Title 234--RULES OF CRIMINAL PROCEDURE

[ 234 PA. CODE CH. 1 ]

Order Amending Rule of Procedure 105; Doc. No. 2; Criminal Procedural Rule; No. 377

Order

Per Curiam:

   Now, this 30th day of January, 2009, upon the recommendation of the Criminal Procedural Rules Committee; the proposal having been submitted without publication pursuant to Pa.R.J.A. No. 103(a)(3) in the interests of justice and efficient administration, and a Final Report to be published with this Order:

   It Is Ordered pursuant to Article V, Section 10 of the Constitution of Pennsylvania that Rule of Criminal Procedure 105 is amended as follows.

   This Order shall be processed in accordance with Pa.R.J.A. No. 103(b), and shall be effective as to all local criminal rules adopted or amended on or after February 1, 2009.

Annex A

TITLE 234. RULES OF CRIMINAL PROCEDURE

CHAPTER 1. SCOPE OF RULES, CONSTRUCTION AND DEFINITIONS, LOCAL RULES

PART A. Business of the Courts

Rule 105. Local Rules.

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   (B)  Local rules shall not be inconsistent with any general rule of the Supreme Court or any Act of Assembly.

   (1)  The Criminal Procedural Rules Committee [may], at any time, may recommend that the Supreme Court suspend, vacate, or require amendment of a local rule.

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   (E)  All local rules shall be published in the Pennsylvania Bulletin to be effective and enforceable.

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   (2)  The adopting court shall distribute two certified paper copies of the local rule [and] to the Legislative Reference Bureau for publication in the Pennsylvania Bulletin. The adopting court also shall distribute to the Legislative Reference Bureau a copy of the local rule on a computer diskette or on a CD-ROM, that complies with the requirements of 1 Pa. Code § 13.11(b) [to the Legislative Reference Bureau for publication in the Pennsylvania Bulletin].

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   (F)  Contemporaneously with publishing the local rule in the Pennsylvania Bulletin, the adopting court shall:

   (1)  file [seven] one certified [copies] copy of the local rule with the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts; and

   (2)  publish a copy of the local rule on the Unified Judicial System's web site at http://ujsportal. pacourts.us/localrules/ruleselection.aspx.

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Comment

   The policy of the Supreme Court as declared in the Order promulgating this rule is ''to implement the unified judicial system under the Constitution of 1968, to facilitate the statewide practice of law under this Court's general rules, and to promote the further policy that a general rule of criminal procedure normally preempts the subject covered.'' In accordance with the Court's policy, it is intended that local rules should not repeat general rules or statutory provisions verbatim or substantially verbatim nor should local rules make it difficult for attorneys to practice law in several counties.

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   Paragraph (E) requires the local rule to be published in the Pennsylvania Bulletin to be effective. Pursuant to 1 Pa. Code § 13.11(b)--(f), any documents that are submitted for publication must be accompanied by a diskette or CD-ROM formatted in MS-DOS, ASCII, Microsoft Word, or WordPerfect. The diskette or CD-ROM must be labeled with the court's name and address and the local rule's computer file name.

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   The Administrative Office of the Pennsylvania Courts maintains a [webpage] web site containing the texts of local rules [http://www.courts.state.pa.us/judicial-council/local-rules/index.htm] http://www.pacourts. us/T/SpecialCourts/LocalRules.htm.

   The Administrative Office of the Pennsylvania Courts also maintains a web site containing all local criminal rules adopted or amended after February 1, 2009 at: http://ujsportal.pacourts.us/localrules/ruleselection.aspx.

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   Official Note: Rule 6 adopted January 28, 1983, effective July 1, 1983; amended May 19, 1987, effective July 1, 1987; renumbered Rule 105 and amended March 1, 2000, effective April 1, 2001; amended October 24, 2000, effective January 1, 2001; Comment revised June 8, 2001, effective immediately; amended October 15, 2004, effective January 1, 2005; amended September 9, 2005, effective February 1, 2006; amended January 25, 2008, effective February 1, 2009; amended January 30, 2009, effective February 1, 2009.

Committee Explanatory Reports:

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   Final Report explaining the January 25, 2008 changes to Rule 105 concerning submission of local rules for review prior to adoption published with the Court's Order at 38 Pa.B. [746] 745 (February 9, 2008).

   Final Report explaining the January 30, 2009 changes to Rule 105 concerning publication of local rules on the UJS Portal published with the Court's Order at 39 Pa.B. 829 (Febuary 14, 2009).

FINAL REPORT¹

Amendments to Pa.R.Crim.P. 105 (Local Rules)

LOCAL RULES

   On January 30, 2009, effective February 1, 2009, upon the recommendation of the Criminal Procedural Rules Committee, the Court amended Rule 105 (Local Rules) to:

   *  require, contemporaneously with publishing in the Pennsylvania Bulletin, that all new local rules and local rule amendments be published on the Court's website;

   *  change the number of copies the judicial district is required to send to the AOPC from seven to one; and

   *  clarify the requirements when publishing in the Pennsylvania Bulletin.

   The impetus for these rule changes is the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Court's (''AOPC'') ongoing local rules project to provide all local rules on the Court's web page and the January 25, 2008 amendments to Rule 105, effective February 1, 2009, that require, before a local rule may be published and effective and enforceable, the proposed local rule must be submitted in writing to the Committee for review.

Discussion

   Correlative with the January 25, 2008 amendments to Rule 105 requiring the judicial districts to submit all new local rules and local rule amendments to the Committee for prior approval, the AOPC started working on an upgrade to the local rules web site to include local Criminal Rules. As the first step in this upgrade, the AOPC added all the statewide Criminal Rules to the new web site. The next step is for the new and amended local rules to be added to the web site.² To ensure the judicial districts comply with publishing on the web site, the Committee and the AOPC automation staff agreed that Rule 105 should be amended to include the requirement that local criminal rules be published on the web site. Accordingly, Rule 105(F) has been amended to require, ''contemporaneously with publishing the local rule in the Pennsylvania Bulletin,'' that ''the adopting court'' publish the local rule on the Court's web page. The Rule 105 Comment includes an elaboration about the Court's local rule web pages with the links to both sites.

   In addition to working on this change, the Committee has been discussing with the AOPC and the Court's other advisory Committees the requirement that the judicial districts submit seven copies of new or amended local rules to the AOPC. When the AOPC receives these seven copies, currently they distribute copies to the advisory committees. We agreed that it is no longer necessary for the AOPC to receive seven copies since all the Committees receive copies of the relevant local rules directly from the judicial districts, and all local rules are published in the Pennsylvania Bulletin. In view of this, the Rule 105(F) amendments include the requirement that the AOPC receive only one copy of local criminal rule changes.

   Finally, Rule 105(E) has been amended to provide that, in lieu to using a diskette, a judicial district may submit the local rule to the Pennsylvania Bulletin on a CD ROM.

[Pa.B. Doc. No. 09-245. Filed for public inspection February 13, 2009, 9:00 a.m.]

   

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¹  The Committee's Final Reports should not be confused with the official Committee Comments to the rules. Also note that the Supreme Court does not adopt the Committee's Comments or the contents of the Committee's explanatory Final Reports.

²  Ideally, all local criminal rules should be on the Court's web site. However, the requirement will begin with the local rules that are amended or adopted after receiving the Committee's approval only. The new process will be monitored for a period of time before any decision is made concerning requiring all local criminal rules be added.

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