imported post
CowboyKen wrote:
fingers80002 wrote:
Signs do carry legal weight in Pa.
Would you care to explain, and/or support, this statement?
Ken
In Pennsylvania, you are not trespassing if you enter lands that are not your own unless it is posted or you have received a verbal notification from the owner/lessee.
Hunting is very common throughout Pennsylvania; and required in order to check the deer population. Some owners,
about 30% according to a state survey, do not post their land and allow others to hunt or use the property for other recreational purposes. Pennsylvania has gone so far as to legally limit the liability of the property owner for those using the property as long as they are not charged admission.
[T. 68 P.S., Ch. 11] This encourages people to leave their property un-posted.
As for the posted "NO TRESPASSING" sign legality:
18 Pa.C.S.A. § 3503 Criminal Trespass.
(b) Defiant trespasser.--
(1) A person commits an offense if, knowing that he is not licensed or privileged to do so, he enters or remains in any place as to which notice against trespass is given by:
(i) actual communication to the actor;
(ii)
posting in a manner prescribed by law or reasonably likely to come to the attention of intruders;
(iii) fencing or other enclosure manifestly designed to exclude intruders;
(iv) notices posted in a manner prescribed by law or reasonably likely to come to the person's attention at each entrance of school grounds that visitors are prohibited without authorization from a designated school, center or program official; or
(v) an actual communication to the actor to leave school grounds as communicated by a school, center or program official, employee or agent or a law enforcement officer.
(2) Except as provided in paragraph (1)(v), an offense under this subsection constitutes a misdemeanor of the third degree
if the offender defies an order to leave personally communicated to him by the owner of the premises or other authorized person. An offense under paragraph (1)(v) constitutes a misdemeanor of the first degree. Otherwise it is a summary offense.