Rule 542 - Continuances Of Preliminary Hearings Before District Justices(a) Preliminary hearings before District Justices in court cases shall be scheduled initially as required by the Pennsylvania Rules of Criminal Procedure.(b) Thereafter a District Justice may grant continuances of the preliminary hearing upon the request either of the Defendant or the Commonwealth provided that such continuances are limited to the minimum period necessary and do not, in the aggregate number of days for all continuances in the case, exceed twenty-one (21) days from the date upon which the preliminary hearing was first scheduled.(c) Except as provided in section (b) of this Rule, all requests for continuances of preliminary hearings shall be presented to the District Justice Court Administrator, or in his absence to an appropriate Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, in the form of a written motion setting forth good cause for the same with forty-eight (48) hours advance notice to the defendant or his counsel or the attorney for the Commonwealth.(d) If a continuance is granted pursuant to section (c) of this Rule, the order of court granting the same shall set a time at which the preliminary hearing shall be held.(e) For purposes of this Rule all co-defendants shall be regarded as one (1) party.Amended effective 12/1/2015; revised effective 2/1/2020.Comment: The appropriate common pleas judge under (c) would normally be the judge assigned to hear cases emanating from the District Justice Office or the common pleas judge specially assigned to the case.
Note: This rule, originally numbered 703, was adopted by an order dated March 20, 1984, and published at 14 Pa.B. 1388 et seq. (April 21, 1984). It has been slightly revised to reflect changes in the current case assignment process.