Phila. Prothonotary Joseph Evers appointed interim court administrator of FJD

Joseph Evers, the prothonotary for the First Judicial District of Pennsylvania, has been

approved by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to serve as the FJD’s interim court administrator.

Evers, 58, a Philadelphia resident and 40-year veteran of the FJD, which is Philadelphia’s court system, had been recommended for the interim position by the Administrative Governing Board of the First Judicial District, according to a news release by the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts.

Evers was first tapped to be Philadelphia’s prothonotary in 1995. He has also served as the clerk of courts for the FJD since 2010.

In Pennsylvania, the prothonotary, for all intents and purposes, is the clerk of courts for the civil justice system.

Before being appointed to the position of prothonotary, Evers served as a deputy prothonotary, as the data processing coordinator for the Philadelphia Office of the Prothonotary, and as an assistant supervisor and data entry clerk in the civil division of both the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas and Philadelphia Municipal Court.

Evers, who will continue to serve as the FJD’s prothonotary and clerk of courts in addition to his new position as interim court administrator, is replacing outgoing court administrator David D. Wasson, who recently resigned his post to take a position with the City of Philadelphia’s Office of Innovation and Technology, according to the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts.

Wasson had been appointed court administrator in March 2011.

The court administrator is the highest non-judicial leadership position in the FJD.

The position, according to the court system’s website, was first created in 1996, when the state’s high court, in reorganizing the FJD, established the Administrative Governing Board.

“The Office of the Court Administrator was instituted to complement the Board and carry out their directives, to propose solutions to problems and innovative ideas for improvements, and to oversee the day-to-day management of the District,” the FJD’s website states.

The court administrator’s office also provides centralized management for major service centers that affect the work of the various courts throughout the FJD, the website states, and it coordinates the ministerial activities of deputy court administrators in various divisions of the FJD.

Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge John W. Herron, who chairs the Administrative Governing Board, was quoted in the Legal Intelligencer this week as saying that Evers is the “best qualified person to assume the acting position.”

In the same article, Evers was quoted as saying that he is “proud and excited” to have been chosen for the interim position, but also that he’d like to “make my mark in the future too.”