Judge Manning elected new president judge of Allegheny County Common Pleas Court

The board of judges of the Fifth Judicial District of Pennsylvania has

chosen veteran Keystone State jurist Jeffrey A. Manning as the new president judge of the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas.

Manning, who has been a judge since the late 1980s, will have general supervisory oversight of the approximately 1,200 court personnel in the Fifth Judicial District, which comprises Allegheny County, as well as “wide-ranging authority to ensure the procedures and practices necessary for the speedy and proper administration of justice,” according to the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts, which announced Manning’s selection as president judge late last week.

The board of judges consists of all Common Pleas Court jurists, minus senior judges.

There are 43 Common Pleas Court judges in Allegheny County and 46 magisterial district judges in the district, according to the AOPC.

“I am grateful for the trust of my colleagues and for the opportunity to continue to serve the citizens of Allegheny County,” Manning said in a statement. “Our court system is one of government’s most vital institutions.

“Our community places a great deal of trust in the court’s ability to solve their disputes and to receive justice,” Manning continued. “We touch lives every day more directly and more personally than any other government office. With the help of everyone who serves in our court system, I remain fervently committed to maintaining and building on that trust.”

Manning, who has been the administrative judge of the criminal division of the Fifth Judicial District for the past five years, was first appointed to the Court of Common Pleas in 1988 by then-Gov. Robert P. Casey.

He won election to a full 10-year term the following year and was then re-elected to additional terms in 1999 and 2009 through retention votes, according to the AOPC.

Manning has presided over thousands of criminal cases, including more than 400 jury trials and 21 death penalty cases.

He has also heard 50-plus civil cases, everything from personal injury and products liability to medical malpractice and sexual harassment, the AOPC stated.

Manning serves on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s Criminal Procedural Rules Committee and has been a commissioner of the state’s Commission on Sentencing.

The jurist has also sat on the Board of Governors of the Allegheny County Bar Association for more than two decades and has been an adjunct law professor at Duquesne for more than 20 years, according to the AOPC.

Manning will succeed outgoing Common Pleas Court President Judge Donna Jo McDaniel, who has served in that capacity since 2008.

“Our Fifth Judicial District is recognized statewide and nationally for innovations in providing justice and human services to our citizens,” Manning concluded in his statement. “I have every intention of building on these strengths.”