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Law360 (March 16, 2020, 3:54 PM EDT ) Pennsylvania's busiest court system announced on Monday that it would suspend the bulk of its operations, including all scheduled civil and criminal trials, until the beginning of April in a bid to help contain the growing COVID-19 outbreak.
The Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas said that all offices would be closed effective Tuesday with limited exceptions for arraignments, bail acceptance and emergency protection from abuse petitions.
"We will continue to reevaluate all closures moving forward and will alert the public to any change," President Judge Idee Fox said at a news conference at City Hall on Monday afternoon.
Late Monday the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas, which includes the city of Pittsburgh, declared its own judicial emergency and suspended all criminal and civil trials until further notice.
The announcement comes as the Pennsylvania Supreme Court declared a statewide judicial emergency on Monday allowing individual judicial districts across the commonwealth to take unilateral steps to suspend proceedings in response to the novel coronavirus.
The statewide emergency declaration by the courts is set to continue until April 14, but officials in Philadelphia said that its individual closure would last until April 1.
In the meantime, all in-person hearings in both criminal and civil proceedings, including discovery court and pretrial conferences, have been put on hold in Philadelphia.
It was unclear on Monday afternoon whether the closure would affect civil motion practice and the court's e-filing system, but a spokesman told Law360 that he expected additional clarification from leadership on Tuesday.
A designated judge will be on hand at the Stout Center for Criminal Justice to hear certain emergency civil petitions related to health and medical issues, public safety, and guardianship appointments.
Similar measures are being put in place in Pittsburgh, where court leadership said that civil hearings would be limited to certain emergency petitions including public health and eviction matters
The coronavirus outbreak has impacted courts across Pennsylvania, as the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas in suburban Philadelphia on Thursday became the first county-level trial court to seek the justices' blessing to suspend operations.
County court systems across the commonwealth have since followed suit.
On the state level, argument sessions for the statewide Commonwealth and Superior courts that had been scheduled for this week have been continued indefinitely.
Panel sessions of the Pennsylvania Superior Court that had been scheduled to be held in Bucks County and Pittsburgh later this month have also been canceled.
--Editing by John Campbell.
Update: This story has been updated to include additional detail about measures implemented in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.
For a reprint of this article, please contact reprints@law360.com.
