Pennsylvania appellate practitioners encounter Pa. R.A.P. 1925 probably more frequently than any other appellate rule. Rule 1925 requires appellants to file concise statements of issues to be raised on appeal, and requires trial courts to write opinions formally deciding those issues. Both of these requirements come with specific deadlines for their completion. For appellants, that deadline is “21 days from the date of the appealed order’s entry on the docket.” The consequences of an untimely filed Rule 1925(b) statement of issues are severe—“any issue not properly included in the statement timely filed and served … shall be deemed waived.”

In Berg v. Nationwide Mutual Insurance, 6 A.3d 1002, 1007 (Pa. 2010), a Rule 1925 question concerning appellants’ delivery of their Rule 1925(b) statement to the trial court devolved into a complicated review of what actually happened at that county’s prothonotary’s office. Because trial judge in fact received timely notice—despite the appellants’ statement only being “filed” not “served”—Berg held that the appellants had “substantially complied” with Rule 1925’s requirements, particularly as the trial court’s Rule 25(b) order had only instructed them to “file with the court, and a copy with the trial judge.”

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