I had an interesting interaction at motions court a few weeks back. I had planned to present preliminary objections to an answer filed by a corporation which was entered pro se by one of the principal’s of the corporation. However, a few days before the argument the defendant hired an attorney and an appearance was entered, likely in response to my PO’s.
I wanted to notify the clerk that the argument would no longer be needed, and he told me that the argument would be canceled, but that as a matter of course, a corporation can file pro se in cases valued at less than $10,000 (I may be wrong on the exact threshold he mentioned by a bit, but my $9,000 and change case was under it.
This was a bit of a shock to me, and I have not actually heard about this happening in practice. I also checked the case law to see if there was an opinion somewhere that backed this up, but I have found nothing that establishes a threshold for when a corporation must hire representation.
If someone has had this happen in a collection action, please let me know in the comments, as I would really like to know.
This is common practice at the magistrate level. I have been involved with magistrate matters where a corporation is represented by an officer of the corporation. Magisterial District Judge’s Rule 207 sets forth who can represent a party in a magistrate hearing, and allows for representation by, among others, an officer. Our course Common Pleas Court is a different venue and there is no such rule. In fact, Pennsylvania case law holds opposite. I would have to think that case law controls.