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Pennsylvania Dockets

What Is a Docket?

A docket is the official summary of proceedings in a court of law.  A docket typically contains information about the parties, attorneys, dates, filings, and outcome in a specific case.  Some - but not all - dockets include links to case documents, such as briefs and court opinions. 

Using This Research Guide

Pennsylvania does not have a single location or database to access all Pennsylvania dockets, and not all Pennsylvania state courts have made their dockets available electronically.  This guide is intended to assist with finding online Pennsylvania state court dockets, as well as providing information on individual courts' online docket coverage and document availability.  (Because most courts do not explicitly detail their online docket coverage, the coverage information in this guide is approximate based on sample searches.)  To find a docket, first look up the individual court of interest in this guide.  This will help you find out whether the court's dockets are online and, if they are, provide a link to them.

Many Pennsylvania courts allow the user to search for a docket in multiple ways.  Some common ways are:

  1. Docket number
    Courts assign each case a unique docket number (for example, CP-25-CR-1234567-2020).  The format varies by court.
  2. Party name
    This may be the name of an organization or an individual.
  3. Parcel number (for cases involving property)
  4. Offense Tracking Number (OTN) (for criminal cases)
    The OTN is a unique number assigned to the court to a particular arrest at the time of arraignment.
  5. Police Incident/Complaint Number (for criminal cases)
    This information can be found in the police report.
  6. State Identification Number (for criminal cases)

Some courts offer additional search fields and/or filters, such as case type and date, to help narrow the results.

To learn more about the structure of the Pennsylvania state courts, the Unified Judicial System of Pennsylvania has created this interactive graphic.  For more information on researching Pennsylvania law, see the Temple Law Library Pennsylvania Legal Research guide.

If you see any information in this guide that is inaccurate or incomplete, please let us know at tulawlib@temple.edu.

Obtaining Print Dockets and Court Documents

This guide focuses on online court docket and document availability.  If the information you're looking for is not available online, contact the court office or administrator for information on how to obtain those dockets and documents.