Upon Further Review

If you have had the pleasure of orally arguing an appeal recently in the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania or before the en banc (full court) Superior Court of Pennsylvania or Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, then you probably noticed that those oral arguments are videotaped for later broadcast on the Pennsylvania Cable Network (PCN).

A number of years ago, Pennsylvania's appellate courts chose PCN as their designated provider of oral argument video on cable television and online over the internet. Sometime soon after an oral argument session of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, PCN will broadcast the oral arguments on its cable television channel, usually sandwiched in between video from a local farm show, a program about a unique Pennsylvania manufacturer, video from the floor of Pennsylvania's State House or Senate, or other Pennsylvania-related public interest programming.

Those of us fortunate to argue cases in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court or before an en banc panel of one of Pennsylvania's two intermediate appellate courts have all probably heard from lawyer colleagues or even neighbors that we have been spotted on PCN arguing an appeal when our colleague or neighbor was switching channels on their television. To be sure, the number of people who intentionally tune-in to watch appellate court oral arguments on PCN must be vanishingly small, consisting largely of appellate nerds (a term we appellate nerds use with great affection), arguing counsel, and the moms of arguing counsel.