![]() ![]() ![]() This language arguably has a dramatic impact. In 2002, the Pennsylvania Legislature amended the statute to change language requiring compulsory joinder where the offenses occurred within courts of the same jurisdiction to offenses which occurred within the same judicial district. Therefore, the prosecution and police could bring summary traffic prosecutions in traffic court and misdemeanor and felony prosecutions in the Municipal Court and Court of Common Pleas. Pennsylvania appellate courts had repeatedly ruled that under a prior version of Section 110 (the joinder statute), summary offenses were just different and did not count because the Court of Common Pleas held jurisdiction over misdemeanors and felonies and the Magisterial District Courts had jurisdiction over summaries. This spares the defendant the additional time, expense, and stress of defending against two separate cases, and in this sense, compulsory joinder is very similar and related to the idea of Double Jeopardy – that a defendant may not be prosecuted for the same crime twice. At its most basic level, a compulsory joinder statute requires the prosecution to bring charges which arise out of the same incident together in a single prosecution. Pennsylvania has a compulsory joinder statute which is codified at 18 Pa C.S. This practice arguably violates Pennsylvania's compulsory joinder statute. Thus, a defendant who wished to challenge the traffic citation would be required to attend twice as many court dates and hire a defense attorney twice. For example, if police pulled a car over for speeding and ultimately found a gun in the car or ended up charging the driver with DUI, then the Commonwealth would bring the summary speeding charge in Philadelphia Traffic Court and the more serious gun charge or DUI charge in either the Municipal Court or the Court of Common Pleas. For many years, it was the routine practice of the Philadelphia Police Department to charge summary traffic offenses and more serious charges like DUI or possessory offenses separately. ![]()
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