Civil Appeals in Pennsylvania — Preserving Your Rights After an Adverse Decision

Losing at trial or at a hearing doesn't always mean the case is over. Pennsylvania has a structured appellate system, and understanding the deadlines and procedures is critical — because the right to appeal can be lost in as little as 10 days depending on the type of proceeding.

Appeal Deadlines — These Are Jurisdictional

Missing an appeal deadline doesn't just create a problem — it eliminates the appeal entirely. The court has no discretion to extend a jurisdictional deadline.

The 30-day clock generally starts when the order is entered on the docket, not when you receive notice of it. For post-trial motions, the appeal deadline is tolled until the motion is decided — but only if the motion is timely filed.

MDJ Appeals — The 10-Day Trap

Landlord-tenant appeals from the Magisterial District Court must be filed within 10 days. A de novo appeal (meaning the entire case is retried from scratch in the Court of Common Pleas) requires filing a notice of appeal and a complaint. If the tenant appeals, they must also post the monthly rent into an escrow account during the appeal or risk having the appeal dismissed.

Civil (non-landlord-tenant) MDJ appeals have 30 days. The appeal is also de novo.

Post-Trial Motions

After a trial in the Court of Common Pleas, the losing party typically files post-trial motions within 10 days of the verdict (Pa.R.C.P. 227.1). Post-trial motions are a prerequisite to appeal on most issues — if you don't raise an issue in post-trial motions, you generally cannot raise it on appeal. The court has 120 days to decide post-trial motions; if it doesn't, they are denied by operation of law.

Preservation of Issues

An appeal is not a do-over. Appellate courts review only the issues that were properly raised and preserved in the trial court. This means:

• Objections must be made contemporaneously at trial
• Issues must be included in post-trial motions
• The appellate brief must be limited to issues raised below
• New evidence is generally not permitted on appeal

The most common reason appeals fail is not that the trial court was correct — it's that the issue wasn't properly preserved. Effective trial practice is effective appellate practice.

Standard of Review

The appellate court's standard of review depends on the type of issue:

• Questions of law: Reviewed de novo (the appellate court owes no deference to the trial court's legal conclusions)
• Questions of fact: Reviewed for abuse of discretion or clear error (the appellate court defers to the trial court's factual findings unless they are unsupported by the record)
• Discretionary rulings: Reviewed for abuse of discretion (a very deferential standard)