Pennsylvania Legal Overview: Reading The Reading metropolitan area in Pennsylvania is defined by the census Bureau as covering Berks County. The Reading, PA MSA is a part of the larger Philadelphia-Camden-Vineland, PA-NJ-DE-MD CSA, better known as the Delaware Valley. The combined statistical area includes the Philadelphia MSA, Reading MSA (Berks County, PA) and the Vineland MSA (Cumberland County, NJ). The Berks County Court of Common Pleas is the county’s main trial court with general jurisdiction. Listed below are the main cities and boroughs in the Reading metro area.
Top Pennsylvania cities for Legal Issues: Reading
1. The Berks County Court of Common Pleas handles everything from felonies to family law and juvenile cases. It has jurisdiction over civil cases that exceed $12,000. The magisterial court system includes 17 magisterial district court judges and two additional centralized courts. Each magisterial district court judge has district-wide limited jurisdiction over traffic offenses, misdemeanors, preliminary hearings, and civil lawsuits, which do not exceed $12,000. The two centralized courts are the Reading Central Court and the Berks County Central Arraignment Court.
Trending Legal Topics: Appeals against trial court verdicts obtained in Berks County go to the Pennsylvania Superior Court. This intermediate appellate court gets all the appeals except those against government agencies. The Commonwealth Court takes up appeals against government agency rulings. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court sits at the apex of the judicial system as the highest court in the state. Federal cases in the Reading metro area must be filed with the Reading Division of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. |