R. Stanton Wettick Jr.

Ralph Stanton Wettick, Jr. is a retired United States judge who served on the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania's Fifth Judicial District, from 1976 to 2016. He was a leading authority on discovery under Pennsylvania's Rules of Civil Procedure, and was known for handling important and complex cases.

Judicial service
In 1976, Pennsylvania Governor Milton Shapp appointed Wettick to the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas, located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 1977, Wettick was elected to the Court of Common Pleas for a ten-year term, and was successful in retention elections for additional ten-year terms in 1987 and 1997. In 2007, he took senior status at age 69. He retired from the court in 2016.

Wettick served the court in many capacities, and became especially well known in Allegheny County, and across Pennsylvania's courts, for his rulings on discovery matters.

He began his judicial career in the Family Division, eventually becoming its administrative judge; and in 1990, he was assigned to the court's Civil Division, becoming its administrative judge in 2003. He handled thorny and complex cases in the Civil Division, and in 2007, he helped create a specialized business court and complex litigation track, the Commerce and Complex Litigation Center, and was assigned as one of its original judges.

As one example of Pennsylvania courts respect for Wettick, although appellate courts are not bound by decisions of trial level courts, Pennsylvania's Supreme Court cited a decision by Wettick to support its opinion in Shafer Electric and Construction vs. Mantia.

Wettick may have been most well known for his legal opinions concerning discovery under Pennsylvania's Rules of Civil Procedure, and their impact on other judges and attorneys. Both in Pennsylvania and nationally, for example, his legal opinion in Acri v. Golden Triangle Management Acceptance Company was referenced as a key opinion providing detailed reasons opposing harsh restrictions on attorneys defending depositions that were being imposed by other judges, inside and outside of Pennsylvania, and in federal as well as state courts. His opinions on a wide range of discovery issues were considered important enough as guidance that they have been collected and published as standalone volumes,   with opinions from the 1978-1983 period alone being over 400 pages.

In 2012, well after becoming a senior judge, he issued a detailed legal opinion on the scope of discovery permitted of private Facebook content.

Legal career
Wettick was admitted to the Bar of Pennsylvania in 1964. Before becoming a judge, he was executive director of the non-profit organization, Neighborhood Legal Services Association, that provided legal services to those who could not afford lawyers.

Education
Wettick received a B.A. degree from Amherst College in 1960, and his law degree from Yale University in 1963.

Honors and appointments
In 2006, he received the Everyday Leader Award from the Pennsylvania Bar Association. Although sitting in Pittsburgh, in 2015 Wettick received a lifetime achievement award from the Legal Intelligencer, a daily law journal located in Philadelphia, 300 miles away at the other end of Pennsylvania. Among other assignments given to him, he was a member of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania's Civil Procedural Rules Committee from 1992 to 2016, including his designation by the Supreme Court as committee vice-chair and chair.

Author and academic
Wettick authored a legal treatise on Pennsylvania civil procedure. He served as an adjunct professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law for decades.