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Searching Pennsylvania County Case Opinions with Jenkins Member Databases
In Pennsylvania, only select common pleas (or trial level) court opinions are published and there is no one place to search for all county decisions. However, Jenkins has three member database options for our members to search for Pennsylvania county decisions.
Jenkins recently launched our own database Pennsylvania County Cases. This database contains over 81,000 trial court opinions from across the Commonwealth dating back to 1970. The database is full text searchable and the documents are indexed to allow for multiple field searching, including County, Opinion Year, Opinion Date, and Case Name. We collect opinions from all 67 counties with new material being loaded every day.
LLMC Digital includes Pennsylvania Side Reports (the commonly referred to term for county reporters in Pennsylvania). This database contains over 50 different Pennsylvania county legal reporters, from the Adams County Legal Journal to the York Legal Record. A full text search can be run across all county reporters, within all volumes of a specific county title, or within an individual volume. Coverage varies by county, and coverage for select counties now includes recent years.
HeinOnline's State Reports: Pennsylvania provides access to select Pennsylvania county reporters. Coverage includes District and County Reports 1st series as well as part of the 2nd series. Coverage for many county reporters is through the early 1960s.
Pennsylvania county cases may be available in other resources at Jenkins, including through the library's Lexis and Westlaw computers, in current print reporters, or even as attached to appellate level records and briefs. For a full listing of where to find Pennsylvania county decisions, see our Pennsylvania Cases - Trial Level research guide.
Though the availability of county decisions continues to grow, many decisions are not published and must be obtained from the court. Need help looking for a particular opinion? Contact our Reference Librarians at 215-574-1505 or research@jenkinslaw.org.
Pennsylvania County Cases and LLMC Digital are membership databases available to all Jenkins members. HeinOnline is available to most Jenkins members.
