Civil Appeals in Pennsylvania

Losing at trial or at a hearing does not 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 does not just create a problem. In almost every case it eliminates the appeal entirely. A court will allow an appeal after the deadline has run only rarely, in narrow circumstances such as fraud or a breakdown in the court's own processes (42 Pa.C.S. § 5504(b); Pa.R.A.P. 105, Comment). Do not plan on it.

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

Residential landlord-tenant appeals from the Magisterial District Court must be filed within 10 days . Nonresidential landlord-tenant appeals (and residential appeals involving a domestic violence victim) have 30 days (Landlord and Tenant Act § 513(b)). A de novo appeal (meaning the entire case is retried from scratch in the Court of Common Pleas) starts with a notice of appeal. What you file next depends on which side you were on before the magisterial district judge. If you were the claimant, you file a complaint within 20 days after filing the notice of appeal. If you were the defendant, which is what the tenant is in a possession case, you file a praecipe along with your notice of appeal asking the prothonotary to enter a rule on the other side to file a complaint within 20 days after service of the rule or suffer entry of a judgment of non pros (Pa.R.Civ.P.M.D.J. 1004A, 1004B). To keep the eviction on hold while the appeal is pending, the tenant must also deposit with the prothonotary the lesser of three months' rent or the rent actually in arrears on the date of filing the notice of appeal, plus ongoing monthly rent within 30-day intervals into an escrow account during the appeal (Pa.R.Civ.P.M.D.J. 1008B). That deposit is the price of the supersedeas, not of the appeal itself. A tenant who cannot post it can still appeal; the tenant just does not get the supersedeas. A residential tenant who does not have the ability to pay that sum, and whose household income falls within the limits in the Supplemental Instructions for Obtaining a Stay of Eviction, may instead file a tenant's supersedeas affidavit with the prothonotary, along with an in forma pauperis affidavit, and pay reduced amounts into escrow: one third of the monthly rent at the time of filing, the remaining two thirds within 20 days, and a full month's rent every 30 days after that, or simply the monthly rent in 30-day intervals if that month's rent is already paid (Pa.R.Civ.P.M.D.J. 1008C). Failure to maintain escrow allows the landlord to terminate the supersedeas by praecipe , meaning the landlord can proceed with eviction while the appeal is still pending.

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. If the court has not decided the motions after 120 days, any party may file a praecipe with the Prothonotary to enter judgment, effectively ending the post-trial phase and starting the appeal clock (Pa.R.C.P. 227.4). This is not automatic; a party must act.

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 is that the issue was not 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)

Legal and factual content on this page was last verified: Aug. 2026. If you are reading this significantly after that date, confirm key provisions with current statute text or contact our office.