Once you are separated, your income is your own and you things you buy, including real estate, are not marital property subject to distribution in the divorce. Be sure to bank your post-separation income in accounts in your name only. Don’t use the joint marital bank accounts for your management of any money you earn post-separation.

There is a presumption in custody court that siblings should live together—it’s called the doctrine of sibling unity. Parents certainly are entitled to make different arrangements, and separating siblings sometimes is best at the time of divorce. If you do, be sure the siblings have regular weekend time together. And realize that if your custody claims wind up in court, a judge has to give great weight to sibling unity in deciding where the children should live.

2011 is “municipal” election year in Pennsylvania. Officials elected to the positions sometimes called “county row offices” are up for election. They include County Commissioners, District Attorneys, Recorders of Deeds, Registers of Wills, Prothonotaries, Coroners and other county officials. Some township supervisors, most of whom are elected for six year terms, are up for election. In any counties with vacancies on the bench, Common Pleas Judges may be on the ballot.

Elections can be decided on Primary Election Day, with one candidate taking both tickets. The Pennsylvania Primary Election Day is Tuesday, May 17, 2011. Be sure you’re registered and get out to vote!

Recently, a small Pennsylvania borough council passed a resolution completely banning its police officers from smoking anywhere on, in or around all borough property, vehicles and equipment. The officers’ union filed a grievance, claiming that a broad ban on tobacco use was an unfair labor practice.

The police officers case floundered at first when they lost in the initial phases. But apparently doggedly determined to smoke at least at some moments of their work day, they took their claims all the way to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Recently, that Court decided that once a union and labor management have bargained and are operating according to a contract, they must negotiate changes in “working conditions.” Finding that a total ban on smoking during all working hours was a change in “working conditions,” the Court sent the parties to the bargaining table to address the smoking issues, setting aside the borough council’s resolution.

When parents are live in separate households due to divorce or separation, neither parent may relocate with a child of the parties without the written consent of the other parent. Pennsylvania law has long held that a child’s relocation is a decision parents must make together; recently the Pennsylvania legislature enacted sweeping changes that strengthen and clarify those limitations.

First, whether or not a custody order already exists, a relocating parent must have the written consent of the other parent before relocating. A parent who doesn’t have the other parent’s approval must file a detailed notice with the local county court of his or her intention to relocate at least 60 days before the planned relocation. The law provides for some flexibility in the notice period if the relocating parent could not reasonably have known of the need to relocate earlier. The notice must include the proposed new address, phone number, school district, names of the persons who will be living in the new household and the reasons for the relocation.

Then the objecting parent must file his or her detailed written objections within 30 days. Most courts have conciliation and mediation programs that all parents are required to attend in disputed custody cases. If such settlement programs don’t result in an amicable agreement, the parents must move on to a prompt custody hearing before a judge. Judges are not entitled to order parents to live in any particular place, but they do have the authority to decide where a child will live in a disputed custody case. A parent who chooses to relocate always may do so, but he or she may or may not be able to take a child along.

If the non-relocating parent simply ignores the notice, the parent who wishes to relocate must file an appropriate detailed affidavit with the court, indicating that the notice was ignored and must further petition the court for a clear order permitting relocation.

Even when a parent has primary custody of a child, he or she is not free to relocate without a written agreement or court order if the relocation would “significantly impair the right of a non-relocating party to exercise custodial rights.” Since custodial rights include the right to participate in decision-making, any household move that triggers a school change is one which parents should treat as a legal relocation.

As Pennsylvania teenagers start thinking of summer jobs, they and their parents need to learn about the layers of Pennsylvania law regarding child labor. And with the summer hiring season approaching, Pennsylvania employers need to brush up on their legal hiring and reporting restrictions for teen employees.

Peppered with some very old notions, like language prohibiting “youth peddling” and restrictions on children working with dynamite, the Pennsylvania Child Labor Law evolved over the past century as Pennsylvania changed from a farm economy to an industrial economy. Few changes have taken place in recent years and many of the provisions of the Act may seem antiquated to modern teens, parents and employers.

The Act first sets out various age restrictions. Children of eleven years or older may deliver or sell newspapers or other merchandise under supervision. Children between the ages of twelve and fourteen may be employed as caddies but may not carry more than one bag at a time or work more than eighteen holes in one day. Children between the ages of fourteen and sixteen are generally employable provided their employment does not interfere with school attendance.

