Prothonotary’s office now offers documents free in digital form
By TOM MURSE | Lancaster New Era Staff Writer
It used to be that when you wanted a copy of a civil lawsuit filed in Lancaster County, you shelled out a few bucks at the courthouse and walked away with a stack of papers.
Ah, the good old days.
The county prothonotary's office — the agency that records and files civil court documents — now provides those records for free in digital form. And by the end of the year, most will be online.
"We're always trying to make it as easy for folks as possible to take records with them," said Prothonotary Randall O. Wenger.
Since January the office has made all of its digitized civil records — it has cases from 1995, and 1999 through now — free for download to those who bring in flash drives. The office is still working on records from 1996 through 1998.
Flash drives are small, relatively inexpensive data storage devices that are commonly used to transfer files from one computer to another.
The office is believed to be one of the first, if not the first, in the state to provide digitized records to the public — in the commonly used PDF format — for free.
"It's the first that I've heard of," said Melissa Melewsky, media law counsel for the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association, which monitors access to government records and compliance with the newly updated open-records law.
"I think it's a good thing, as long as it doesn't limit access to paper records, because not everyone has access to flash drives or other digital tools," she said.
Paper copies of civil filings are still available and cost 25 cents per page. The office generates only a small amount of revenue from making copies, about $75 to $100 a month, Wenger said.
"What we're working toward is, hopefully by the end of this year, is to be able to put general civil filings online so that folks can access them from their computer," he said.
General civil filings include lawsuits and judgments.
The office does not plan on putting more sensitive, family-related cases — protection-from-abuse, divorces and custody filings — on the Web, at least initially.
Few counties — Allegheny is one —now post entire civil records online. As it stands now in Lancaster County, the prothonotary's office allows Web users to search for civil cases by name. But it posts only case numbers and general activity in the case — not complete records.
That the county is moving to make most civil cases available online puts Lancaster at the forefront of public access to records, said Melewsky.
"Lancaster is now ahead of the curve," she said.
It used to be that when you wanted a copy of a civil lawsuit filed in Lancaster County, you shelled out a few bucks at the courthouse and walked away with a stack of papers.
Ah, the good old days.
The county prothonotary's office — the agency that records and files civil court documents — now provides those records for free in digital form. And by the end of the year, most will be online.
"We're always trying to make it as easy for folks as possible to take records with them," said Prothonotary Randall O. Wenger.
Since January the office has made all of its digitized civil records — it has cases from 1995, and 1999 through now — free for download to those who bring in flash drives. The office is still working on records from 1996 through 1998.
Flash drives are small, relatively inexpensive data storage devices that are commonly used to transfer files from one computer to another.
The office is believed to be one of the first, if not the first, in the state to provide digitized records to the public — in the commonly used PDF format — for free.
"It's the first that I've heard of," said Melissa Melewsky, media law counsel for the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association, which monitors access to government records and compliance with the newly updated open-records law.
"I think it's a good thing, as long as it doesn't limit access to paper records, because not everyone has access to flash drives or other digital tools," she said.
Paper copies of civil filings are still available and cost 25 cents per page. The office generates only a small amount of revenue from making copies, about $75 to $100 a month, Wenger said.
"What we're working toward is, hopefully by the end of this year, is to be able to put general civil filings online so that folks can access them from their computer," he said.
General civil filings include lawsuits and judgments.
The office does not plan on putting more sensitive, family-related cases — protection-from-abuse, divorces and custody filings — on the Web, at least initially.
Few counties — Allegheny is one —now post entire civil records online. As it stands now in Lancaster County, the prothonotary's office allows Web users to search for civil cases by name. But it posts only case numbers and general activity in the case — not complete records.
That the county is moving to make most civil cases available online puts Lancaster at the forefront of public access to records, said Melewsky.
"Lancaster is now ahead of the curve," she said.
