WHYY
By
The Montgomery County Courthouse Plaza in Norristown, Pa. (Kimberly Paynter/WHYY)
During the May 18 primary election, one of the many decisions voters in the Philadelphia suburbs will make is about who will sit on the courts that often serve as the very first step for any significant legal issue.
These are the Common Pleas courts, the lowest-level courts for which the commonwealth holds elections.
There are sixty of them statewide generally one per county, though several rural counties are doubled up and they seat between one and 93 judges. Those judges are selected for 10-year terms in statewide, partisan elections, and then are put to a yes-or-no retention vote for subsequent terms.