Pennsylvania Court Records: UJS Portal Search and Clean Slate Sealing

This article covers how to search Pennsylvania court records on the state's free UJS Web Portal, what's public versus restricted, and how Pennsylvania's Clean Slate sealing laws work, including the correct labels for the 2018 and 2023 statutes. It does not cover other states; for those, see the Court Records by State hub.

Information last verified on 2026-08-10. This article has not yet been reviewed by a licensed lawyer.

How to Search Pennsylvania Court Records

Pennsylvania's public search tool is the UJS Web Portal, run by the Unified Judicial System of Pennsylvania at ujsportal.pacourts.us. It covers appellate courts, common pleas courts, and magisterial district court docket sheets, plus common pleas and magisterial district court calendars, all in one free search. The Portal also promotes a companion app, PAeDocket, described on its own site as a free app for searching court cases and dockets, so the same coverage is available from a phone without a separate fee.

Two caveats appear directly on the Portal itself and are worth taking at face value rather than treating the Portal as the last word on a case. First, on accuracy: the Unified Judicial System and its related personnel make no representation as to the accuracy, completeness, or utility of the information provided, and assume no liability for its use. Second, on timing: recent entries made in the court offices may not be immediately reflected on the site. If you filed something today, do not be surprised if it has not shown up yet; check back rather than assuming an error.

What's Public and What's Restricted

Pennsylvania's public-access framework for court records runs through the Case Records Public Access Policy of the Unified Judicial System of Pennsylvania, in effect since January 1, 2022, which governs case records for both the appellate and trial courts. On the Unified Judicial System's own public-records-policies page, that Case Records policy is listed separately from Pa.R.J.A. No. 509, which governs a different category, financial records such as accounts, contracts, and disbursement of court funds, not case records. As with most states in this cluster, the general position for case records is openness with specific, defined categories carved out, such as juvenile, certain family-law, and sealed matters; the exact scope of those carve-outs is a detail worth confirming against the current policy text directly if a specific record type is in question, since court-access policies are revised periodically.

Clean Slate: Getting the Act Numbers Right

Pennsylvania's automatic sealing program is widely known by its brand name, Clean Slate, but the underlying law has two distinct legislative numbers that are easy to mix up, and getting them right matters if you are trying to trace what changed and when.

Act 56 of 2018 is the original law. Signed in 2018, it created Pennsylvania's automatic sealing mechanism in the first place, the foundation everything since has built on.

Act 36 of 2023, sometimes called Clean Slate 3.0, is a later, separate law, confirmed by the Pennsylvania General Assembly's own official legislative record. It is not a renumbering or new edition of Act 56; it is a distinct act that expanded what automatic sealing covers. Per the Governor's own office, Act 36 of 2023 allows people convicted of certain non-violent drug felonies to have their records sealed automatically after ten conviction-free years, allows petition-based sealing of other non-violent property felonies, such as theft, after ten years, and shortens two of the standard waiting periods: the misdemeanor sealing wait dropped from ten years to seven, and the summary-conviction wait dropped from ten years to five.

Most of Act 36's provisions took effect in early 2024, with the automated-sealing sections specifically starting several months after that, once the state's systems were ready to run the automatic process. The Governor's office described the summary-conviction wait-period change alone as affecting roughly 6 million criminal records; a commonly cited figure of over 34 million cases sealed refers to the program's cumulative scope since Act 56 began, not to Act 36's summary-conviction provision specifically, so these two numbers describe different things rather than contradicting each other.

Clean Slate governs sealing, meaning a record is hidden from the public but still exists and is not destroyed. That is a different remedy from expungement, which Pennsylvania keeps as a separate process for records that get destroyed outright. This article covers the concept and the correct legislative labels; for the eligibility tests, wait periods, and how to petition for a specific record, see Pennsylvania Expungement Laws.

Certified Copies and Practical Search Tips

For a certified copy of a Pennsylvania court record, contact the clerk of the relevant court, magisterial district, common pleas, or appellate, depending on where the case was filed; the Portal itself is a search tool, not a source of certified copies. Given the Portal's own timing caveat, treat any same-day search as provisional and confirm anything urgent directly with the court.

Using This Information the Right Way

A UJS Portal search is appropriate for checking your own case or a public matter you have a legitimate reason to look up. It is not a Fair Credit Reporting Act compliant background check on its own. Because Pennsylvania's Clean Slate program automatically seals a very large volume of older, minor records, a name search that comes back clean does not necessarily mean nothing was ever there, it may mean an eligible record was sealed under Clean Slate and is no longer visible to the public by design. That is the point of the program, not a gap in the Portal.

Related reading: Court Records by State, How to Look Up Court Records, Are Court Records Public?, Pennsylvania Background Check Laws, Pennsylvania Warrant Search, and Pennsylvania Public Records Laws for records held by executive-branch agencies rather than the courts.

Disclaimer

This article provides general legal information about Pennsylvania court records, not legal advice, and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Portal names, coverage, and fee information reflect their published status as of the verification date above and can change without notice. For advice about a specific case, Clean Slate eligibility, or a specific record, consult a lawyer licensed in Pennsylvania.

Last updated: 2026-08-10. Portal facts and fees reflect their published status as of August 2026.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the Pennsylvania UJS Web Portal free?

Yes. The Portal, and its companion app PAeDocket, are free to search and do not require payment for basic docket lookups.

Is Pennsylvania's 2023 Clean Slate expansion Act 56 or Act 36?

It is Act 36 of 2023, confirmed by the Pennsylvania General Assembly's own official legislative record. Act 56 refers to the original 2018 law that created automatic sealing in the first place; the two are separate acts, not the same law under two names.

Does Clean Slate destroy a criminal record?

No. Clean Slate seals a record, meaning it is hidden from public view but still exists. Destroying a record is expungement, a separate legal process in Pennsylvania with its own eligibility rules.

Why might a UJS Portal search show nothing for an old minor case?

Pennsylvania's Clean Slate program has automatically sealed a large volume of eligible older records. A blank result can mean the record was sealed under Clean Slate rather than that it never existed.

Can I trust the UJS Portal as the official record of a case?

No. The Portal itself states it makes no representation as to the accuracy or completeness of its information and that recent court-office entries may not be immediately reflected. Treat it as a research tool and confirm anything important with the relevant court.