Representation of elected and appointed public officials, and governmental agencies and departments; representation of taxpayers and businesses victimized by governmental action.

          The following are examples of our representation in this practice area:

            Sprague & Sprague has represented courts in securing governmental funding to provide necessary court functions and administer justice.

            The Firm has provided assistance to a district attorney’s office in the preparation of appellate briefs and the presentation of oral argument concerning issues of statewide importance.

            When the planned construction of two new municipal sports stadiums threatened the viability of their adjacent neighborhoods, community groups hired Sprague & Sprague to represent them in negotiations with the team owners and the local municipality. The Firm’s efforts resulted in very favorable modifications to the design and operation of the facilities and in the creation of a municipally-funded neighborhood improvement district guaranteeing that the promises made to the neighbors would be fulfilled over the life of the projects.

            The Firm represented an interstate governmental agency in seeking to implement a massive infrastructure project affecting a major shipping route, requiring significant participation by the federal government.

            When county commissioners had repeatedly failed to provide a county district attorney with adequate funding and space, we successfully represented the district attorney in a suit against the commissioners.

            An association of county government officials came to the Firm for representation after a Pennsylvania county lost a case which resulted in a major source of its tax revenue being declared unconstitutional. We assumed representation of the county on the appeal, in which the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania reversed the lower court and declared the tax at issue to be constitutional. We successfully represented the county in resisting a Petition for Certiorari to the Supreme Court of the United States. On remand to the trial court, we represented the county in developing and implementing a program which resulted in the county, and other counties, being able to substantially preserve the benefits of the tax for the years at issue.

            When a taxpayer brought suit challenging a county’s procedures for hearing tax appeals relating to a county tax, Sprague & Sprague successfully represented the county in having the suit dismissed for lack of merit.

            An intermediate appellate court voided a special purpose tax intended to fund a major public facility in the largest city in one Pennsylvania county. The city, the county and the authority charged with building the facility engaged the Firm to appeal to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania where we successfully achieved a reversal of the intermediate appellate court and, upon remand to the trial court, a complete victory for our clients.