Court of Common Pleas of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania Filing Rules

Briefs longer than fifteen pages must include a table of contents and a table of citations.

A party may request oral argument by filing a praecipe when filing a brief under the specified briefing provisions.

In other cases pending before the Court or an appellate court, the Clerk of Courts need not serve the order on the prison until the full monetary bail condition is satisfied, unless the Court orders otherwise.

When a defendant is lodged in Lancaster County Prison under a bail piece, the Warden or designee must notify the District Court Administrator within 12 hours of commitment.

Supporting documentation must be filed in chronological order, with oldest-to-newest ordering preferred.

A litigant ordering a transcript must pay a 95% deposit by check payable to the County of Lancaster and deliver it to the Chief Court Reporter; receipt of the deposit triggers preparation of the transcript.

The debt certification and all supporting documentation must be filed electronically through the Lancaster County Prothonotary Online Portal or another program used by the Prothonotary.

A continuance request must be filed with the District Court Administrator under local procedure, and a contested request must be presented to the Court for decision.

An opposing party must file its responsive brief and any opposing evidence within thirty days after service of the motion and brief; failure to file a responsive brief means the party is deemed not to oppose the motion.

The moving party must file the motion, proposed order, and supporting brief concurrently; if the brief is omitted, an opposing party may praecipe for the motion to be deemed withdrawn without prejudice.

At least one week prior to the pretrial conference, defendant’s pre-trial memorandum shall be filed with the Prothonotary

Unless law, court rule, or court direction requires otherwise, parties and attorneys may include only the listed limited personal identifiers, and parties are solely responsible for redacting them.

A document may exceed an applicable page limit by no more than two pages attributable to the electronic filing conversion process.