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Pennsylvania Courts Look at Protection from Abuse Orders During Domestic Violence Awareness Month Permalink

Over 39,000 new protection from Abuse (PFA) orders were filed statewide in 2019. A PFA is a civil court order that protects victims of domestic violence, providing relief from abuse by an intimate partner, family or household member.

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Drug Delivery Resulting in Death Charges in Pennsylvania Permalink

Drug delivery resulting in death (DDRD) charges statewide have increased by 356 percent between 2015 and 2019. In Pennsylvania, a DDRD charge is issued to a person who intentionally administers, dispenses, delivers, gives, prescribes, sells or distributes any controlled substance or counterfeit controlled substance, and another person dies as a result of using the substance.

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Traffic citations in school zones increased by 32% last year Permalink

In Pennsylvania, there was a 32 percent increase in school zone traffic violations from 2018-2019. Over the last five years, 32,083 drivers in total were cited for either speeding in school zones or illegally passing a school bus.

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How prevalent is animal abuse in Pennsylvania? Permalink

Over the past few years, 52 percent of animal abuse offenses filed in Pennsylvania were for neglect of an animal, with 41 percent of offenses filed for cruelty to an animal. The anti-cruelty law (Act 10) that strengthened the protection of animals, commonly known as Libre’s Law, went into effect in late August of 2017.

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Over 34 million cases sealed from public view under Pennsylvania’s Clean Slate LawPermalink

Since Pennsylvania’s Clean Slate Law took effect last year on June 28, 2019, over 34 million cases and nearly 47 million offenses have been sealed from public view.

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A Look at Pennsylvania’s Mental Health CourtsPermalink

In recognition of May as Mental Health Awareness Month, the Pennsylvania courts today released an infographic highlighting data related to the state’s mental health courts. In 2018, 64 percent of all discharged participants graduated successfully from these treatment programs and among those graduates, there was a 181 percent increase in employment.

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Distracted driving citations in PennsylvaniaPermalink

Pennsylvania distracted driving citations decreased by 10 percent statewide from 2018 to 2019. Distracted driving citations in Pennsylvania can be issued for 1) using headphones while driving, 2) using a handheld mobile phone while driving a commercial vehicle or 3) texting while driving. Texting includes sending, reading or writing a text-based message.

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Women in the Pennsylvania judiciaryPermalink

In recognition of National Women’s History Month, March is an ideal time to look at the history of women in the Pennsylvania judiciary as well as those women currently serving.

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Pennsylvania Court Interpreters – Removing Language BarriersPermalink

Pennsylvania Courts facilitated 41,038 requests for interpreters in 2018 statewide – 77 percent of which were for Spanish.

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Cracking Down on Human Trafficking in PennsylvaniaPermalink

In the first five years since Pennsylvania’s first comprehensive human-trafficking law (Act 105) took effect in 2014, 586 human-trafficking offenses were charged. The infographic below highlights key court data including the total number of human-trafficking cases and offenses over the last five years, defendant demographics and the top 10 counties with the highest number human-trafficking cases.