Monthly Archives: July 2012
Traffic Stops—What Not To Do
Driving while impaired by drugs or alcohol is life-threatening. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates impaired drivers hit the road 112 million times across the country in 2010, with one in three fatalities influenced by alcohol. If reading this, you might avoid some mistakes if pulled over, or caught up at a […]
Understanding Expungement in Pennsylvania
Mistakes happen. Consequences occur, penalties are paid, and painful incidents retreat into memory. However, criminal records do not. A criminal record eliminates and stalls opportunities like adoption, housing requests, educational and employment offers. In this electronic age, information out there stays out there. In Berks County, and elsewhere in Pennsylvania, we get requests from individuals […]
A Big Difference: Drug Charges in Pennsylvania
If it seems like arrest on criminal charges is more common than it used to be — it is. A 2011 study found roughly 30 percent, almost one-third of Americans, are arrested on charges by age 23 — not including minor traffic violations. The figure marks a big difference from a similar 1965 study that […]
Walk the Line
Field sobriety tests in Pennsylvania We have all seen comic film versions of a drunk driver unable to touch his nose, or stagger happily down the road under the watchful gaze of law enforcement. But it is not funny. Standardized Field Sobriety Tests (SFST) were developed by the Southern California Research Institute for the National […]
Debt to Society
Collateral consequences for a criminal record He was convicted of possession of cocaine. A half-gram earned him a felony conviction, six months probation and a $100 fine. That was 25 years ago. Darrell Langdon, a 52-year-old father of two, was offense-free, raised two boys as a single parent, and worked hard ever since. In […]
