Pennsylvania courts of common pleas

In Pennsylvania, the courts of common pleas are the trial courts of the Unified Judicial System of Pennsylvania, the state court system, and its trial courts of general jurisdiction, taking their name from the medieval English Court of Common Pleas; Pennsylvania established them in 1722. They hear civil cases involving a significant amount in controversy and trials for serious crimes, hold original jurisdiction over all cases not exclusively assigned to another court, and hold appellate jurisdiction over judgments from the state minor courts, including the magisterial district courts, the Philadelphia Municipal Court, and the Pittsburgh Municipal Court, as well as appeals from most state and local government agencies. The courts are established by Article V, Section 5 of the Pennsylvania Constitution and are organized into 60 judicial districts, 53 of them comprising one of the state 67 counties and seven comprising two counties, with each district judges elected to ten-year terms and a president judge and court administrator serving in each district.