Pennsylvania Code
Pennsylvania Code & Bulletin
COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA

• No statutes or acts will be found at this website.

The Pennsylvania Bulletin website includes the following: Rulemakings by State agencies; Proposed Rulemakings by State agencies; State agency notices; the Governor’s Proclamations and Executive Orders; Actions by the General Assembly; and Statewide and local court rules.

PA Bulletin, Doc. No. 20-39

THE COURTS

Title 255—LOCAL COURT RULES

CHESTER COUNTY

Prompt Adjudication Hearings for Non-Detained Juveniles; Administrative Regulation No. 18-2019

[50 Pa.B. 199]
[Saturday, January 11, 2020]

 And Now, this 2nd day of December, 2019, it is hereby Ordered and Decreed that all juvenile adjudication hearings scheduled for non-detained juveniles shall be held within five (5) months from the filing of a delinquency petition initiated pursuant to Pa.R.J.C.P. 330, unless the supervising judge of the Chester County juvenile court grants an extension. This five month period shall not include time during which the juvenile is sought to be arrested pursuant to a bench warrant.

 This regulation is intended to better assure that non-detained juveniles receive an adjudicatory hearing within a reasonable time, pursuant to Pa.R.J.C.P. 404(B), and that Pa.R.J.C.P. 404(B) is construed to eliminate unjustifiable delay, in accordance with Pa.R.J.C.P. 101(B).

 The Chester County Juvenile Probation Department, the attorneys for juvenile defendants and the Commonwealth shall make a good faith effort to schedule formal adjudication hearings within the five month period required by this regulation. If an extension of this five month period is sought, the attorneys for the subject juvenile and the Commonwealth shall schedule a conference with the supervising juvenile judge and the assigned probation officer to explain the reason(s) for the anticipated delay. Any such reason(s) must constitute good cause for an extension to be granted. Except for unusual circumstances, any extension granted shall be provided within an order scheduling the adjudicatory hearing to begin on a date certain. Dismissal of the petition shall not result from the failure of the adjudication hearing to be held within the above described five month period or any extension of it.

 All future juvenile probation court reports shall provide, in the upper right hand corner of the first page, the filing date of the juvenile delinquency petition and the date when the five month period to hold the adjudication hearing ends. (The five month period shall be recalculated to eliminate any time a bench warrant remains unexecuted.)

Local Rule Number

 Pursuant to Pa.R.J.A. 103(d)(3), the number of this local rule is keyed to Pa.R.J.C.P. 404(B) pertaining to prompt adjudicatory hearings for non-detained juveniles and shall be designated ''Local Rule L-404B'' within the Chester County Court of Common Pleas Juvenile Rules.

Effective Date

 This rule shall become effective thirty (30) days from the date of the publication in the Pennsylvania Bulletin.

Procedural Compliance

 In conformity with Pa.R.J.A. 103(d), the Chester County Court Administrator shall do the following:

 1) Distribute two (2) paper copies of this local rule to the Legislative Reference Bureau for publication in the Pennsylvania Bulletin, along with a copy of the local rule in an agreed upon format that complies with the requirements of 1 Pa. Code § 13.11.

 2) File one copy of this local rule with the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts.

 3) Publish a copy of this local rule on the Chester County website.

 4) Incorporate this local rule in the complete set of Chester County local rules no later than thirty (30) days following its publication in the Pennsylvania Bulletin.

By the Court

JACQUELINE CARROLL CODY, 
President Judge

[Pa.B. Doc. No. 20-39. Filed for public inspection January 10, 2020, 9:00 a.m.]


No part of the information on this site may be reproduced for profit or sold for profit.

This material has been drawn directly from the official Pennsylvania Bulletin full text database. Due to the limitations of HTML or differences in display capabilities of different browsers, this version may differ slightly from the official printed version.