Philadelphia County Court Records
Court records in Philadelphia County Courts are documents or dockets of either electronic or paper design containing different court case files ( such as orders, opinions, and decrees) accepted and maintained by custodians. Court records are significant because they provide a record of legal proceedings and can be used to establish legal rights and obligations. Per Section 3.0 of the Public Access Policy of the Unified Judicial System of Pennsylvania, case records are considered part of Philadelphia County Public Records.
The Philadelphia County Court System comprises two courts.
-
The Court of Pleas: It's a trial court, and it has jurisdiction over a wide variety of civil and criminal cases that arise within Philadelphia County. Listed below are the divisions under this court:
- Trial Division comprises two(2) sections - civil and criminal, and it has jurisdiction over civil court and criminal cases.
- Family Division: Handles cases that involve divorce, child support, custody, paternity, and domestic violence.
- Juvenile branch: Handle cases involving dependency, delinquency, and adoption.
- Orphans' Division: Handles cases involving trusts, estates, and wills.
-
Municipal Court: this is a limited jurisdiction court and it has official power over a variety of civil and criminal cases that occur within the city limits of Philadelphia, including traffic violations, landlord-tenant disputes, and certain criminal offenses. The Municipal Court is organized into three(3) divisions namely:
-
Criminal Division: Manages misdeeds, crime accusations, and non-traffic rundown charges for grown-ups.
-
Civil Division: Cases under this Division include a contention between individuals or associations like organizations, for example, landlord-tenant cases.
-
Traffic Division: This Division handles the infringement of motor vehicle codes given by the city.
Are Court Records Public in Philadelphia County?
Per the Pennsylvania Right-to-Know Law, anyone is permitted to inspect or obtain copies of court records in Philadelphia County. However, certain court records are deemed confidential:
- Mental health records
- Agency employee's records
- Academic transcripts
- Records related to ongoing investigations or litigation
- Juvenile records
- Personal records
What Do Philadelphia County Court Records Contain?
Court Records typically contain a variety of information related to court cases that have taken place in Philadelphia County. The specific information contained in these records can vary depending on the type of case and the court in which it was heard. However, some common types of information found in Court Records are:
- Case ID
- Case Caption
- Filing Date
- Courts
- Location
- Jury
- Case Type
- Case Status
- Case Event Schedule
- Related Cases
- Case Motion
Where to Conduct a Philadelphia County Case Lookup
Case records are formally documented accounts of proceedings during a hearing or trial. An individual can do a search for cases in Philadelphia at:
How to Conduct a Philadelphia County Case Records Search
Different court case record searches can be conducted online for free on various portals.
Before searching on the portals, an online requester must know the citation number, docket number, court date, date of violation, and name of the person or organization/company on the case to facilitate the search.
Alternatively, requesters can conduct case record searches in person at the administrative desks during office hours. Philadelphia Courts charges $0.25 per page for court records.
An individual can contact the divisions to get to know more about finding records online or in person.
Philadelphia County Civil Court Case Records
A civil court case record is a legal document that contains information about hearings pertaining to disputes between two or more persons or organizations like businesses. The Court of Common Pleas and Municipal Court both deal with civil cases.
These civil records are considered public and are available for public inspection and copying, subject to certain restrictions and fees.
Examples of civil court cases handled by the Municipal Court are:
- Small claims cases: Small claims cases typically involve disputes between individuals, businesses, or organizations over small amounts of money, usually less than $12,000.
- Landlord-tenant cases: these cases deal with rental agreements, and if broken, the tenant can be evicted by the court.
- Private criminal cases: these criminal cases are filed by anyone, either family members or neighbors, without a police report.
- Code enforcement cases: these cases involve city agencies ensuring a city code breaker rights the wrong.
Violation of stop signs, driving without a license, insurance, and registration are examples of civil cases handled by the Municipal Court Traffic Division. These case records are free online and can be searched using the defendant's name, date of violation, and citation number.
Individuals can find civil court dockets online through the public access search portal. An individual only needs to click on the "login as public user" button and enter the text in the image for verification purposes. Again, click the "I agree" button, then click on the "search". Finally, read the search tips and search.