The Act next sets out additional important restrictions that regulate the kinds of work and workplaces, times of day and length of hours children may work. Children under sixteen may not be employed in any manufacturing or mechanical occupation or process. They may not work in “heavy work” in building trades, in tunnels, “in stripping or assorting tobacco,” or on scaffolding. They may not operate any motor vehicle of any kind or work in a coal mine. Just about the only machinery a fourteen year old can use legally is a lawn mower. The Act specifically notes that children fourteen and over can work in ski resorts, golf courses and amusement parks as long as they do not work in any areas where alcohol is served.

Children under eighteen may not work in any dangerous job or one which could be “injurious to health or morals.” While many manufacturing jobs are banned for children under 18, including gunpowder and certain paint manufacture and use, the Act is silent as to what might be considered dangerous in modern kitchens and retail stores. Some retail stores use machinery to disassemble and bundle cardboard boxes; many retail employers are left to presume that sixteen year old employees probably cannot work with such machinery.

Teens under 18 cannot be directly involved in handling or serving alcohol. If sixteen, a child may work in that part of a motel, restaurant, club or hotel where alcohol is not served. Further, if sixteen, an employee may serve food, clear tables and perform duties not involving the handling of alcohol in an establishment where revenue from the sale of food and non-alcoholic beverages is at least 40% of the gross food and beverage revenue.

The limitations on times and hours of work permitted for minors are detailed. Children under eighteen may not work for more than eight hours a day, or for more than six consecutive days a week, or in excess of forty-four hours in a week. If enrolled in school, children under eighteen may only work twenty-eight hours a week during the school year. Children under sixteen may not work more than four hours on a school day or in excess of eighteen hours in the school week.

The Act includes specific, separate regulations for child actors and models, for young people involved in volunteer rescue, fire and ambulance corps and for any children who do not reside in the Commonwealth. Additionally, the Act includes limitations on late night hours and length of permissible work hours between breaks. Some expansion of permissible work hours during the summer school vacation is permitted by the Act. The Act does not apply to children employed on farms or in domestic service in private homes.

Teenagers need certain state documents to work legally—the documents are often called “working papers.” There are two categories of working papers; children under sixteen must have an “employment certificate” and children sixteen and older can secure a “work permit.” Work permits are more desirable because they are transferable between jobs; employment certificates are issued for specific jobs and are not transferable. Work certificates are issued to the employer and must be retained by the employer throughout the child’s employment. Transferable work permits are retained by the child. As to both permits and certificates, employers are bound by significant additional reporting and record keeping requirements under the Act.

Employment permits and certificates are issued by school district superintendents, supervising principals or school board secretaries. Applications for certificates or permits must be made by at the local high school by the child’s parent, guardian or legal custodian. The completed application must signed by a physician or nurse practitioner who certifies that the child is physically fit for employment. The child’s age must be proved by birth certificate, baptismal certificate or passport. If none of these documents is available, the child’s age may be proved by an affidavit signed either by a physician or by the child’s parent, legal custodian or legal guardian.

If an employer, parent, guardian or custodian violates the Act, he or she may be fined up to $1,000.00 and/or imprisoned for up to ten days. In addition, employers must know that where a child working in violation of the Act is injured on the job, he or she is entitled to 150% of the worker’s compensation benefits ordinarily allowed. The excess compensation is not payable by the insurance carrier but is instead solely the obligation of the employer. Even where an injured child has a valid certificate of employment, if he or she commenced employment and was injured before the certificate was actually issued, the 150% compensation must be paid.

If your child plans to work this summer, it is wise to start the process of securing the working papers and medical examination soon. If you are an employer who employs minors, it is important that you carefully review the restrictions of the Act as to the particular child, job, work hours and conditions of the employment relationship you are seeking to establish. Because the Act focuses not only on the age of the child, but on the work conditions and hours, a quick or cursory analysis is not wise. Never commence any employment relationship regulated by the Act before you have the necessary work certificate or a copy of the child’s permit.

When is your automobile insurance company entitled to raise your premium? Can the company completely cancel your coverage?

