Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania is one of the two intermediate appellate courts of Pennsylvania, with its headquarters in Harrisburg. It hears matters of administrative and civil public law, while the Superior Court of Pennsylvania, the other intermediate appellate court in the Pennsylvania Unified Judicial System, takes criminal and private civil cases. Its jurisdiction is limited to appeals from final orders of certain state agencies and certain designated cases from the Courts of Common Pleas that involve public sector legal questions, government regulation and certain matters concerning not-for-profit organizations. It also acts as a trial court in some civil actions by or against the Commonwealth government and in cases about statewide elections. The nine-judge court was created by Article V, section 4 of the 1968 Pennsylvania Constitution and set up by acts of 1970. Its judges are elected to ten-year terms and must retire at seventy-five, and appeals from its decisions go to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.