Updated Stats for 2010 up to June 30, 2010

Statistics for District Court 31-1-03
Type	2009	2010
Civil/LT	593
Criminal	378
Traffic	4565
Non-Traffic	995
Total	6531
Type	30-Jun-10	30-Jun-10
Civil/LT	282	281
Criminal	185	164
Traffic	2239	1799
Non-Traffic	630	899
Total	3336	3143
Civil Cases include Landlord Tenant complaints
Criminal are all the Criminal Cases filed that are misdemeanor and above.
Traffic are all the Traffic and Parking Citations that are filed.
Non-Traffic are all the Summary and City Ordinance Violations that are filed.

Effective May 27, 2010 if you have received a traffic citation or a non-traffic citation, you can plead not guilty or guilty on line. This is possible with a new service called nCourt, which is offered by Lehigh County.

If you wish to plead guilty, with information from your citation you may pay those fines and costs with the on line service. (There is a fee for using the service).

If you have existing fines and costs, a full payment can be made on line. (There is a fee for using the service). Partial payments are not allowed.

This new service was implemented by the County of Lehigh to streamline and modernize the collection of fines and costs.

Please see the attached link for this District Court.

https://www.ncourt.com/nCourtUniversal/transaction.aspx?Juris=93D152B0-371C-42FE-B0E1-3CB66C3E56B3

If you are looking for another District Court in Lehigh County, please follow this link.

http://www.ncourt.com/nCourtLanding/lehigh.aspx

Stats for District Court 31-1-03

Please see the below image for current caseload information

Type	2008	2009	2010
Civil	605	593
Criminal	293	378
Traffic	4628	4565
Non-Traffic	1116	995
Total	6642	6531
Type	31-Mar-08	31-Mar-09	31-Mar-10
Civil	142	146	147
Criminal	66	90	79
Traffic	1321	1114	847
Non-Traffic	449	333	356
Total	1978	1683	1429
Civil Cases include Landlord Tenant complaints
Criminal are all the Criminal Cases filed that are misdemeanor and above.
Traffic are all the Traffic and Parking Citations that are filed.
Non-Traffic are all the Summary and City Ordinance Violations that are filed.

A Time to Learn

Anyone that knows me, knows I love to work. The new job is exciting, challenging and most of all enjoyable.
I am blessed with a great staff, who do a great job of keeping things moving in a very busy office.
Over the last several months, I have been quietly "learning the ropes" and dealing with such a variety of issues that
come before me in the courtroom.
In the next few days, I will post some basic statistics of what is going on in the world of District Court 31-1-03.
The purpose of the post is to keep the district informed in a very public way, of what is happening in this district.

There will be updates on a weekly basis.

Then there will be comparisons to previous years, so that the reader has a sense of what changes are ocurring.

As an example: this past weekend I was "on call" for all of Lehigh County. All of the District Judges in Lehigh County get a turn for this duty, this weekend was my turn.
What being "on call" means is that if anyone needs an emergency PFA (Protection from Abuse), if a police officer needs a search warrant or arrest warrant, or if Central Booking has someone to arraign, I am responsible to be available and handle those issues. This weekend, which began Friday morning at 0800, and ended at 2200 Easter Sunday, there were 30 arraignments, 10 bail bonds executed, 8 Emergency Protection From Abuse Orders issued, 4 Search Warrants issued and 3 arrest warrants issued.

Every week, I will explain in very plain terms, various tasks that we do, in an effort to educate residents in the district on the business of the court. Everything we do is public. There are no secrets.

I want to thank Tara and Sharon, two of the great cadre of office staff, for the great job they did in keeping all of the paperwork flowing so that we could efficiently deal with everything that was thrown at us this weekend.

I am in the process of learning the computer system, and spending time entering traffic and non traffic citations, criminal complaints, landlord tenant and civil complaints, and miscellaneous docket paperwork. It gives me a greater appreciation of just how much paperwork there is, and how important it is for that paperwork to be done correctly; and how hard the staff works keeping up with it all. I thought I had a lot of paperwork in my old job!!! That was nothing compared to the mounds we generate to ensure that we document everything properly into the Justice System.

I will also from time to time share some comments that are occasionally made.

Updates to the site will occur mostly on Sunday evenings. I hope the information that is provided is useful and educational.

Next Sunday: Stats for the first 3 months of 2010.

Thanks for your patience.

First Day

On January 4, 2010 at 08:00 AM, I was sworn in as the new Magisterial District Judge of District 31-1-3, by Judge William Platt.
My daughter, Jennifer, read my Commission from Governor Rendell, my wife Susan held the bible as I swore to support, defend and obey the Constitution of the United States and the Commonwealth and to discharge my duties with fidelity. Susan also helped me put on my robe for the first time. Friends and family were present, and it was a brief ceremony. At 8:30, I had gone into the office with the intent to sign some paperwork, and prepare for cases that were scheduled on January 5, 2010. I ended up staying in the office until 4:30, and in that time handled several issues, arraignments, warrants and guilty pleas. It is a busy office, and the office manager and support staff are very well versed in what needs to be done in that office. It was a very good day as a first day, and I look forward to having many more days like it.