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The advent of short-term rentals of vacation homes through online platforms such as AirBnb, VRBO, Home Away, and Luxury Stay have posed new challenges to municipalities in their regulation of uses in residential neighborhoods. These online home-sharing websites provide travelers with the option of staying in facilities with all of the comforts of home for short periods of time but often at a much lower cost than in motel or hotel… Read On
Craig J. Staudenmaier looks back at the first ten years of Pennsylvania’s Right-to-Know Law, which took effect on January 1, 2009. In an article appearing in the July/August edition of The Pennsylvania Lawyer, Craig explains that while the law has positively impacted transparency at all levels, it has experienced growing pains that must be addressed in order to uphold the law’s intent… Read On
The Mueller Report made headlines across the country. Upon its release, portions of the report were redacted, sparking outrage from some of the President’s critics. Attorney General William Barr and the Department of Justice attributed his decision to withhold parts of the report on the grounds that some of it contained protected grand jury information subject to the secrecy requirements of Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure (FRCP) 6(e)… Read On
Given today’s interconnected world, it is bound to happen that a judge might end up Facebook friends with a litigant. It might also happen that the judge hearing your case is friends with you or your opponent. With this increasingly common reality, there are calls for judges who happen to be “friends” with a litigant to recuse themselves from hearing the case… Read On
Penn State University has disclosed an annual list of its top-25 paid employees. Head football coach James Franklin tops the list and top administrators and physicians round out the remainder. What about the rest of PSU’s employees? Can female faculty members compare their salaries to their male peers? Right now, the answer is no because PSU is not fully subject to Pennsylvania’s Right-to-Know Law (RTKL)… Read On
The Commonwealth Court has held that predecisional deliberations between government agencies and independent contractors are not public records. Finnerty v. Pennsylvania Dep’t of Cmty. & Econ. Dev., No. 801 C.D. 2018, 2019 WL 1797668, at *7 (Pa. Commw. Ct. Apr. 25, 2019). The decision allows government agencies to engage private entities for advice on policy matters without disclosing such advice to the public… Read On
In 1963 the Equal Pay Act was passed with the noble intention of eliminating pay inequality by making it illegal to pay men and women unequally for equal work. Although an initial step in the right direction, over fifty years have passed, and America still struggles with the gender pay gap. According to a study done by the National Women’s Law Center… Read On
Esports is the latest trend in Central Pennsylvania which is growing in popularity. It has, however, sparked a flurry of legislative activity with interest groups seeking to promote leagues and even provide college scholarships for high school students who participate and compete in esports tournaments. Esports is competitive video gaming where individuals or teams can compete in various games… Read On
On February 19, 2019, United States Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas called for a reevaluation of the existing libel and defamation laws grounded in the precedential case of New York Times v. Sullivan. Justice Thomas’ thoughts appeared in a concurrence to deny Kathrine McKee, a woman who accused Bill Cosby of sexual assault, the opportunity to appeal her defamation case to the U.S… Read On
Lately there has been an uptick in litigation surrounding website compliance under the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”). These cases are coming to light in part because blind plaintiffs are suing website owners for better access to their online marketplaces. People with sight disabilities have special tools that can read underlying code from websites out loud… Read On
Railroad workers who successfully sued their employers for lost wages under the Federal Employers’ Liability Act (FELA) used to be able to retain the full amount of those recoveries assigned for lost wages without paying taxes under the Railroad Retirement Tax Act (RRTA). After a recent United States Supreme Court opinion, however, railroad workers may be seeing smaller settlements or decreased lost wages awards under the FELA… Read On
For younger generations, it is probably not surprising that employers may have access to any internet records generated on a work computer. For others, this may seem like a huge invasion of privacy. Regardless, in February 2019, the Third Circuit Court ruled that employers are permitted to monitor their past employees’ current activity on their previous work computers after the employees have departed from the employer… Read On
