Find Berks County Clerk of Courts Records

Berks County Criminal Clerk

The Berks County Clerk of Courts is Beth A. Jones. The office prepares and maintains records for the Criminal Division of the Court of Common Pleas. The Clerk signs and seals writs and processes, administers oaths and affirmations, keeps the court seal and records, certifies and distributes court orders, certifies bills of costs, and manages financial records tied to fines, costs, and restitution.

Berks County has a split clerk structure. Criminal common pleas records belong with the Clerk of Courts, while civil actions, divorce filings, judgments, PFA resources, and related civil copies belong with the Berks County Prothonotary. That split matters when asking for certified copies because a criminal sentencing order and a civil divorce decree are not kept by the same office.

Berks County Criminal Records

The Clerk of Courts maintains the official criminal record after a case is in the Court of Common Pleas Criminal Division. The researched duties include keeping criminal division records, distributing court orders, certifying bills of costs, and using a computerized financial management system to disburse fines, costs, and restitution. Public access to criminal docket sheets is through the Pennsylvania Judiciary Web Portal, not a separate county criminal portal.

• Common pleas criminal docket records and court orders
• Certified criminal orders and distributed court orders
• Bills of costs connected to criminal cases
• Fines, costs, restitution, and criminal case financial records
• Court seal, writs, processes, oaths, and affirmations for the criminal division

Criminal docket sheets usually show docket number, court office, case caption, filing date, case status, party names, charges, OTN, complaint number, disposition, sentence, fines, costs, restitution, and payment-plan details when connected to PAePay. Public view can omit juvenile, sealed, expunged, limited-access, and some restricted records.

Certified Criminal Copy Steps

A certified criminal copy proves that the copy came from the criminal court record custodian. It may be needed for an employer request, licensing matter, immigration packet, appeal, restitution issue, or proof of sentence and disposition. A docket printout from UJS may help identify the case, but a certified order or certified bill of costs should be requested from the Clerk of Courts.

The criminal record may also contain financial information that is not just a fee. The Clerk of Courts certifies bills of costs and manages a computerized financial system for fines, costs, and restitution. A person checking whether money is owed should not rely only on a charge list or case caption. The docket, PAePay status, Clerk payment window, and certified cost records may all matter.

Common pleas criminal records can connect back to the lower-court stage. A Magisterial District Court docket may show the preliminary arraignment, bail, preliminary hearing, warrant action, or summary proceeding. If the case is held for court, the Court of Common Pleas criminal docket and Clerk of Courts record become the main source for later orders, pleas, dispositions, sentence entries, costs, fines, and restitution.

1. Search UJS Case Search or use existing papers to find the CP criminal docket number, OTN, complaint number, party name, and filing year.
2. Identify the exact criminal document needed, such as a sentencing order, disposition, docket sheet, bill of costs, or restitution order.
3. Contact or visit the Clerk of Courts on the 4th floor to confirm copy availability, certification needs, and any payment instructions.
4. Provide requester contact details and enough case data for staff to locate the file without guessing between similar names.
5. Ask whether the record is public, sealed, expunged, limited access, juvenile, or otherwise restricted before relying on online docket results.

Clerk of Courts Request Fields

The research did not capture a dedicated Clerk of Courts copy request form field by field. It did capture the case fields shown by UJS and the record types the Clerk keeps. A practical criminal copy request should use those fields so the office can match the request to the correct Berks County criminal docket.

Criminal Costs and Fees

The research confirms that the Clerk of Courts certifies bills of costs and uses a computerized financial management system to disburse fines, costs, and restitution. It does not provide an itemized Clerk of Courts copy-fee schedule. For that reason, exact certified-copy charges should be confirmed directly with the Clerk of Courts before ordering a criminal document.

Note: Do not use Prothonotary civil fee examples for Clerk of Courts criminal copy requests unless the Clerk confirms the same charge applies.

UJS Criminal Search Fields

The Clerk of Courts page links users to the statewide court portal for public criminal docket access. UJS Case Search covers common pleas criminal docket sheets, magisterial district cases, traffic and citation searches, attorney searches, participant/name searches, organization searches, docket-number searches, OTN, SID, complaint number, incident number, parcel, and calendar event searches.

For Berks County criminal records, the most useful fields are often CP docket number, participant name, OTN, complaint number, SID, and scheduled events. A new arrest may first appear through an MDJ docket or booking channel before the common pleas criminal file is complete. Once the case is in the Criminal Division of the Court of Common Pleas, the Clerk of Courts is the office for certified criminal orders and cost records.

Berks County Criminal Access

Criminal access uses a fallback chain. Search UJS first for public dockets. If the case is a lower-court matter, contact the Magisterial District Court that handled the citation, preliminary arraignment, preliminary hearing, bail, or summary offense. If the case moved to the Court of Common Pleas, contact the Clerk of Courts for certified criminal orders, costs, fines, restitution, and official criminal case documents.

The county's split clerk structure prevents a common mistake. The Prothonotary is the correct office for civil, divorce, judgment, lien, and PFA filings, but the Clerk of Courts is the correct office for common pleas criminal records. The Register of Wills and Clerk of Orphans' Court handles marriage, estates, guardianships, and Orphans' Court files. Asking the right office first saves time and reduces the chance of paying for the wrong search.

• Pennsylvania UJS Case Search - public criminal docket sheet search.
• Clerk of Courts - certified criminal records and criminal case financial questions.
• Magisterial District Judges - summary cases, preliminary hearings, warrants, bail, and traffic matters.
• Pennsylvania UJS Berks County court page - county court links, docket sheets, PAePay, address, and hours.

Limits on Criminal Records

UJS warns that recent entries may not appear immediately and that docket sheets should not replace an official Pennsylvania State Police criminal-history check. Criminal History Record Information Act concerns also matter for background checks. Juvenile, sealed, expunged, and limited-access cases may not display even when the search terms are correct.

The Clerk of Courts can only provide records within its criminal division role. It is not the custodian for jail booking records, Sheriff warrant operational files, civil divorce decrees, estate papers, or marriage licenses. Those records belong to the jail or Sheriff, Prothonotary, Register of Wills and Clerk of Orphans' Court, or Magisterial District Court depending on the record type and case stage.

For adult criminal expungement, the research points to 18 Pa.C.S. Section 9122 and Pennsylvania procedures. A petitioner usually needs docket numbers, OTN, charges, arrest date, disposition, and the legal reason for expungement. After an order is entered, agencies update or remove public access according to that order, but private sites may not update on the same schedule.