The following is a 3/16/2020 news release from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court: Amid COVID-19 mitigation efforts, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court today declared a statewide judicial emergency effective until April 14, 2020. With the emergency declaration in place, county president judges are … Continue reading
Category Archives: News
The COVID-19 (novel coronavirus) contagion is starting to affect court operations in Pennsylvania. By an administrative order dated March 12, 2020, the Montgomery County Orphans’ Court has suspended the call of the audit list in open court and has adopted … Continue reading
The Required Minimum Distribution Webcalculator has been updated to incorporate the changes made by the SECURE Act (Division O of P.L. 116-94). Specifically: The required beginning age for lifetime distributions has been changed from 70-1/2 to 72 for persons who … Continue reading
The New York State Bar Association has released an ethics opinion stating that a lawyer may not dispose of wills even when the testators’ locations and circumstances are unknown, and that the lawyer must safeguard the wills indefinitely unless the … Continue reading
I’ve seen more than one article recommending that, when we (meaning the public generally and not just lawyers) write the year on checks and other documents, we should write out the whole year, “2020,” and not just the last two … Continue reading
I recently learned that, when subscribers log onto this site, they don’t see the home page, but a “profile” or “dashboard” page which I found to be both confusing and useless. I’ve reconfigured the site so that, after logging in, … Continue reading
It was previously reported that new Orphans’ Court forms, and new forms for use before the Register of Wills, had been posted to the collection of Orphans’ Court forms on the pacourts.us website, to be effective January 1, 2020. It … Continue reading
The Supreme Court has entered an order adopting a new Pa.O.C. Rule 1.40 which applies Pa.R.C.P. 240 (“In Forma Pauperis“) to Orphans’ Court proceedings, to be effective April 1, 2020. Rule 14.8, on guardianship reporting, has also been amended to … Continue reading
Among the more significant tax law changes made by the “Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019,” also known as the SECURE Act, enacted as Division O of P.L. 116-94, H.R. 1865, the “Further Consolidated Appropriations Act,...
Revised O.C. Forms OC-1 through OC-5 and RW-03 through RW-10, that were approved as part of “Order Amendment Rules 1.7, 1.8, 2.1, 2.5, 2.7, 3.5, 3.7, 4.3, 4.6, 5.1, 5.3, 5.4, 7.1, 10.1, 10.5, and the Index of the Appendix … Continue reading