Only a tiny fraction of appeals in Pennsylvania ever make it to the state’s highest court.

But that tiny fraction might be growing. Last year, the number of cases the Pennsylvania Supreme Court agreed to examine spiked dramatically.

In fact, when it comes to appeals from the Superior Court, the justices granted more allocatur petitions in 2024 than they had in any of the 15 years preceding it...

Robert Palumbos, chair of Duane Morris’ appellate department, suggested that the shift in the way the justices have been approaching allocatur petitions may reflect changes in the Supreme Court’s operation under Chief Justice Debra Todd, who took over as the head of the court in 2022. Palumbos also noted that the makeup of the court has been fairly stable for the past decade, with five of the seven justices having served together on the bench since 2016. Over the course of that period,

Palumbos said, “There just might be issues that have developed, or they have been looking to take, as their time working together progresses.” Palumbos said the increase in granted petitions is a good sign for litigants who want to pursue their cases beyond the intermediate appellate courts. “It should make litigants a little bit more aggressive in seeking review and thinking about the types of cases that the court might be interested in."

Reprinted with permission from The Legal Intelligencer, © ALM Media Properties LLC. All rights reserved.