Legal Research: Pennsylvania

Form Books

There are several sets of form books specifically oriented to Pennsylvania law. Dunlap Hanna Pennsylvania Forms is a general purpose set of form books published both in looseleaf and CD-ROM formats. It includes forms for both procedural and substantive areas. The Pennsylvania Transaction Guide gets the best marks in the business and corporate law area. This looseleaf set also touches upon the estates and trusts area along with some family law. West Publishing has recently (1993) come out with its own small compilation of forms. West's Pennsylvania Forms in eleven volumes covers the areas of civil procedure, domestic relations, business organizations, estate administration, estate planning, employment law, and debtor-creditor law. Purdon's Pennsylvania Forms would at first glance seem to be the easiest set to use, primarily because the set mirrors the organization of Purdon's Pennsylvania Statutes. In theory one should be able to take a statutory citation and look the same title and section number up in the form book set and find the appropriate form. However the set hasn't been updated in years and due to the statutory consolidation currently underway in Pennsylvania this set is at best confusing. Most of the major banks in the state offer will and trust drafting form books that are usually quite comprehensive. These are rarely updated so it is up to the attorney to spot an outdated form. Procedural forms in the civil area can be found in both Goodrich Amram Pennsylvania Practice and Wettick's Pennsylvania Forms for the Rules of Civil Procedure 2d. A basic set of criminal procedure forms can be found in Rudovsky and Sosnov's Pennsylvania Criminal Procedure Forms and Commentary. Darlington's Pennsylvania Appellate Practice 2d is a three volume work that provides commentary, citations, and forms. Another place to check for forms are in the PBI publications and in the looseleaf treatises. Many of the Bisel Co. looseleafs contain an appendix at the end of the volume or set with forms.

Procedural forms in the civil area can be found in both Goodrich Amram Pennsylvania Practice and Wettick's Pennsylvania Forms for the Rules of Civil Procedure 2d