Luzerne County Prothonotary Records
The Luzerne County Prothonotary files, stores, and distributes official civil documents for the Court of Common Pleas. Civil complaints, answers, motions, orders, judgments, praecipes, lower-tribunal appeals, divorce dockets, custody filings, protection-from-abuse filings, and many family-related civil documents belong to this office unless a court rule or confidentiality rule changes access.
The office is one part of a split Pennsylvania clerk structure. Criminal, juvenile, dependency, summary appeal, expungement, and limited-access records are handled by the Luzerne County Clerk of Courts. Wills, estates, guardianships, adoptions, and marriage licenses are handled by the Register of Wills / Clerk of Orphans' Court. The county's Right-to-Know guidance says many case documents should be requested from the department that keeps them instead of starting with a formal open-records request.
Prothonotary
Office contact: Michelle Bednar listing
200 N River Street
Wilkes-Barre, PA 18711
570-825-1745
Fax: 570-825-1757
Search Luzerne County Civil Records
The Prothonotary page says users may view and download filed documents through the SearchIQS Prothonotary viewer. The landing page supports guest access and subscriber login. The research did not capture the deeper guest workflow, so the safe description is guest or subscription access, not a promise that every field or every civil document is available online.
| Field or Action | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Search Records as Guest | Link or button | Opens guest search access. |
| See Subscription Plans/Create an Account | Link | For account or subscription access. |
| Username | Text | Existing user login only. |
| Password | Password | Existing user login only. |
| Forgot your password? | Link | Account recovery. |
For docket sheets rather than civil document images, the statewide Pennsylvania UJS Case Search is also important. It can search by docket number, participant, date filed, organization, attorney, and other modes, with county or judicial-district filters when the search type exposes them.
Request Prothonotary Certified Copies
Certified civil copies are used when a court, agency, employer, title company, or another official recipient needs proof that a document is a true copy from the civil court file. For Luzerne County divorce decrees, the Register of Wills FAQ routes requesters to the county where the divorce was filed and finalized. In Luzerne County, that office is the Prothonotary, but the county notes that certified divorce decree copies requiring the original Division Head signature are excluded from some department and Hazleton services.
- Identify the civil case type, party names, filing year, and docket number if known.
- Check UJS Case Search for docket information, or use SearchIQS where online civil document access is available.
- Contact the Prothonotary for certified-copy instructions, especially for divorce decrees and family-file documents.
- Submit the copy request with the required payment method and enough case detail for staff to locate the file.
- Use the office public viewer when divorce, custody, or PFA documents are not available through the online Prothonotary viewer.
| Request Detail | Required | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|
| Docket or case number | Best if known | Prevents a name-only search from matching the wrong case. |
| Party names | Yes | Needed for civil, divorce, custody, and PFA files. |
| Document type | Yes | Examples include decree, order, complaint, judgment, or docket entry. |
| Certified or plain copy | Yes | The office must know whether certification is needed. |
| Return method | As applicable | Ask the office about pickup, mail, or viewer printing. |
Luzerne County Prothonotary Fees
The Prothonotary page includes several local fee and payment notes rather than one simple copy table. No cash is accepted. Money orders, cashier's checks, and business checks are accepted. Credit cards are accepted for filings except bail posting, which is cashier's check only. Office-viewer printing for divorce, custody, and PFA files is listed at $0.50 per page.
| Item | Amount or Rule |
|---|---|
| Office public-viewer printing for divorce, custody, and PFA cases | $0.50 per page |
| Petition for Special Relief/Contempt in custody or divorce | $27 added filing fee, effective March 1, 2024 |
| Petition for Modification of Custody | $27 filing fee, effective March 3, 2025 |
| Petition to Intervene in Custody | $27 filing fee, effective March 3, 2025 |
| Cash payments | Not accepted |
| Bail posting | Cashier's check only |
Luzerne County E-Filing Warnings
Luzerne County's IQS e-filing notes are unusually specific. The Prothonotary warns that electronic filing through IQS does not create automatic service. Filers must serve Court Administration and all parties themselves. The office also tells filers that each e-filing must be recorded as a separately indexed docket entry, so multiple distinct filings should not be indexed under one entry.
Blank orders should go at the end of a filing or be docketed separately as proposed orders. Filings should include a certificate of compliance under Pa.R.A.P. 127. The county also asks users to keep desktop shortcuts for both SearchIQS and IQS e-file so access is preserved during county website outages.
Prothonotary Access Channels
Luzerne County Split Clerk Records
The resolved Pennsylvania manifest treats the Prothonotary as the primary clerk page, but Luzerne County records are not kept by one office. The Register of Wills / Clerk of Orphans' Court page is a useful visual marker for that split.
Estate, marriage, adoption, and guardianship records should be routed to Orphans' Court rather than the civil Prothonotary office.
Court transcript requests also move through specific filing and service rules in the Luzerne court system.
Transcript requests may require a filing or e-filing and service on Court Administration, depending on whether an appeal has been filed.
For criminal-history limits, Pennsylvania criminal-history law and judiciary policy are separate from ordinary civil copy access.
This is why UJS docket sheets should not be treated as criminal-history background checks.
Limited access petitions are handled as criminal or summary matters, not as ordinary Prothonotary civil copy requests.
Those filings route to the Clerk of Courts when they involve criminal or summary cases. Note: Civil records may still be public unless sealed by court order, law, or a protected case type.