Pennsylvania Legal Overview: Lehigh Valley The Lehigh Valley metropolitan area is defined by the Census Bureau as covering Warren County in New Jersey, and Lehigh, Carbon and Northampton counties in Pennsylvania. Officially, it is known as the Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton, PA-NJ MSA. Lehigh County is served by the 31st Judicial District of Pennsylvania, with the Lehigh County Court of Common Pleas as the main trial court with general jurisdiction over all cases filed in the county. The main Pennsylvania cities in the Lehigh Valley metro area are listed below.
Top Pennsylvania cities for Legal Issues: Allentown
1. Carbon County comes under the 56th Judicial District, while Northampton County is served by the 3rd Judicial District. The Lehigh County Court of Common Pleas located in Allentown is the county’s main trial court, and handles everything from divorce cases to felony prosecutions and civil disputes, which amount to more than $12,000. Civil cases that are smaller than $12,000 come under the jurisdiction of the magisterial district court. These are limited jurisdiction courts, which are charged with handling traffic and city ordinance violations, misdemeanors, preliminary hearings and minor civil disputes.
Trending Legal Topics: Appeals against trial court verdicts in the Lehigh Valley must be filed with the Pennsylvania Superior Court. Disputes involving government agency rulings must be filed with the Commonwealth Court. The rulings handed down by these intermediate appellate courts can be upheld or overturned by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which is the court of last resort. All federal cases in the three Pennsylvania counties of the Lehigh Valley metro area are filed with the Allentown Division of the of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. |