Legal News

Common Pleas Court Held 57 Educational Programs in 2009

By Brian Harris

By Amaris Elliott-Engel
Of the Legal Staff

Fifty-seven educational programs for the 108 judges, including senior judges, who sit on the Philadelphia Common Pleas Court were held in 2009, according a report recently released about the bench's voluntary efforts to keep judges current on the law.

Unlike attorneys, judges are not mandated to have continuing legal education.

Thirty-nine of Philadelphia's Common Pleas judges developed programs for or presented programs to their colleagues in 2009, the report of the Judicial Education Committee of the Board of Judges says. The report does not track how many of the other Common Pleas judges choose to participate in the trainings.

Judge Rosalyn K. Robinson, co-chair of the committee in 2009 with Judge Lisa M. Rau, said the judicial education programs provide , among other things, an opportunity for interaction among judges, who  for the most part work in their own separate courtrooms.

There also were many other presentations by experts  from outside the court.

Lynn Marks of the Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts said the judicial education efforts of the First Judicial District give judges the opportunity to discuss with their colleagues the challenges of being on the bench, including ethical quandaries. "Discussion and peer education in a no-pressure setting is vastly preferable to judges making their own calls on the tough ethical issues that might cause them to abuse the power of the robe," Marks said.

Full post as published by The Legal Intelligencer Blog on May 12, 2010 (boomark / email).