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Annulment

P.K. v. S.S., 2020 Pa. Super. Unpub. LEXIS 250 (Sept. 9, 2020).
In this action for annulment of an arranged marriage, Appellate Law Group LLC successfully represented Wife as the Appellee in an interlocutory appeal from an order of the Family Court Division of the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas.

On behalf of Wife, trial counsel subpoenaed a third party for Husband’s mental health records, arguing that they were relevant to our client’s claim for an annulment based on fraud.

Husband moved for a protective order, arguing that the documents were medical records protected from discovery by the doctor-patient privilege. The trial court denied the motion for a protective order and husband filed an interlocutory appeal to the Superior Court of Pennsylvania.

Virginia McMichael briefed and argued the case to the Superior Court of Pennsylvania.

The Superior Court held that husband’s mental health records were relevant and discoverable but reversed and remanded to the trial court with instructions that the court enter a new order requiring production of the documents after redacting any attorney-client privileged communications.

Divorce

In Hayman v. Hayman, 2453 EDA 2019 (Pa. Super. Oct. 9, 2020), a divorce action, Appellate Law Group obtained a reversal and remand of an order of the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas that held our client in civil contempt and dismissed her petition for special relief.

After persuading the Superior Court that the contempt order on appeal was an interlocutory order appealable as of right under Pa.R.A.P. 311(a)(8), McMichael argued that the trial court erred when it held her client in contempt of court.

The Superior Court of Pennsylvania agreed with McMichael that the trial court’s order was for indirect criminal contempt, not civil contempt, because it was punitive rather than coercive, and the action that led to the contempt did not take place in the presence of the court. The Court held that the trial court abused its discretion when it held wife in contempt and dismissed her petition for special relief. The Court reversed and remanded the matter to the trial court.

Child Support

Karakelian v. LaVine, 3470 EDA 2015 (Pa. Super. 2015).
Appellate Law Group LLC represented the appellee in this appeal from an order for child support. The issue was whether the trial court failed to follow Pennsylvania’s child support guidelines when it awarded child support to our client.

Virginia McMichael, as counsel for the appellee, succeeded in persuading the Superior Court of Pennsylvania to affirm the trial court’s award.

Paternity

H.Z. v. M.B., 1808 EDA 2018 (Pa. Super. 2019).
This paternity action had been litigated for over a decade.  Appellate Law Group LLC was retained after the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas entered an order holding that our client was the father of the plaintiff’s child.

Under Pa.R.C.P. 1910.15(f), an order establishing paternity is not appealable as of right. But Virginia McMichael, working closely with trial counsel, persuaded the trial court to certify its order for an interlocutory appeal.

McMichael then briefed and argued the case to the Superior Court of Pennsylvania. 

The Superior Court held that the decision was an abuse of discretion. The Court reversed and remanded the matter to the trial court for additional DNA testing.

The case was resolved after the additional DNA testing conclusively established that our client was not the child’s father.

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