The Judges of the Civil Division are responsible for handling all civil matters, as well as family and orphans' court matters. The judges work within the framework of an individual calendar system. This system provides the judges with the needed flexibility to schedule matters tailored to the specific requirements of the case. A key focus of the Court is to adhere to the standard of timely justice for the citizens of Lehigh County and to ensure the best use of court resources. Each judge is responsible for his or her inventory of cases from the filing of the complaint through disposition of the case.
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The Civil Operations Officer reviews new cases filed in the Office of the Clerk of Judicial Records - Civil Division every week. Civil cases initiated by complaint, which are not subject to compulsory arbitration, are assigned to an individual judge and are placed in that judge's active civil case inventory.
Continuance requests for any matter scheduled before the court or a board of arbitrators must be submitted on a Court of Common Pleas of Lehigh County Continuance Application form, which may be found online or obtained from the Court Administrator's office. The form must be signed by all counsel/parties and must reflect the opposing party's position along with his/her signature.
When requesting a continuance of an arbitration hearing, a new scheduling date is required before submitting the form to the Judge. The applying party must contact the Court Administrator's office to obtain a new scheduling date, which date must be agreed upon by all counsel/parties before submitting the continuance request. All Continuance applications must be E-filed.
When e-filing any document other than original process in Civil or Family cases, the following procedures shall be followed commencing October 1, 2022:
When attorneys or pro se parties e-file a document, the Odyssey system will default to "e-file and serve" rather than to "e-file." This will constitute good service under the Pennsylvania Rules of Civil Procedure and the Lehigh County Rules of Procedure.
Attorneys and parties must keep their email addresses up to date with the Clerk of Judicial Records ("COJR") and will be e-served at that email address. If their email address changes, they must file a Change Of Address form with COJR. The email address on record with COJR are that attorney or party's record address for service purposes. Neither a Judge, nor Court Administration, nor Family Court Administration can change the record address of an attorney or party.
In addition to the above, attorneys and parties must keep their regular mailing addresses up to date with COJR as their record mailing addresses.
Lehigh County File & Serve site at https://pennsylvania.tylertech.cloud/ofsweb
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Cases filed in which the amount in dispute is $50,000 or less and Magisterial District Judge appeals are submitted to compulsory arbitration. New case filings reported weekly are reviewed by the Civil Operations Officer. Early identification of arbitration cases provides for timely disposition of these matters. Arbitration cases are randomly assigned to one of the civil judges for monitoring of the case and handling of all motions and petitions. After arbitration, if an appeal is filed, the case becomes part of the monitoring judge's active inventory.
Attorneys who wish to serve as an arbitrator must meet certain eligibility requirements. They must: be a member of the Bar of Lehigh County; have an office within Lehigh County, express a willingness to serve and submit their name to the Court Administrator. Assignment to a permanent panel is with the approval of the Arbitration Administrative Judge.
The Arbitration Coordinator schedules cases for arbitration. Magisterial District Judge appeals are listed on the first available list 60 days after the appeal is taken. All other matters are listed for hearing no later than one year after the complaint is filed.
A case may be scheduled for arbitration upon praecipe of any party. Counsel must serve the opposing side with a notice of intent to praecipe. If additional discovery is needed, the responding party must notify counsel within 20 days of the nature of discovery desired. The discovery must be completed within 120 days, after which a party may praecipe the case for arbitration. If no discovery is requested within 20 days, counsel may praecipe the case for arbitration.
Arbitration hearings are listed for 9:00 am and 1:00 pm on days assigned by the court and are held at the Office of the Bar Association of Lehigh County at 1114 Walnut Street, Allentown, PA.
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