Peter Vaira

September 21, 2020 | The Legal Intelligencer

COVID-19 has brought many changes to the legal system. The most complex changes are occurring in the criminal practice area, where open hearings are guaranteed by the constitution.

By Peter Vaira

8 minute read

July 13, 2020 | The Legal Intelligencer

All supervisory police personnel should have leadership responsibility, commensurate with their rank, and they should be reprimanded and removed for failure to lead. The military services are based upon such leadership requirements.

By Peter Vaira

7 minute read

May 11, 2020 | The Legal Intelligencer

Some practice changes will be temporary, others may be long lasting. As with any change brought about by emergency circumstances, today's changes may have downsides that outweigh their temporary advantages. I have asked for comments/views on the changing practices from judges, civil and criminal practitioners.

By Peter Vaira

9 minute read

March 09, 2020 | The Legal Intelligencer

The Grand Jury Task Force, formed by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 2017, issued its report in November 2019, recommending numerous changes to state grand jury procedure.

By Peter Vaira

8 minute read

January 13, 2020 | The Legal Intelligencer

Today's article is a primer on the required procedure for obtaining warrants from the FISA court to install wiretaps and electronic hearing devices in the investigation of certain persons, and a guide to understanding the current allegations that the FBI has misused the procedure.

By Peter Vaira

7 minute read

November 18, 2019 | The Legal Intelligencer

The purpose of today's column is to examine what exceptions there are to the federal grand jury secrecy rules, and how grand jury transcripts may be obtained by practitioners for use in litigation in civil or criminal cases.

By Peter Vaira

8 minute read

September 23, 2019 | The Legal Intelligencer

This is a primer, not an exhaustive work, meant to give new practitioners to federal criminal practice an outline on the procedure. Criminal discovery still lags far behind the discovery available to both parties in a civil case.

By Peter Vaira

9 minute read

July 15, 2019 | The Legal Intelligencer

Organized crime has played a major role in the history of law enforcement of this country since the 1930s. It has been the subject of numerous legislative acts by congress, enforcement programs by presidents of the United States and federal law enforcement agencies.

By Peter Vaira

9 minute read

May 13, 2019 | The Legal Intelligencer

Although the Pennsylvania Supreme Court does not have a general counsel, it recently created the position of counsel to the court which is similar.

By Peter Vaira

7 minute read

March 10, 2009 | The Legal Intelligencer

You are a business lawyer sitting in your law office and get a telephone call from a client. He tells you there are several federal agents at his company premises with a search warrant for documents and computers, and they are proceeding to open file drawers and are downloading information from computers. Twenty-five years ago, when agents only executed search warrants on bookmaker joints, fencing operations or warehouses containing stolen goods, this call to a business lawyer would have been unlikely. Times have changed with the nature of white-collar crime, and federal prosecutors routinely obtain search warrants for what lawyers would call legitimate businesses. This is advice to the business lawyer with commercial clients who gets such a call. (This article is confined to federal search warrants. Search warrants by state authorities are similar, but space considerations limit this article to federal search warrants.)

By Peter Vaira

10 minute read