Pennsylvania publishes docket sheets for its appellate courts, its courts of common pleas, its magisterial district courts and Philadelphia Municipal Court through one portal and a free app, and runs a criminal history portal, PATCH, alongside them. Its licensing system, PALS, verifies licenses from 29 boards and shows disciplinary history, and its Office of Open Records decides appeals when an agency refuses a record. Several of the state's pages, among them the business registry and the Megan's Law site, gave an automated reader nothing to describe.
The order to use: the UJS portal or PAeDocket for dockets at every level, the inmate locator for custody, PALS for a license, PATCH when the criminal history itself is wanted, then the county offices for property and estates, all listed on the Pennsylvania county pages at SearchSystems.
- Courts, every level: the Unified Judicial System portal case search and the free PAeDocket app, docket sheets by participant name.
- Criminal history: PATCH, Pennsylvania Access To Criminal History, from the State Police.
- In custody or supervised: the Department of Corrections Inmate/Department Supervised Individual Locator.
- Registered offenders: the State Police Megan's Law Public Website.
- Licenses, companies, voters, certificates and money: PALS, the business registry, the voter registration status form, vital records and the Treasury's Search and Claim PA.
Written by SearchSystems.net from Pennsylvania's own systems: the Unified Judicial System of Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania State Police, the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, the Pennsylvania Department of State, the Pennsylvania Department of Health, the Pennsylvania Treasury, the Pennsylvania Office of Open Records, each read on October 13, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
The UJS portal and PAeDocket
The Pennsylvania Judiciary Web Portal gives the public access to appellate court, common pleas court and magisterial district court docket sheets, to common pleas and magisterial district court calendars, and to PAePay for payments, and the judiciary promotes PAeDocket, a free app for a quick search of court cases or dockets by case number, participant name, organization name, offense tracking number, police incident or complaint number and other identifiers. The portal's case information page explains that the Public Web Docket Sheets option searches, views and prints docket sheets for the appellate courts, the criminal courts of common pleas, the magisterial district courts and Philadelphia Municipal Court, with a Court Summary Information report for criminal common pleas and Philadelphia Municipal Court cases, while a Secure Web Docket Sheet option holds content not open to public viewing. The case search page itself delivered only a help heading to an automated reader, so the search form's fields are on the portal. A name run here returns the person's cases from the magisterial district court where a charge begins to the appellate court where it may end.
PATCH, the criminal history portal
Pennsylvania Access To Criminal History, PATCH, is the Pennsylvania State Police portal for criminal history record checks. Its page answered SearchSystems with its title and no text, so who may request a record on another person, and the fee, are set on the portal; it is the state's official source, and the UJS docket sheets are the public view of the same cases from the court side.
The inmate locator and Megan's Law
The Department of Corrections' Inmate/Department Supervised Individual Locator covers, by its title, both people in custody and people the department supervises; its page gave no text, so the fields are on the locator. The State Police Megan's Law Public Website opens on terms and conditions and a session timer, and answered with nothing more, so its search is on the site.
PALS: 29 boards, with discipline
The Department of State's Pennsylvania Licensing System, PALS, is run by the Bureau of Professional and Occupational Affairs, and the department's verification page explains that 29 boards and commissions license Pennsylvania's professions and occupations and that PALS also shows whether a licensee has ever faced disciplinary action. The department reminds the public that its official sites end in pa.gov. The search form's fields are on the portal.
The PA Business Registry Portal, Check My Registration Status and Vital Records
The Department of State's PA Business Registry Portal answered an automated read with a security check, and the department's record searches page gave only its navigation, so the business name search is named here and not described. The Check My Registration Status service is for a voter confirming their own registration, online through the Find Voter Registration Status form, through the county voter registration office, or by calling 1-877-VOTESPA. The Department of Health's Vital Records page delivered the department's full program menu and none of its own text, so the terms for Pennsylvania birth and death certificates are on that page; the Office of Open Records notes separately that birth and death certificates are among the most commonly requested records and points to where they are found.
Unclaimed property: a record year
The Pennsylvania Treasury's Search and Claim PA page gave only its title to an automated reader, but the Treasury's unclaimed property site reports that in the most recent fiscal year it received a record volume of claims, processing over 200,000 and returning more than $300 million, both all time records, and that it underwent a system conversion in September during which the website and call center were unavailable from September 4 through September 13. The Treasury protects more than $150 billion in public funds and runs the PA 529 program alongside the unclaimed property program.
The Office of Open Records
Pennsylvania's Office of Open Records administers the Right-to-Know Law: it keeps a directory of every agency's open records officer, decides appeals when a request is denied, publishes its final determinations in a searchable docket, runs an appeal e-file portal and mediation, and explains the Sunshine Act. The office moved to 555 Walnut Street, Suite 605, Harrisburg, PA 17101 on November 24, 2025, scheduled its 2026 annual training for November 10, and warned in July 2025 that generative artificial intelligence chatbots are not reliable for drafting requests or appeals. Its recent determinations, summarized in its Transparency Zone, show the law in use: an agency that proved records did not exist, a borough ordered to charge only the office's fee schedule, a request for ballot images and cast vote records. The Address Confidentiality Program pages at both pa.gov addresses SearchSystems tried returned not found, so that program is not described here.
Pennsylvania: UJS, PATCH and the Office of Open Records
Pennsylvania's portal answers the court question at every level by participant name, PATCH is the state's own criminal history source, the locator settles custody and supervision, and PALS settles a license with its discipline. Deeds, assessments and estates are county records, listed on the Pennsylvania county pages at SearchSystems, and a refused record goes to the Office of Open Records on appeal.
Paid people search reports on Pennsylvanians are built from these dockets and county records; the UJS portal is free, and its docket sheets are where a report's claims are checked.
County Starting Points
Questions about finding someone in Pennsylvania
Every Pennsylvania Guide
The full set: arrest records, background checks, inmate search, offender registry, birth certificates, unclaimed property, business search, and the Pennsylvania records law that opens every door on this list.