(a) General rule.--The question whether a community court shall be established or discontinued in any judicial district shall be placed upon the ballot in a primary election by petition which shall be in the form prescribed by the officer of the Commonwealth who under law shall have supervision over elections. The petition shall be filed with that officer and shall be signed by a number of electors equal to 5% of the total votes cast for all candidates for the office occupied by a single official for which the highest number of votes was cast in that judicial district at the last preceding general or municipal election. The manner of signing such petitions, the time of circulating them, the affidavits of the persons circulating them and all other details not contained in this subsection shall be governed by the act of June 3, 1937 (P.L.1333, No.320), known as the "Pennsylvania Election Code." The question shall not be placed upon the ballot in a judicial district more than once in any five-year period. The affirmative vote of a majority of the electors of the judicial district voting thereon shall be sufficient to establish or discontinue a community court for the judicial district.

(b) Establishment.--The community court of a judicial district shall be established on the first Monday of January following the municipal election at which the first judges of the court shall be elected. A court when established shall, in accordance with and subject to Article V of the Constitution of Pennsylvania, supplant all magisterial district judges or the municipal court and the traffic court, as the case may be, within the judicial district, except that in the fifth judicial district a community court shall not supplant the Pittsburgh Magistrates Court. Upon the expiration of the term of any magisterial district judge or judge of the municipal or traffic court, as the case may be, or the abolition of his office in the manner and at such time as is provided by section 3321 (relating to establishment of community courts), in a judicial district in which a community court has been established, the matters then pending and the books, dockets and records thereof shall be transferred to the community court which shall determine and conclude such matters as if it had assumed jurisdiction in the first instance.

(c) Discontinuance.--Where the electors of a judicial district have at a primary election approved the discontinuance of an existing community court within their judicial district such community court and the office of the judges serving thereon shall then be abolished in the manner and at such time as is provided by section 3322 (relating to discontinuance of community courts). Thereafter, the office of magisterial district judge or judge of the municipal or traffic court, as the case may be, shall be established to replace and supplant such community court on the first Monday of January of the even-numbered year next following the odd-numbered year specified in section 1503(b) (relating to discontinuance of community court) and the number and boundaries of magisterial districts, if any, of each class within such judicial district shall be established in the manner provided by section 1503(b).

(Nov. 30, 2004, P.L.1618, No.207, eff. 60 days)

2004 Amendment. Act 207 amended subsecs. (b) and (c). See section 29 of Act 207 in the appendix to this title for special provisions relating to construction of law.