May 1, 2006


To my fellow Pennsylvanians:

            On behalf of my colleagues on the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, and on behalf of all our colleagues at every level of Pennsylvania's judicial system, I am pleased to share with you The State of the Commonwealth's Courts, 2006.

            While we may be the most administratively "open" branch of the state government, it has nonetheless been more than twenty years since a chief justice has offered a "state of the judiciary." So we rejoin the more than twenty-five state court systems that currently craft similar documents by highlighting some of our recent efforts and reflecting upon the earlier work of colleagues that have helped to shape some of our successes today.

            Many positive initiatives are ongoing, involving hundreds of jurists, staff, and citizens, to help make Pennsylvania's courts more responsive and efficient always according to the Rule of Law. I hope that The State of the Commonwealth's Courts offers a useful snapshot of much that we are about now and for our future.

Very truly yours,

Ralph J. Cappy
Chief Justice of Pennsylvania