How to Search Berks County Court Records Online

Most Berks County court cases can be looked up online. Two tools cover almost everything: the Pennsylvania court system's statewide portal at ujsportal.pacourts.us, which is free, needs no account, and handles criminal, traffic, landlord-tenant, and district-court cases, and the Berks County Prothonotary's new CourtPro Viewer at berkspa.courtpro.us/prothy, which handles civil lawsuits, judgments, and liens and, per the county, requires every user to register an account.

Which one you use depends on the kind of case. Criminal charges and cases that started before a district judge live on the statewide portal. Civil disputes, unpaid-debt judgments, and property liens live in the county Prothonotary's system, which changed in the fall of 2026. This guide walks through both, plus how to get a certified copy and what you cannot find online.

The statewide portal: criminal and district-court cases

The Pennsylvania Unified Judicial System (UJS) web portal is the single best place to start. It is free, it does not ask you to log in for a basic search, and it covers every county. It pulls in cases from the Courts of Common Pleas and from the magisterial district judges, the local courts that handle small claims, landlord-tenant disputes, traffic tickets, and the first stage of criminal cases.

To look up a case:

1. Go to ujsportal.pacourts.us and choose a search type. "Participant Name" finds cases by a person's name; "Docket Number" finds one exact case if you already have its number.
2. For a name search, enter the last and first name. You can narrow the results by county (choose Berks) and by date.
3. Open the case you want from the results list.
4. Click the docket sheet to open it as a PDF. The docket sheet is the official summary of the case: the charges or claims, the parties, every filing, and the outcome. Save or print it for free.

A docket number tells you where a case sits. Berks County Common Pleas criminal cases read CP-06-CR-#######-YYYY (the 06 is Berks County); district-court criminal cases read MJ-#####-CR-#######-YYYY. You do not need to know the format to search by name.

Civil cases, judgments, and liens: the Prothonotary

The Prothonotary is the county's clerk for civil court records: lawsuits between people or businesses, money judgments, mortgage foreclosures, and state, federal, and municipal liens. That is what you would search before a sheriff sale or to see whether a debt was reduced to judgment.

In the fall of 2026 the county retired its own docket search at prothy.countyofberks.com, which no longer loads, and moved civil records to CourtPro, a system run by the vendor Paperless Solutions, Inc. The Prothonotary's page now links two pieces of it: CourtPro E-Filing for attorneys and other filers, and the CourtPro Viewer, which the county labels "FKA Docket Search," for looking up dockets and case information. The office's fee bill for the new system took effect September 28, 2026.

Two things to know before you click:

• The county's announcement says in capital letters that all users must register in CourtPro and that usernames from the old system do not work. The vendor's instructions describe registering as an attorney or as a self-represented party with a verified email address, and say the same username serves both e-filing and the Viewer. Neither document describes a no-login public search, so expect to create an account.
• The Viewer sits behind a Cloudflare bot check before anything loads. Neither the county page nor the instructions state a fee for viewing a docket online; the posted fee bill lists $0.25 a page for copies from the office.

The transition has had at least one visible side effect. The Berks County Law Journal, the weekly legal newspaper that prints a list of new civil filings, has not published that list, its Appearance Docket, since its October 8 issue, which covered the week ending September 25. A notice that has run since October 15 says the journal learned on October 6 that dockets were unavailable because county staff "no longer have access to this information due to the launch of the Prothonotary's new e-filing system," and that Prothonotary Jonathan Del Collo told the journal on October 9 that his office is working with Paperless Solutions to fix it, with no timeline. If the Viewer will not give you what you need, the Prothonotary's office will look up a case for you in person at the courthouse, and our Prothonotary guide covers filing fees and copies in more detail.

Criminal case files: the Clerk of Courts

The Clerk of Courts keeps the official files for criminal cases in the Court of Common Pleas, the level a serious case reaches after a district judge sends it forward. For looking up a criminal case, the office points the public to the same statewide portal, ujsportal.pacourts.us. For a full certified copy of a criminal file, or for records that are not online, contact the Clerk of Courts directly (details below). To understand where a criminal case is in the process, see our guide to what happens after an arrest in Berks County.

What you will not find online

Some records are kept off the public internet by law:

• Sealed and expunged records. A case sealed under Pennsylvania's Clean Slate law, or erased by expungement, disappears from the public portal. If you sealed or cleared a record and it no longer shows up, that is the system working. See our guide to expungement and Clean Slate.
• Juvenile and dependency cases, which are confidential.
• Many family court records. Docket entries for divorce, custody, and support may appear, but the documents inside are restricted; get those from the office in person with proof you are a party.

In person and certified copies

You can view records and get certified copies at the courthouse at 633 Court Street in Reading. A certified copy is one the office stamps as a true copy, which courts, banks, and agencies require; a plain printout from the online portal is not certified.

• For civil records, the Prothonotary's office is on the 2nd floor. Phone 610-478-6970; open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Plain copies cost $0.25 per page; a certified copy costs $10. Checks are payable to "Prothonotary of Berks County."
• For criminal records, the Clerk of Courts is on the 4th floor. Phone 610-478-6550; open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. For a records request by email, write coc@berkspa.gov.

Bring the case name or docket number if you have it. Staff can look up a case by name, but the search is faster when you know the number from the online portal.

FAQ

Are Berks County court records free to look up online?

The statewide portal is free and asks for no account. The county says all users of the Prothonotary's CourtPro Viewer must register, and it has not published what, if anything, it charges to view a docket online; its fee bill lists $0.25 a page for copies and $10 for a certified copy from the office.

How do I look up someone's criminal charges in Berks County?

Search their name on ujsportal.pacourts.us, set the county to Berks, and open the docket sheet for the case. It lists the charges and how each was resolved. Remember that sealed or expunged cases no longer appear.

Why can't I find a case I know exists?

Common reasons: the case was sealed or expunged and is no longer public; the name is spelled differently than you searched; or you are looking in the wrong system, for example searching the Prothonotary's civil site for a criminal case. Try the statewide portal and check the name spelling.

Can I see divorce or custody records?

You can usually see that a case exists and its docket entries, but the filings themselves are restricted. To get documents from a family case, go to the Prothonotary's office in person as a party to the case.

Do I need a lawyer or a paid service to search court records?

No. The official state and county tools above are free and public. Paid "background check" sites repackage the same public records and are not the court's official source.

Sources

• Pennsylvania Unified Judicial System web portal — statewide free case search (criminal, civil, traffic, district court).
• Berks County Prothonotary — civil records office; links the CourtPro Viewer and the vendor's registration instructions.
• Prothonotary of Berks County Fee Bill, effective September 28, 2026 — copy and certification fees.
• Berks County Law Journal, Vol. 119 Issue 5, October 29, 2026 — the Appearance Docket suspension notice.
• Berks County Clerk of Courts — criminal Court of Common Pleas records.

Prothonotary's Office: Berks County Courthouse, 633 Court Street, 2nd Floor, Reading, PA 19601; 610-478-6970; Monday–Friday 8 a.m.–4 p.m. Clerk of Courts: 633 Court Street, 4th Floor; 610-478-6550; Monday–Friday 8 a.m.–4:30 p.m.