The controversial practice of so-called snap removals will likely see a significant decline in Pennsylvania following new court-issued rules in the Keystone State aimed at curbing the procedure, which some attorneys characterize as unfair gamesmanship and others say is a tool to fight against forum shopping.

On Jan. 18, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court adopted changes to Rule 400 so that now sheriffs, process servers, or “any competent adult” will be able to serve complaints on parties in cases where there are both in-state and out-of-state defendants. Previously, in every county except Philadelphia, only sheriffs were allowed to execute service on in-state defendants in such cases, which typically caused long delays and allowed defendants to remove the cases before all the parties were served.

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