Examples of civil court case records the Court of Common Pleas deals with are disputes over an amount of money that exceeds $12,000, negligence, contract, and equity actions.
A requester can access these records by visiting the website and searching for the required case record. An individual can also visit the courthouse in person. Access to these records may be restricted for certain types of cases, such as cases involving minors or cases sealed by court order. Additionally, there may be fees associated with accessing or copying these records.
Philadelphia County Criminal Court Case Records
A criminal court case record is a legal document containing information about an individual that broke a law. These records are maintained by the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas and Municipal Court. Requesters can look up criminal court case records in person or online at Philadelphia Courts.
An individual can check for criminal court case records online via the Philadelphia Court, and how to look up these cases includes:
- Go to the criminal Division of the Municipal Court
- To search by defendant name, enter the name
- Click on the submit button
- Alternatively, to search by court date, choose a date
- Click on the submit button
The result search will contain the defendant's name, age, address, docket number, filing date, charge, bail status, bail type, and outstanding bail amount.
Another way to access criminal court case records online is via PA Unified Judicial System Criminal Dockets. Note that criminal history background checks can only be provided by the Pennsylvania State Police.
A requester can get criminal court case records in person for free by visiting the office of judicial records during business hours.
Philadelphia Court's Criminal Division deals with various charges, and individuals can find the case records at the court. These criminal charges are as follows:
- Summary Cases - These are cases that involve violation of laws that impact the community.
- Misdemeanor Cases - This category has more consequences than summary cases, for example, stealing and drug abuse offenses. The jail term is usually less than a year.
- Felony Cases - These include criminal charges such as murder and non-violent offenses like fraud. Punishment has a Jail term, which can be more than a year, or probation.
How to Get Court Records Online for Free
An individual can easily access court records online for free by following the steps below:
- Go to the Philadelphia Courts website.
- Click on the "calendars and case search" button located on the homepage.
- Click on the "search court case information" button and pick an option.
- Agree to the terms and conditions by clicking the "Accept" button.
- Enter the search criteria for the case you seek, such as the case number, party name, or attorney name.
- Click on the "submit" button.
- Review the search results and click on the case number of the record you want to view.
- Enter the passcode precisely as it appears, then click "submit".
Search results will reveal the case description like case ID, defendant's name and address, case type, filing date, court, case caption, location, jury court status, citation number, case event schedule, related cases, and case motion. It is worth noting that not all Philadelphia court records are available online
Courts in Philadelphia County
Below are the addresses of all the courts in Philadelphia County:
Court of Common Pleas
Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas Trial Division - Civil
Room 284 City Hall
Philadelphia County PA 19107
Email: CivilAdminSupport@courts.phila.gov;OJRCivil@courts.phila.gov
Phone: (215) 686-6652
Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas Trial Division - Criminal
1301 Filbert Street, Room 203
Philadelphia County, PA 19107
Email: CPCriminal@courts.phila.gov
Phone: (215) 683-7004; (215) 683-7005
Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas Family Division- Domestic Relations
1501 Arch Street
Philadelphia County, PA 19102
Email: PhilaCSC@PACSES.com
Phone: (215) 686-7466
Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas Family Division- Juvenile
1501 Arch Street
Philadelphia County, PA 19102
Email: JuvenileCourt@courts.phila.gov
Phone: (215) 686-4000; (215) 686-8353
Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas Orphans' Division
Room 415 City Hall
Philadelphia County, PA 19107
Email: ocsupport@courts.phila.gov
Phone: (215) 686-2230; (215) 686-2231; (215) 686-2232
Municipal Court
Philadelphia County Municipal Court Civil Division
1339 Chestnut Street
Philadelphia County, PA 19107
Email: mcclaimssupport@courts.phila.gov
Phone: (215) 686-2910
Philadelphia County Municipal Court Criminal Division
1301 Filbert Street, Room 208
Philadelphia County, PA 19107
Email: MCCriminal@courts.phila.gov
Phone: (215) 686-7000
Philadelphia County Municipal Court Traffic Division
800 Spring Garden Street,
Philadelphia County, 19123-2690
Email: tcsupport@courts.phila.gov
Phone: (855) 868-1675
