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National News

Pennsylvania Online State Database Now Lists More Cases

March 25, 2013 posted by Steve Brownstein

It's no longer necessary, at least in Pennsylvania, to visit a district magistrate's office or courthouse to look up information on criminal and even some civil cases.

Electronic docket sheets for criminal cases have been available for several years by visiting www.pacourts.us and clicking on the "Docket Sheets" button.

The field for magisterial district courts docket sheets should pop up, allowing searches free of charge by participant name, court, case category and status, and docket number.

As of January, electronic docket sheets for civil cases of less than $12,000 and landlord-tenant cases are also available on the same portal.

The Supreme Court expanded the case database to include landlord-tenant cases and civil cases of less than $12,000 that are filed in the state's magisterial district courts.

Electronic docket sheets for more than 4.1 million of these cases became available.

For landlord-tenant cases, searches can be made by either typing the name or the address.

"The decision to expand online access to records is consistent with the Supreme Court's commitment to provide easy access to court records," said Steve Schell, spokesman for the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts.

The online database contains records for nearly 27 million traffic, nontraffic and criminal cases that have been filed in the state's magisterial district, Common Pleas (criminal) and appellate courts, he said.

Civil cases seeking damages over $12,000 are not available on the docket sheets because they are filed in the county prothonotary offices, whose filings, unlike the district court system, are not fully automated statewide, Schell said.

Making these records available online saves magisterial and common pleas court staff untold hours answering queries from members of the public as well the news media and other professionals who need that information, said Schell, adding that it's difficult to measure the impact.

Stephen A. Weber, Berks County special courts administrator, said people once had to wait until the newspaper printed results of preliminary hearings. Now, they can access that information from their home at 2 in the morning.

The information becomes available online almost in real time, and many are using it.

"Last year, the public accessed online case records more than 53 million times," Schell said.