Search Lackawanna County Court Records

Search Lackawanna County Court Records

The broadest online starting point is Pennsylvania UJS Case Search. It provides free public docket sheets for appellate courts, Courts of Common Pleas, Magisterial District Courts, citations, OTN searches, complaint numbers, docket numbers, and participant names. For Lackawanna County, it is useful for criminal, magisterial, traffic, and many public docket lookups. UJS also warns that recent filings may not appear right away, and that docket sheets are not a Pennsylvania State Police criminal-history background check.

The local county path is Lackawanna Public Access Inquiries, an INFOCON system used for local civil and family searches and for Register of Wills, Orphans' Court, marriage, and genealogy records where county pages direct users. The local launch page opens the public inquiry app in a pop-up window, so a browser pop-up blocker can stop the search screen from loading.

1. Open UJS Case Search for statewide docket sheets or Lackawanna Public Access Inquiries for local county indexes.
2. Select the search type, such as docket number, participant name, OTN, complaint number, citation number, or date filed.
3. Choose Lackawanna County when the portal offers a county filter, then enter the exact name or case identifier.
4. Open the matching docket and review the court office, filing date, case status, parties, docket entries, and disposition.
5. Contact the correct Clerk of Judicial Records division for certified copies, sealed-file questions, or older records not shown online.

The county's Lackawanna Public Access Inquiries page is the source shown in the image below.

This source is important because several Lackawanna County offices direct public users to INFOCON rather than to a separate office-by-office search site.

Lackawanna County Records Search Fields

UJS Case Search is strongest when the search term matches the court's own numbering system. Common Pleas docket numbers begin with CP, while Magisterial District Court docket numbers begin with MJ. A criminal search can also use an OTN, complaint number, incident number, participant name, attorney, or date filed. Civil Common Pleas records may not display in the same way as criminal or magisterial dockets, so the local INFOCON search and clerk counter are key fallbacks.

The actual INFOCON public inquiry app is shown from the Lackawanna Public Access application.

Use the local app when a county office points to INFOCON for civil, family, Register of Wills, Orphans' Court, or marriage-record searching.

Types of Lackawanna Court Records

The Court of Common Pleas is the county's trial court of general jurisdiction. It handles major criminal, civil, family, juvenile, and Orphans' Court matters. The Magisterial District Courts handle summary traffic and non-traffic cases, civil claims under the local jurisdictional cap, landlord-tenant matters, preliminary arraignments, bail, preliminary hearings, and warrants. Central Court at the Criminal Justice Center centralizes many misdemeanor and felony preliminary hearings.

Lackawanna County court records are not one single database. They are a set of records kept by the court, the Clerk of Judicial Records, the Register of Wills / Clerk of Orphans' Court, and the magisterial courts.

• Criminal court records include charges, pleas, hearings, motions, bail, dispositions, sentences, fines, costs, and appeals.
• Civil records include liens, judgments, equity cases, malpractice cases, injunctions, landlord-tenant appeals, and district justice appeals.
• Family records include divorce actions, custody matters, PFA filings, child support, and other family court documents, with limits for minors and protected parties.
• Orphans' Court records include estates, wills, guardianships, accountings, trusts, and related petitions, while adoption records are confidential.
• Traffic and summary records usually begin in Magisterial District Court and may be searched through UJS or PAePay where eligible.

What Lackawanna Court Records Show

A public docket is a road map for the case. It does not always include every filed document, exhibit, sealed attachment, or image, but it usually tells where the case was filed, who the parties are, the case type, which judge or magisterial district handled it, what events occurred, and how the matter was resolved. Criminal court records may include OTN, complaint number, arresting agency, offense date, statute citation, charge grade, bail, disposition, sentence, and costs.

Public Access to Lackawanna Records

Pennsylvania court case access is governed by the Unified Judicial System public records policies and the Pennsylvania Case Records Public Access Policy. Administrative county records are handled under the Pennsylvania Right-to-Know Law, 65 P.S. Section 67.101 et seq. These paths are related but not the same. A Right-to-Know request is not a shortcut around a sealed case, confidential court filing, expunged criminal matter, adoption record, or juvenile record.

Lackawanna County's Right-to-Know Office is the fallback for administrative records that are not case records. County policy names Traci Harte as the RTK Officer at the Government Center and states that the county has five business days to grant, deny, or invoke an extension. The policy lists black-and-white copy fees and color copy fees, and it allows prepayment when estimated fees are high.

The Pennsylvania Right-to-Know Law appears in the source image below.

That statute matters for county administrative records, while court case files remain subject to court access rules.

Restricted Lackawanna Court Records

Public search tools do not show every record. UJS warns that juvenile, expunged, limited-access, and some civil Common Pleas information may not display even if the search terms are correct. PAePay excludes sealed or secured cases, pending expungement cases, redacted captions, minor defendants, and matters with no eligible online payment balance. The Clerk of Orphans' Court states that adoption records are confidential.

Personal identifiers may also be removed or shielded under court policy. Social Security numbers, financial account numbers, minor names, abuse-victim information, medical details, and sensitive family information may be redacted. A party who needs access to a restricted court record generally must use the court process for that case, not a general public-records request.

The CourtListener search platform is also represented in the manifest as a free opinion and search alternative.

CourtListener can be useful for opinions and broader research, but county case copies still come from the official court or clerk source.

In-Person Court Record Requests

The Clerk of Judicial Records, Lauren Mailen, is the main custodian for Court of Common Pleas documents. The civil division handles liens, judgments, and civil/equity files. The criminal division, also known as Clerk of Courts, handles criminal case filings. The family division handles divorce actions, custody actions, PFA filings, family court documents, and divorce-decree copies. For probate, guardianship, adoption, marriage, and estate files, use the Orphans' Court and Register of Wills path instead.