Major changes will be taking effect in Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas effective January 1, 2016. On October 19, 2015, the Court entered an Order adopting Montgomery County Local Rule of Civil Procedure 200. Montgomery County will be moving from an attorney driven to a court driven system!
Montgomery County has always been an attorney driven system. So what does that mean? It means that the Court will not hold your hand, tell you what and when to do it. Furthermore, the Court does not initially establish dates for completion of discovery or trial.
Well, changes are coming to Montgomery County for all civil cases filed after January 1, 2016. Deadlines will now be automatically imposed. Cases will have to be in the trial pool in 9 months (arbitration cases) and 18 months (non-arbitration cases). If not, then a mandatory case management conference will be scheduled. At the case management conference deadlines of no more than 60 days (arbitration cases) and 120 days (non-arbitration cases) will be set for conclusion of discovery and exchange of expert reports. Thereafter, the case will be automatically placed in the arbitration or trial pool.
In order to implement the new court driven program Montgomery County has adopted a new Local Rule of Civil Procedure 200. Additionally, Local Rules of Civil Procedure 206.4 (Petitions), 1028 (Preliminary Objections), 1034 (Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings) and 1035 (Motions for Summary Judgment) have all been amended to shorten the time period for the Motions to be submitted to the Court for disposition. The amended rule also allows the Motions to be submitted to a Senior Judge for disposition.
As to cases filed prior to January 1, 2016, the current system will continue to apply.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
