Appeals and PCRA petitions are real second chances — with brutal deadlines. Move fast.
The jury came back wrong, the sentence came down heavy, or the lawyer at trial missed things a lawyer shouldn't miss. Pennsylvania law builds in second chances — direct appeal to the Superior Court, post-sentence motions, and the Post Conviction Relief Act (PCRA) — but every one of them runs on a clock, and the clocks are unforgiving. The single most important sentence on this page: appellate deadlines are measured in days, not months, so call now, not after you've thought about it.
Legal errors — not just "the verdict was unfair." Evidence admitted that should have been suppressed, jury instructions that misstated the law, sufficiency and weight claims, sentencing errors, issues preserved at every stage below. That last part is why trial-level lawyering matters so much: an issue nobody objected to is usually an issue the Superior Court never hears. When we try cases, we build the record for appeal from day one.
The Post Conviction Relief Act is Pennsylvania's mechanism for attacking a conviction after direct appeal — most commonly for ineffective assistance of counsel: the lawyer who didn't investigate, didn't call the witness, didn't file the motion, or told you to take a plea without explaining what it meant. PCRA petitions have their own strict time limits and procedural traps, and a badly drafted first petition can forfeit claims forever. This is precision work, and it's work we love.
Attorney Mergl is admitted before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, the U.S. District Courts for the Western and Eastern Districts of Pennsylvania, and the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals — so when a case's issues run past the state system into Federal court, you don't need a new lawyer at the courthouse door.
Usually the deadlines have passed — but PCRA recognizes limited exceptions (newly discovered facts, certain new constitutional rulings). It costs nothing to ask; it can cost everything to assume.
The grounds are narrower — but pleas entered without understanding the consequences, or induced by bad advice, can sometimes be attacked.
Yes. Families start these cases for incarcerated loved ones every day. Start with the intake form and we'll take it from there.
MERGL