in order to make it more efficient and streamline system for handling DUI cases, Northampton County, through the District Attorney's Office established a Central Court system for Cases which would simply be a waiver. in order to do this, they set up a system where instead of normally going to the individual district Justice's office, the defendant and the defendant's Attorney, would initially show up at a centralized location with other cases scheduled on the same day at the Northampton County courthouse to meet with the head of the DUI unit in the prosecutor‘s office to discuss the case and put it on the right track for resolution or trial.

Apparently, when this was established, it was not popular with some of the local magistrates because they would have to travel from their local office to the courthouse to handle cases, and because they would be handling cases from other magistrates offices. these magistrates filed a lawsuit claiming that the CentralCourt was illegally established and WON!

Even though, in this writer‘s opinion, the CentralCourt was one of the best things to happen to the DUI justice system in Northampton County, it is now been declared illegal and has been shut down.

Why is the CentralCourt a good idea? First of all, in the past, individuals would show up at the district magistrates office and speak with a police officer who had no authority to reaolve the case. (The law only gives DA's that authority). There was no involvement from the district attorney's office and there was no way to negotiate any outcome early on in the case. Additionally, there was no input, in most cases, by Pre Trial Services or any early intervention by way of treatment services, etc. Often times, Defendant would have no idea what will happen to their case until the arraignment, which happened months and months later, or even after that.

The Central Court required the District Attorney's Office to be present and prepared to discuss each case. It avoided the necessity of Police Department to show up because if you wanted a hearing, the matter would be sent back to the local magistrate to hear the case which happened in their jurisdiction. This kept the boots on the street for law enforcement. 

People would be put on a fast track to getting the required evaluations and the case would be resolved quickly if it was a simple ARD case or a simple plea of guilty. 

Unfortunately, CentralCourt is no more because a few magistrates felt that having cases, which happened in their jurisdiction, held in their own court was more important than the big picture… Having a system that is efficient and beneficial to all parties involved.

It is possible that the system can be reinstated, but it must go through a vote of the local magistrates to get there. I certainly hope that the magistrates will look beyond their own interests and the argument that their constituants voted for them to hear matters in their jurisdiction (and argument that fails since they hear all matters that are hearings under the central court system are sent back to them), and see the big picture:

 The Central Court system is beneficial to everyone's interest in the Commonwealth.