First Judicial District of Pennsylvania - Court of Common Pleas

The first of three courts of the district is the Court of Common Pleas. Led by a President Judge, Common Pleas is further broken down into three divisions: trial, family and orphan's court division.

The trial division holds all criminal proceedings, as well as proceedings for civil matters where more than $10,000 is being challenged. The family division is discharged with resolving domestic relations and juvenile cases. The orphan's court is responsible for processing and resolving disputes of, trusts, wills, and estates. The probation and parole services for Philadelphia are under the jurisdiction of the Common Plea court. The Intake and Interstate Units are located in the Basement of the Criminal Justice Center, while all other units (including the Warrant Unit) are located at 1401 Arch Street.

The current President Judge of the Court of Common Pleas is the Honorable Pamela Pryor Dembe, with 90 judges (Trial Division, 67; Family Court Division, 20; and Orphans' Court Division, 3) sharing duties within Common Pleas.

Criminal Dockets would be CP-51-CR-*****-2007. CP denotes the court, in this case, Common Pleas. 51 is the county code, in this case Philadelphia County. CR denotes the type of case, criminal. The * represents the case number and the last 4 digits are the year the case was created.