Pennsylvania law provides consumers with some firm protections against premium increases and policy cancellations. Your premium can be increased by the company if you or someone else in your household insured under the policy is involved in an accident and is at fault for the accident or is convicted of moving traffic violations. But insurance companies may not increase premiums just because a claim is made against an insured by another driver, passenger or pedestrian. In addition to raising your premium, your insurance company can add an extra charge, called a surcharge, onto your premium for a chargeable accident or moving traffic violation. Your insurance company has a “surcharge disclosure plan” that it must make available to you when you first purchase the policy. If you want to know more about the potential consequences for accidents, ask your insurer for a copy of its plan.

When an insurance company increases a premium due to the insured’s at-fault accidents or moving violation convictions, the insurance company must provide the insured with a detailed summary of how the premium increase was calculated and how long it will be imposed.

If you are in an accident but are not at fault, the insurance company can’t use the accident as the sole reason to cancel or refuse to renew your policy. While the law permits the insurance company some leeway in deciding whether you were at fault, there are certain kinds of accidents which give rise to the presumption that the insured was not at fault. Those include accidents where your vehicle is parked when struck, accidents where you are struck from behind and are not cited for a motor vehicle violation, accidents where the other driver is convicted of a moving violation and you are not, accidents in which you are struck by a hit-and-run vehicle, accidents in which you recover money compensation from the other driver and accidents in which you hit an animal. You can also avoid cancellation if you were involved in an accident while responding to an emergency and you are a paid or a volunteer member of a police or first responder squad.

If your accident is not one of the list of excluded accidents above, your insurance company has fairly broad right to cancel your coverage if you are involved in an accident, and particularly if you are involved in two or more accidents.

The insurance company always can cancel your policy if you breach the policy by failing to pay premium bills or if your driver’s license or vehicle registration is suspended or revoked.

The company may also cancel your policy if the company discovers that you made false statements about important facts. Insureds are expected to complete the policy application and any subsequent questionnaires truthfully and accurately. Failing to disclose a speeding ticket or a physical disability in response to a question on an application or an inquiry from the company can lead to cancellation if the company discovers your omission. An insured’s innocent omission on an application or questionnaire isn’t enough to support policy cancellation. The company must prove that the insured knew he or she was acting dishonestly and must prove that the misrepresentation relates to an issue the company regularly considers when deciding whether to issue a policy of insurance.

The law specifically prohibits insurance companies from canceling your insurance based on your age, residence in a certain community, or on the basis of your race, sex, occupation, religion or marital status. If a husband and wife are insured on the same policy, facts which justify canceling as to one spouse do not entitle the company to cancel the policy. Instead, the company may cancel coverage only as to one spouse.

Some protections against cancellation by the company don’t apply if you are already in an insurance high risk pool or if you have more than four cars on your policy or if you have certain kinds of commercial insurance for service stations or parking garages. Some extra protections exist if you have been insured for more than three years without problems or if the accident is your very first accident.

The Insurance laws and administrative regulations are complex and provide procedures by which premium increases, cancellations and refusals to renew can be challenged by insureds. Before considering any challenge, it is wise for insureds to secure as much information as possible from their insurance company in support of the company’s decision.

It is wise to close all joint credit cards as soon as possible after separation. Doing this cooperatively with your spouse is best; if communications are so poor that you simply can’t discuss it, you should do it on your own. Follow up telephone calls to the credit card company with a brief written letter closing the account. You have the authority to end your responsibility for any joint credit card; don’t let a company representative refuse to do so over the telephone. Politely insist on speaking to a supervisor and promptly get a written directive out to the credit card company.

All Pennsylvania court-ordered child support payments are collected and distributed by the State Collection and Disbursement Unit (SCDU) in Harrisburg. All payments are made by SCDU by direct deposit into the recipient’s bank account or by an EPI card, which works like a debit card. The best way to manage your receipt of your child support is by setting up the direct deposit. All local Domestic Relations Offices have the required form to help you do this.

Pennsylvania is a no-fault divorce state. That simply means that neither party has to identify any wrongdoing to file a Divorce Complaint, starting up divorce proceedings. It also means that if the court has to become involved in splitting up the parties’ assets, no consideration will be given to who was right and who was wrong in the breakdown of the marriage.