Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Pennsylvania

Civil Court Procedures

I, the plaintiff, was recently awarded a judgement in a civil court procedure. The defendant was instrusted by the judge to pay me the amount that the judgement was entered for or to file an appeal within 30 days. The defendant waited and filed an appeal 33 days after the date of the judgement. Question no. 1 - Is his appeal acceptable or has he waited too long to file the appeal?

The notice of appeal that I received from him is quite confusing, but probably only because of my lack of court procedures. Here is how it reads: 1) You are notified that a rule is hereby entered upon you to file a complaint in this appeal within 20 days after the date of service of this rule upon you by personal service or by certified or registered mail. Question no.2: What does this mean and how should I procede? The appeal contiues with 2 additional statments: 2) If you do not file a complaint within this time, a JUDGEMENT OF NON PROS WILL BE ENTERED AGAINST YOU and 3) The date of service of this rule if service was sent by mail is the date of mailing, which was 2/20/07, but only received by me today, 3/7/07. Question no. 3 - How do I interpert statment no 2 above? any assistance you can provide will be greatly appeciated. Thank you.


Asked on 3/07/07, 7:10 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
John Davidson Law Office of John A. Davidson

Re: Civil Court Procedures

1) Maybe. Depends on how the days are calculated. Now just because he filed an appeal means it valid. All the clerk checked was it was the proper form and he paid the right fee.

2) You got 20 days to file a new complaint. It needs to be in a much more formal form than what you did at the DJ.

3) If you do NOT answer in the 20 days then you lose!

Given all that you need to at least talk to an attorney and soon.

If you have further questions feel free to contact me, the initial consultation is free.

{John}

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Answered on 3/08/07, 10:10 am


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