law and rendered the waiver void in an Eastern District of Pennsylvania case involving defendant Travelers Indemnity Co. of America.

In more Regional News on Page 3, Dan McCormick writes about a legal clinic, La Comunidad Hispana, that is serving Chester County’s immigrant population.

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.

In an Antitrust Law column on Page 5, Carl W. Hittinger and Patrick Castaneda write that the FTC has preserved the status quo in the long-term care pharmacy market following Omnicare Inc.’s eight-month pursuit of acquiring PharMerica Corp.

In a book review on Page 7, John J. Soroko writes about Judge Harvey Bartle III’s “Mortals With Tremendous Responsibilities” and what it says about the Eastern District’s role in the development of U.S. jurisprudence.

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.

Court Announces Hearsay Rule Change

By Amaris Elliott-Engel
Special to the Legal

The state Supreme Court has approved the use of hearsay evidence during preliminary hearings to establish an element of any property crime offense requiring proof of ownership of property, or proof of the impermissible use, damage to, or the value of property.

At the same press conference, the court announced the release of the state's first benchbook on witness intimidation.

State Supreme Court Justice Seamus P. McCaffery said during a press conference today on the rule change to Rule 542 of the Pennsylvania Rules of Criminal Procedure that "the Supreme Court decided we were going to make a statewide rule that would codify the case law we currently have on the books and ensure in Philadelphia County that non-eyewitness victims of crime will not have to show up at preliminary hearings any more."

Non-eyewitness victims of crime will still have to appear for trials, McCaffery said.

The rule change will eliminate "only ownership, non-permission testimony," Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams said. No longer requiring property owners, who were not direct witnesses to crimes, to testify during Philadelphia preliminary hearings will prevent the phenomenon of property crime victims coming in as "willing participants" and leaving as "very frustrated, bitter people," Williams said.

The rule change was issued on the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Court's web site a half hour before the press conference.

Other rule changes, such as the establishment of indicting grand juries, are being considered by the Supreme Court Criminal Procedural Rules Committee, McCaffery said.

Also announced today was the release of the state's first benchbook on witness intimidation. The benchbook is designed to aid judges in preventing their public courtrooms from becoming arenas of intimidation, Philadelphia Common Pleas Judge Renee Cardwell Hughes said.

"'Snitches get stitches,' 'stop snitching'; that is just absolutely contrary to everything that is American," Hughes said. "In America, we are raised to believe that the truth is our friend."

Hughes, a homicide judge, worked with Walter M. Phillips Jr., chairman of the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, PCCD Executive Director Michael Kane, Philadelphia Common Pleas Judges Glenn Bronson and Gwendolyn Bright, Philadelphia Assistant District Attorney John Delaney, and defense attornies Michael Schwartz and Benjamin Eichel of Pepper Hamilton and Stuart Suss, a former senior deputy state attorney general to prepare the benchbook. Suss did the yeoman's work in drafting the benchbook.

Every judge in Pennsylvania will receive the benchbook, Hughes said.