About us

The Bickerton Law Blog is managed and operated by Lea Bickerton of Bickerton Legal. The blog was launched in 2008 as a source of insight and analysis into criminal law from the perspective of a criminal defense lawyer.

Lea Bickerton

Manager, Head Writer

Lea is an attorney with over 20 years of experience in criminal defense, criminal appeals, post-conviction relief, probation and parole advocacy, and administrative issues involving child abuse allegations and driver’s license reinstatements.

Selected Cases

Commonwealth v. C.S., 2026 Pa Superior Court: The Superior Court vacated the judgment of sentence and conviction and discharged the defendant from further proceedings after the Attorney Bickerton showed that the trial court granting the motion for judgment of acquittal on a felony corruption of minors charged eliminated its ability to sentence the defendant to a count of misdemeanor corruption

L.H. v. Department of Human Services, 197 A.3d 2018 (Pa. Cmwlt. 2018): Attorney Bickerton persuaded the Commonwealth Court to conclude that the Department of Human Services failed to prove that it mailed a ChildLine notice

Commonwealth v. Williams, 151 A.3d 621 (Pa. Super. 2016): In a case where prior counsel failed to file a timely notice of appeal but the defendant did, Attorney Bickerton persuaded the Superior Court to conclude that the clerk of courts must accept a timely-filed pro se notice of appeal

Selected Publications

“DUI Law and the Fourth Amendment: Up to Date Strategies for Identifying and Litigating Search and Seizure Issues in DUI Cases”; The Legality of Search and Seizure in DUI Cases, 2015 edition

“Understanding Firearms Possession Laws and Preparing an Effective Defense in a Firearms Case“; Strategies for Defending Firearms Offense Charges

William Bickerton

Contributor

Bill is currently an attorney in the Probation and Parole Unit of the Allegheny County Office of the Public Defender. He has been a criminal defense lawyer for over 25 years.