Legal News

Commerce Program Marks 10th Year With Record Number of Cases

By Brian Harris

By Amaris Elliott-Engel
Of the Legal Staff

As the Philadelphia Common Pleas Court's commerce program for business litigation celebrates its first decade in existence this month, the program had its highest number of cases last year, Judge D. Webster Keogh reported this week.

Keogh, the administrative judge of the court's trial division, told a meeting of the Philadelphia Bar Association's business litigation section this week that the program had 887 filings in 2009. The number of filings increased by 30 percent from 683 cases in 2008, Keogh said.

The record number of cases ?speaks volumes? to the belief of the commerce program bar and their clients in the system, the judge said.

Judges sitting in or who have sat in the program have issued 725 substantive opinions since the program's inception, Keogh said.

Keogh said that his decision to become the team leader of the program and to replace Senior Judge Albert W. Sheppard Jr. as team leader was not a substantial change to the program. Keogh noted that Judge John W. Herron also sat in the commerce program when he was administrative judge of the trial division. Keogh said he would like to return to the courtroom if the city's budgetary constraints end up taking less of his time.

Keogh also noted that the three judges in the program each handle their own calendars and participate in the weekly meeting of the civil trial division's team leaders, so there is no substantive need to have a team leader.

During the meeting, members of the bar asked if the commerce program might be expanded to include other cases. Keogh said that he would be open to expanding the commerce program.

Judge Mark I. Bernstein, one of commerce program judges, said he thought the three judges in the program could handle more cases. Bernstein said, considering the anniversary in the program, that it might be a good time to re-examine the jurisdiction of the program.

Sheppard said he prefer to not see the jurisdiction change and increase the program's caseload. Judge Arnold L. New was not able to attend the meeting.

?The judges you have in the commerce program are the best,? said Judge William J. Manfredi, who became supervising judge of the civil trial division at the start of the year.

Full post as published by The Legal Intelligencer Blog on January 22, 2010 (boomark / email).