The Civil Operations Officer reviews new cases filed in the Office of the Clerk of Judicial Records - Civil Division every week. Civil cases initiated by complaint, which are not subject to compulsory arbitration, are assigned to an individual judge and are placed in that judge's active civil case inventory.

Continuance requests for any matter scheduled before the court or a board of arbitrators must be submitted on a Court of Common Pleas of Lehigh County Continuance Application form, which may be found online or obtained from the Court Administrator's office. The form must be signed by all counsel/parties and must reflect the opposing party's position along with his/her signature.

When requesting a continuance of an arbitration hearing, a new scheduling date is required before submitting the form to the Judge. The applying party must contact the Court Administrator's office to obtain a new scheduling date, which date must be agreed upon by all counsel/parties before submitting the continuance request. All Continuance applications must be E-filed.

When e-filing any document other than original process in Civil or Family cases, the following procedures shall be followed commencing October 1, 2022:

When attorneys or pro se parties e-file a document, the Odyssey system will default to "e-file and serve" rather than to "e-file." This will constitute good service under the Pennsylvania Rules of Civil Procedure and the Lehigh County Rules of Procedure.

Attorneys and parties must keep their email addresses up to date with the Clerk of Judicial Records ("COJR") and will be e-served at that email address. If their email address changes, they must file a Change Of Address form with COJR. The email address on record with COJR are that attorney or party's record address for service purposes. Neither a Judge, nor Court Administration, nor Family Court Administration can change the record address of an attorney or party.

In addition to the above, attorneys and parties must keep their regular mailing addresses up to date with COJR as their record mailing addresses.

Lehigh County File & Serve site at https://efilepa.tylertech.cloud/OfsEfsp

• All motions and petitions must be e-filed. When e-filing a motion or answer to a motion, you must file the motion or response, brief, certification of service, and proposed order. Once accepted by the Clerk of Judicial Records-Civil Division, a copy of the accepted filing will be automatically served on Court Administration. It is not necessary to send a courtesy copy to the Judge or to Court Administration.
• Responses to motions and petitions must be filed within 20 days from service of the motion, except for response to summary judgment motions, which must be filed within 30 days, and petitions to withdraw as counsel, which must be filed within 10 days. Please refer to LC.R.C.P.208.3(a) and 208.3(b).
• A complete and correct Notice of Presentation must be e-filed if the motion is to be presented in open court. Matters presented in open court must be uncontested or simple motions not requiring a brief, certified as uncontested, or stipulations. Filing party must provide 5 days prior written notice to both the court and the opposing party.
  • Matters that are complex and require a hearing or matters that are contested are not to be presented in open court. For these types of motions, hearing or argument will be scheduled by the Court, if appropriate.
  • For assigned cases, refer to the Judge's Court Calendar for "Assigned Civil Walk-In Motions" prior to completing and filing a Notice of Presentation.
  • For unassigned cases, refer to the Civil Calendar for "Civil Miscellaneous" prior to completing and filing a Notice of Presentation. Hearings are held at 9:30 a.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

Cases filed in which the amount in dispute is $50,000 or less and Magisterial District Judge appeals are submitted to compulsory arbitration. New case filings reported weekly are reviewed by the Civil Operations Officer. Early identification of arbitration cases provides for timely disposition of these matters. Arbitration cases are randomly assigned to one of the civil judges for monitoring of the case and handling of all motions and petitions.

Attorneys who wish to serve as an arbitrator must meet certain eligibility requirements. They must: be a member of the Bar of Lehigh County; have an office within Lehigh County, express a willingness to serve, and remain up-to-date on technology.  Interested attorneys must submit their name to the Court Administrator. Assignment to a permanent panel is with the approval of the Arbitration Administrative Judge. Arbitrators are expected to complete their arbitration dates as scheduled – failure to serve on a panel within a year’s time may cause the arbitrator to be removed from serving.

The Arbitration Coordinator schedules cases for arbitration. Magisterial District Judge appeals are listed on the first available list 60 days after the appeal is taken. All other matters are listed for hearing no later than one year after the complaint is filed. All parties, including self-represented litigants, must follow all applicable Rules of Civil Procedure specifically pertaining to filing and service of the complaint.

A case may be scheduled for arbitration upon praecipe of any party. Counsel must serve the opposing side with a notice of intent to praecipe. If additional discovery is needed, the responding party must notify counsel within 20 days of the nature of discovery desired. The discovery must be completed within 120 days, after which a party may praecipe the case for arbitration. If no discovery is requested within 20 days, counsel may praecipe the case for arbitration.

Arbitration hearings are listed for 9:00 am and 1:00 pm on days assigned by the court and are held at the Office of the Bar Association of Lehigh County at 1114 Walnut Street, Allentown, PA.

A party moving for a continuance of an arbitration hearing shall complete and e-file an Application for Continuance form. The moving party must obtain the position of all other parties and obtain a date certain from Court administration prior to e-filing the Application for Continuance form. The Court will grant a continuance of an arbitration hearing only upon a demonstration of good cause. The Application for Continuance form can be found on the LCCPA website: Click here

A party moving for permission to participate in an arbitration hearing by telephone or Zoom shall complete and e-file the Telephone or Zoom Participation Request form. The moving party must obtain the position of all other parties prior to e-filing the Telephone or Zoom Participation form. The Court will permit participation in an arbitration hearing by telephone or Zoom only upon a demonstration of good cause. The Telephone or Zoom Participation Request form can be found on the LCCPA website: Click here