This CLE program provides a practitioner focused update on modern criminal law developments across four major jurisdictions: Pennsylvania, New York, Texas, and California. Participants will explore the most significant statutory reforms of the last 2–3 years—including new criminal offenses, sentencing revision laws, expanded judicial discretion, updated bail frameworks, and evolving victims’ rights protections—alongside emerging evidentiary and search and seizure challenges shaped by digital technology, AI generated evidence, and enhanced surveillance tools.

Drawing on recent legislation such as New York’s Judicial Security Act, Texas’s creation of new offenses and penalty enhancements under the 89th Legislature, California’s sweeping resentencing reforms under AB 600, and Pennsylvania’s major criminal law developments, including the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in Commonwealth v. Shifflett prohibiting the use of ARD as a sentencing enhancement in DUI cases and the ongoing expansion of Clean Slate and probation reform legislation, this course equips attorneys with the knowledge needed to navigate rapidly shifting criminal justice landscapes and to prepare effective strategies for investigation, litigation, negotiation, and trial.