What We Post

The Supreme Court posts all decisions on the appeal docket. We post decisions from the allocatur docket that are summary dispositions and decisions from cases on the miscellaneous docket in which an opinion is written. We also post decisions on the disciplinary docket with opinions that are public. The Superior Court of Pennsylvania only posts published opinions. The Commonwealth Court posts reported opinions. Unreported opinions are posted for ninety days. Unreported opinions may not be cited.

Pennsylvania Rules of Court and Local Rules of Court

The UJS does not have the full text of Pennsylvania's Rules of Court. These are published by West Group, and copies may be purchased from this company by calling 1-800-328-9352. Copies of the publication are also available from any state law library. You may find suggested new rules and amendments to existing rules as well as recently promulgated rules for civil procedure (including domestic relations rules), criminal procedure, appellate procedure and rules of evidence on their respective committee pages, accessible from our Supreme Court Committees page.

The UJS does publish the local Rules of Court at this address: http://www.courts.state.pa.us/judicial-council/local-rules/index.asp.

Rules for minor courts are available on the Minor Court Rules Committee Page

Pennsylvania Statutes

The UJS does not have the full text of Pennsylvania statutes online. The agencies of Pennsylvania state government responsible for statutes and regular publications are the Legislative Reference Bureau, Pennsylvania Code and Pennsylvania Bulletin, and Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes. A subscription can be obtained by calling 717-787-5109. For individual copies of Pennsylvania statutes, contact the State Bookstore at 717-787-5109.

WESTLAW and possibly LEXIS have the complete Pennsylvania laws and statutes. These are value added on-line services which are available via paid subscriptions or possibly from state libraries. They are also available from any state law library. Thomas E. Martin, Jr., Esq. publishes statutes as a public service at the following location: http://members.aol.com/StatutesPA/Index.html; however, he does ask for donations.

Printed Copies of Court Opinions

Copies of Supreme Court cases may be purchased from the Supreme Court prothonotary near you.

Copies of Superior Court cases may be purchased from the Superior Court prothonotary:

Copies of Commonwealth Court cases may be purchased from the Commonwealth Court prothonotary:

Current Status of Appellate Court Cases

Contact the prothonotary of the appellate court where the case is pending for the status of the case.

Change in Status, Address, Etc. - Lawyers

If you are currently inactive and need information regarding returning to active status or if you wish to change your address or phone number, etc., contact:

This information should not be sent to the AOPC.

For more information, please see the Disciplinary Board's Web site.

Birth or Death Certificates

To obtain copies of birth or death certificates contact the Department of Health at:

Marriage Licenses

To obtain a copy of your marriage certificate, send a note to the orphans' court clerk in the county where the license was obtained. Be sure to include the following information:

• Full names of man and woman (include maiden name)
  
• Date and location of marriage

Cost for copies of marriage licenses vary from county to county.

Specific Legal Questions

The AOPC Legal Department only offers legal guidance to the judicial branch of the Pennsylvania state government. AOPC legal staff cannot provide legal advice in individual situations. Local legal service agencies or county law libraries may provide helpful resources.

Comments, suggestions, requests: