Philadelphia will have the largest ever contingent of judges assigned to criminal cases when the new judicial calendar starts later this month, the administrative judge of the trial division said in an interview last week.
Among the many changes is the addition of a 10th courtroom dedicated to homicide cases with the goal of reducing a 15-month backlog in those cases. Another change is the elimination of “chamber weeks” for civil judges in which the judges do not hear cases but are freed up to write opinions, Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge John W. Herron said in a joint interview with Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge Sheila Woods-Skipper, the supervising judge in charge of the criminal trial division.
