In 1992, the Lehigh County judges took a pro-active role in the management of civil cases. For two years the judges in this division worked to reduce the backlog of pending cases while developing new caseflow management procedures. The Courts focus in developing these new procedures was to adhere to the standard of timely justice for the citizens of Lehigh County and to ensure the best use of court resources.

In 1994, the Lehigh County Court instituted a Differentiated Caseflow Management System for civil cases assigned to individual judges. The theory behind this system is that cases are not alike and therefore one set of guidelines does not apply to all. Under this DCM System, cases are tracked not only by the age of the case, but also by the complexity of the issues based upon criteria established by the Court. There are different tracks within this system. The Expedited and Standard Tracks have established deadlines and anticipated trial months. The Complex and Medical Malpractice Tracks are variable tracks, with deadlines to be set at a status conference with the assigned judge. There are other tracks within this management system, which help the court categorize cases that do not fall into the four major tracks. At present, because of the requirements of the individual judges, there are some modifications to the DCM System, but overall the basic concept remains the same.

Other Civil / Motion / Family Court Division Information: