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. 24-397

THE COURTS

Title 255—LOCAL COURT RULES

UNION COUNTY

Judicial Administration; No. AD-3-2024

[54 Pa.B. 1535]
[Saturday, March 23, 2024]

Order

 And Now, this 8th day of March, 2024, inasmuch as the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania has adopted Pa.R.J.A. 5101—5105, with a directive that local rules of judicial administration comply with Pa.R.J.A. 5101—5105, no later than April 1, 2024, the Order of Court is as follows:

 1. Local Rule of Judicial Administration 5102 (Custody of Exhibits in Court Proceedings) is hereby adopted as follows to this Order of Court.

 2. This Order of Court and Local Rule of Judicial Administration 5102 shall be promulgated in accordance with Pa.R.J.A. 103(c), effective thirty days after publication in the Pennsylvania Bulletin.

 The District Court Administrator is directed to:

 1. File one (1) certified copy of this Administrative Order with the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts via email to adminrules@pacourts.us;

 2. File two (2) paper copies and one (1) electronic copy in Word format to bulletin@palrb.us with Legislative Reference Bureau for publication in the Pennsylvania Bulletin;

 3. Incorporate the rule into the 17th Judicial District Rules of this Court within thirty (30) days after publication of the Local Rules in the Pennsylvania Bulletin on the county website.

17CV5102 and 17CR5102. Custody of Exhibits.

 (a) Scope. Local rule 5102 is hereby issued to align the practice and procedure in the Court of Common Pleas for the 17th Judicial District with Pa.R.J.A. 5101—5105. These local rules incorporate the terms of art and their definitions as set forth in Pa.R.J.A. 5101(a). These local rules do not apply to any record hearing which may be appealed de novo to the Court of Common Pleas or upon which exceptions or objections can be filed to the Court of Common Pleas.

 (b) Custodian. The proponent of any exhibit being offered into evidence shall be its custodian. The custodian is responsible for safeguarding and maintaining the exhibit(s) until the conclusion of the proceedings.

 (c) Format of Exhibits. The custodian shall ensure that the format of an exhibit, including size and material, is compatible with the records office's ability to maintain and retrieve it. This includes the following: (i) offering as an exhibit an 8 1/2 by 11 inch copy of any oversized (larger than 8 1/2 by 11 inches) documentary evidence; (ii) offering as an exhibit copies of any voluminous documentary evidence on a digital storage device; and (iii) offering any digital media (e.g., video and/or audio recordings) as an exhibit on a digital storage device in a format that uses publicly available software for retrieval, or includes any propriety software necessary for retrieval.

 (d) Submission to the Court. Unless instructed otherwise by the presiding judge, the custodian shall submit any exhibits to the Court at the conclusion of the court proceeding in order to ensure that the exhibits are filed with the records office for incorporation into the docket within the next five business days. The custodian shall submit to the Court a numbered list of exhibits offered into evidence that includes the following: (i) a textual description or identification of each exhibit; and (ii) whether the exhibit was admitted into or rejected from evidence by the Court.

 (e) Retention by the Custodian. Unless instructed otherwise by the presiding judge, the custodian shall retain custody after the conclusion of court proceedings of the following: (i) non-documentary evidence (i.e., physical evidence including, but not limited to, clothing, weapons, cash or other items of value, drugs, and dangerous or biohazardous materials); or (ii) evidence that is bulky, oversized or otherwise impractical for the records office to store/maintain. In such cases, the custodian shall ensure that a photograph (no larger than 8 1/2 by 11 inches) of such evidence is offered as an exhibit and included in the index of exhibits.

By the Court

LORI HACKENBERG, 
President Judge

[Pa.B. Doc. No. 24-397. Filed for public inspection March 22, 2024, 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.