In a year in which many eyes were focused on Pennsylvania trial courts, where proceedings in the Penn State sex-abuse scandal and a prosecution against a high official of the Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia played out, the state Superior Court took increased measures to broaden the availability of its body of work and decided matters of import on issues ranging from automobile litigation to how juvenile murderers are sentenced.
In 2012, the court announced two initiatives that appellate attorneys welcomed as steps in the direction of transparency: a website making available all filings in “high-profile cases” and a long-awaited decision to publish the court’s non-precedential memorandum opinions. The court announced it would be publishing the opinions, which are not citable law, in October. The court’s president judge, Correale F. Stevens, confirmed the cases would be available by the start of the new year.
