News

Pennsylvania Supreme Court Expands Public Access to Financial and Case Records

News Article

January 24, 2013

The website (www.pacourts.us) now contains expenditure and compensation information. In addition, electronic docket sheets for more than 4.1 million landlord-tenant case and civil cases of less than $12,000 that are filed in the state’s magisterial district courts has been added to the website.

The decision to expand online access to magisterial district civil and landlord-tenant cases and to expand the financial records available online meshes with the Supreme Court’s commitment to provide access to court records.

The expansion of the fiscal information available on the website is consistent with the principles of the recently enacted PennWATCH Act, balanced with the Supreme Court’s constitutional authority to independently administer the judicial branch. The new data complements existing web-hosted information on contracts executed by the state judiciary. Like this action by the Supreme Court, PennWATCH is aimed at fostering accountability and transparency by mandating the posting of state government expenditures and compensation on a searchable website.

Even prior to the computer age, Pennsylvania’s judiciary had a policy of making fiscal information available in a timely manner to the public and media. As an early leader in court automation and the second (by one week) state judiciary to launch a website, Pennsylvania’s courts have been able to extend that policy by making millions of case records electronically available.