Section 584. Motion for Change of Venue or Change of Venire

(A) All motions for change of venue or for change of venire shall be made to the court in which the case is currently pending. Venue or venire may be changed by that court when it is determined after hearing that a fair and impartial trial cannot otherwise be had in the county where the case is currently pending.

(B) An order for change of venue or venire shall be certified forthwith to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court shall designate and notify the county of transfer or the county from which the jury is to be impanelled. Unless otherwise ordered by the Supreme Court, a judge from the county in which the complaint was filed shall preside over all proceedings in the trial court.

(C) Whenever a change of venue has been ordered, the docket entries and all original papers in the proceedings shall be certified and transmitted to the clerk of courts of the county of transfer immediately prior to trial.

(D) Whenever a change of venire has been ordered, the jury shall be summoned, selected, and impanelled in the designated county of impanelment. The trial judge shall conduct the voir dire, unless otherwise ordered by the Supreme Court. The jury shall be transported to the county of the court where the case is currently pending.

(E) All costs accruing from a change of venue or from a change or venire shall be paid by the county in which the complaint was filed.

Comment

As used in paragraph (A) of this rule, ‘‘court in which the case is currently pending’’ and ‘‘county where the case is currently pending’’ will ordinarily refer to the court or the county in which the complaint was filed. However, when a change of venue has been previously ordered, the case would be considered pending in the court or the county to which the case had been transferred.

Ordinarily, a judge from the county in which the complaint was filed will be the trial judge and in change of venue cases will proceed with the case to the county of transfer. However, it is contemplated that the Supreme Court may assign a different trial judge when it determines that the particular circumstances of the case require such a change.

‘‘Proceedings in the trial court,’’ as used in paragraph (B), is intended to include, but is not limited to, voir dire in the county of impanelment and pretrial, post-verdict, and post-sentence matters in the trial court, as well as the trial.

Under this rule, the trial judge may sit to handle pretrial matters either in the county in which the complaint was filed or in the county of transfer. In deciding in which court the trail judge will sit to handle these matters, the following points, at a minimum, should be considered: (1) the potential cost and inconvenience of transporting the witnesses, parties, and counsel; (2) the possibility that the pretrial matters will result in prejudicial publicity which could taint the trial proceedings; (3) the type of pretrial matter and the relationship between it and the reasons for changing venue; and (4) the time of filing the pretrial matter.

As used in this rule, ‘‘change of venire’’ is intended to refer to the summoning, selecting, and impaneling of a jury in a county other than the one in which the trial is to be held, and the jury’s transportation to the county of trial, pursuant to an order entered under Section 8702 of the Judicial Code, 42 Pa.C.S. § 8702. A change of venire in the first instance would also dictate that the trial court consider the need to sequester the jury.

Paragraph (E), which prior to the 1981 amendment of this rule was the last sentence of paragraph (B), is merely a restatement of the cost allocation procedures in change of venue cases and also applies to cases in which a change of venire has been ordered. No change in procedure from the previous version is intended.

Official Note

Rule 313 adopted June 30, 1964, effective January 1, 1965; Comment added June 28, 1976, effective July 1, 1976; renumbered Rule 312, and amended June 29, 1977 and November 22, 1977, effective as to cases in which the indictment or information is filed on or after January 1, 1978; amended December 11, 1981, effective July 1, 1982; renumbered Rule 584 and amended March 1, 2000, effective April 1, 2001; amended September 21, 2012, effective November 1, 2012.

Committee Explanatory Reports:

Final Report explaining the March 1, 2000 reorganization and renumbering of the rules published with the Court’s Order at 30 Pa.B. 1478 (March 18, 2000).

Final Report explaining the September 21, 2012 amendment correcting a typographical error in paragraph (A) published with the Court’s Order at 42 Pa.B. 6251 (October 6, 2012).

The provisions of this Rule 584 amended September 21, 2012, effective November 1, 2012, 42 Pa.B. 6247. Immediately preceding text appears at serial pages (361887) to (361888).