There’s a lot of talk in Pennsylvania about immigration. Right now the immediate focus is on two House bills that would make English the official language for all acts of state government. There’s also federal legislation - The English Language Unity Act of 2011 - that would require all official US government functions to be in English. According to a recent Philadelphia Inquirer article, proponents say these laws promote cultural unity and encourage immigrants to learn English. Opponents say the primacy of English is self-evident and enshrining it in law is unnecessary. Their position is …

So you want to get married. Congratulations. Chances are you’re going to be very busy finding a place for the wedding, selecting someone to perform the ceremony, ordering flowers and invitations not to mention choosing bridesmaids, sampling wedding cakes and visiting sites for a reception. But maybe not. Maybe you want to ditch all the expense and headaches of a big wedding and just want a nice little ceremony in front of a justice of the peace. That works, too. Either way there is one thing you are definitely going to need: a license to get married. Well, here in Bucks County the process to …

A few weeks ago I was at the courthouse in Doylestown getting a subpoena for one of my cases. As I left the Clerk of Courts office I wandered over to the display of brochures against the wall and picked up a few. I’m always looking for information I can use for columns here on Patch. One of the more interesting ones was the Pennsylvania Point System. Little did I know it would come in handy so soon. Last week, I’m taking my kid out to Western Pennsylvania to attend a mandatory two-day orientation for the college she’ll attend in the fall. We’re in Lebanon County, South Londonderry Township to…

Bankruptcy. No one wants to think about it. Unfortunately, more and more people are considering bankruptcy as a way out of their problems. I talked with William D. Schroeder Jr., a bankruptcy attorney in Colmar, to find out exactly what bankruptcy is and what someone should do if they are in financial difficulties.  Beverly A. Black What is bankruptcy exactly? William D. Schroeder Jr.  It’s a court ordered protection from all creditor action, an orderly administration of your debts. There are three types - chapter seven, chapter 11 and chapter 13, but generally individuals go through chapter …

Last week I wrote about people trying to represent themselves in legal matters. That is generally not a good idea, but I’m happy to say there are many legal services available for Bucks County residents that are offered for free or low cost. Some organizations only offer these services to people who qualify based on their financial situation. For instance, Legal Aid of Southeast Pennsylvania states that eligibility for their programs is determined by the client’s monthly income, current assets, family size, the type of legal problem and where the person resides. According to LASP’s website, …

There’s an old adage: A man who represents himself has a fool for a client. Truer words were never spoken, but nowadays more and more people are avoiding lawyers and handling their matters on their own. Last week I was standing at the prothonotary’s counter for the Family Court in Doylestown filing a child custody complaint for a client. While I waited for the clerk to process the filing fee and give us a case number, an attractive man in his late 30s, maybe early 40s, wandered in. He had the body of cyclist, maybe a swimmer. He looked a bit uncomfortable as he stood next to me. A clerk asked…

True or false: A work is copyrighted the moment it is created? True. And this is just about the only thing most folks know about copyrights. Oh, and if someone uses your work, you can sue them. This is sometimes true. Let’s start with the basics. What is a copyright? Well, a copyright is a form of property. It’s a legal device  that someone owns, usually the author, that grants that person the right to control how their work is used. The Copyright Act of 1976 grants authors and musicians and other creative folk a bundle of intangible, exclusive rights over their work. Those rights include: • …

You hear a lot about lawyers - most of it is not too good. We’re not all like the lawyers on TV, I assure you. No attorney I’ve ever met would walk into a courtroom in a mini skirt or be a smart aleck to the judge no matter how much he deserved it. As sworn officers of the court, we’re required to know the rules of the game and to play by them. Attorneys are also prohibited from telling their clients how to illegally circumvent the laws like they do on the TV shows, although we can explain the limits of legal means to do so. But you’d never know that if all you knew about lawyers came from …

Did you ever want to change your name? It's not hard. To legally change your name a court has to issue the order for the name change. That’s why when women marry they can take their husband’s last name. I once had a Portuguese client who wanted to take his wife’s last name but the Immigration Service refused to acknowledge his new chosen name. I’m still not sure if they had any right to deny him that name change but it would have cost too much money to find out so he gave up the fight and stuck with his original name. Children can also be issued new names when they are adopted because the …