Criminal Court Cases in Franklin County
Franklin County is part of Pennsylvania's 39th Judicial District. Its six magisterial district courts handle traffic and nontraffic citations, summary cases, criminal complaints, preliminary arraignments, bail, and preliminary hearings. A summary matter usually stays at that level unless appealed. Misdemeanor and felony charges that are waived or held for court move to the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas. The Franklin County Clerk of Courts keeps those Common Pleas criminal files at 14 North Main Street in Chambersburg.
The docket number shows which path a case took. Common Pleas criminal dockets begin with CP-28-CR, where 28 is Franklin County's code. Minor-court dockets begin with MJ-39 and identify the district office. Jail custody and police complaint numbers are different identifiers.
The official Clerk of Courts page shows the Franklin County criminal-record counter and its forms.
That office is the direct source for a Common Pleas file, docket printout, or available copy when the online summary is not enough.
Franklin County CP-28 and MJ-39 Dockets
A complete Franklin County court case lookup may require two searches. Start with the relevant MDJ criminal docket to see the complaint, preliminary arraignment, bail, and hearing outcome. If an entry says the charges were held for court or waived, find the linked CP-28-CR docket. The Common Pleas docket then tracks the prosecutor's information, formal arraignment, motions, plea or trial, sentence, and later review.
The Unified Judicial System Case Search is free and requires no public login for docket sheets. Search by participant name when no docket number is known, but use a first name, middle name, filing range, and Franklin County filter to reduce false matches. A shared name is not proof that the case belongs to the person being researched. Compare the court, filing date, originating MDJ docket, arresting agency, and public identifiers.
The official UJS Case Search interface displays the court and case filters used for Franklin County criminal dockets.
The interface helps connect the MDJ stage with the later Common Pleas file without treating either docket as a full criminal-history report.
Franklin County Case Record Searches
Use the statewide portal as an index, then ask the office that holds the record for the deeper file. This five-part method keeps a Franklin County criminal case search tied to the right person and court.
- Open UJS Case Search and choose either Court of Common Pleas or Magisterial District Court. Select the criminal case category when the chosen court offers that filter.
- Search by participant name, docket number, organization, attorney, or citation number as the court type permits. Add Franklin County and a filing range when needed.
- Open the docket sheet and compare the caption, docket number, filing date, charge counts, arresting agency, bail, case status, and originating court.
- Search the related court level. Follow an
MJ-39matter to itsCP-28-CRdocket when charges were held or waived for Common Pleas. - Contact the Clerk of Courts or the listed MDJ for the actual public file, an available copy, or the office's current fee instructions.
The official UJS Case Search help explains how the controls change with the selected court and search method.
Its instructions are useful when a Franklin County name search produces a wide result set or the expected field is hidden by another court selection.
| Field Label | Type | Required | Options or Format |
|---|---|---|---|
| Search By | Dropdown | Yes | Participant Name, Docket Number, Organization, Attorney, or Citation Number, based on court type |
| Court Type | Filter | Yes | Choose Court of Common Pleas or Magisterial District Court for a Franklin County criminal case |
| Case Category or Type | Dropdown | No | Select Criminal or another category available for the chosen court |
| Participant Name | Text | Conditional | Last name is central; first and middle names narrow matches |
| Date Filed | Date range | No | Start and end dates limit the result set |
| County | Dropdown | No | Select Franklin |
| MDJS Court Office | Dropdown | No | Use when searching a particular Franklin County district court |
| Docket Number | Segmented text | Conditional | Formats include CP-28-CR and MJ-39 criminal numbers |
Franklin County Central Court Transfers
Franklin County has used a consolidated Central Court since January 29, 2001. Two rotating magisterial district judges conduct many county felony and misdemeanor preliminary hearings in Courtroom 6 of the Judicial Center on Tuesdays. When Tuesday is a legal holiday, the session moves to Thursday. The issuing MDJ still matters. That office starts the complaint and schedules the case, and requests for a continuance go to the issuing MDJ even though the hearing may occur at Central Court.
This arrangement explains why a Franklin County case may show more than one court reference. The MJ-39 docket records the early stage. Charges waived or held for court transfer to Common Pleas and acquire a CP-28-CR docket.
The county's magisterial district judges directory lists all six Franklin County offices and the Central Court procedure.
Those contacts route a summary case or preliminary-stage file to its actual custodian instead of the general county open-records office.
What a Criminal Case File Contains
A UJS docket is a summary of the Franklin County criminal case, not an image of every filed paper. It can show the case caption, court, status, initiation and filing dates, originating MDJ docket, arresting agency, complaint number, counsel, and public participant data. Each charge may list its statute, description, grade, and result. Bail, events, scheduled proceedings, sentence details, and balances for fines, costs, or restitution may also appear.
The actual Clerk file can supply public pleadings and orders that the docket sheet only names. Confidential forms and protected data do not become public merely because a case exists. The following inventory helps separate the most useful fields.
| Docket Number and Court | Identifies the Franklin County court level and the specific proceeding. |
|---|---|
| Charging Document | The complaint begins the MDJ matter; the criminal information states Common Pleas charges filed by the prosecutor. |
| Charges by Count | Shows the statute, description, grade, and separate disposition for each count. |
| Bail and Events | Tracks public bail terms, docket activity, scheduled hearings, courtroom, and judge when posted. |
| Disposition | Records whether a count ended by plea, trial result, dismissal, withdrawal, nolle prosequi, or another stated outcome. |
| Sentence and Finances | Lists public sentence terms plus fines, costs, restitution, and balances recorded on the docket. |
Note: PAePay accepts some court payments, but its payment display does not replace the Franklin County docket's charge-by-charge result.
Franklin County Pre-1993 Court Records
The Clerk's public computer entries run from 1993 forward, while docket books preserve earlier Franklin County criminal matters. Two public computers at the Judicial Center offer more than 30 years of criminal research. Visitors may use those terminals and request the public file. This route matters for genealogy, historical work, and cases absent from the current statewide search.
Call the Clerk of Courts at 717-261-3805 if an old file may require retrieval. The counter is at 14 North Main Street, Chambersburg, and the listed weekday hours are 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Copies and docket printouts have fees, but the research does not establish current amounts. Ask for the present fee schedule. Ordinary public researchers should plan to use the terminals themselves.
Criminal Case Stages in Franklin County
A Franklin County criminal court case starts when police file a complaint with the assigned MDJ. Preliminary arraignment presents the charges and addresses bail. A preliminary hearing tests whether misdemeanor or felony counts move forward. The matter can be dismissed, waived, or held for court. Held or waived counts then move to Common Pleas, where the District Attorney files a criminal information. Formal arraignment, pretrial motions, a plea or trial, disposition, sentence, and any post-sentence or appeal activity follow as the case requires.
Case flow: Charges Filed → Arraignment → Pretrial → Plea or Trial → Disposition → Sentencing
Dates vary by the case and the court calendar. The docket's processing-status dates and scheduled events are better guides than a general estimate. Central Court's Tuesday schedule is a local hearing pattern, not a promise that every Franklin County case will reach disposition on a fixed timetable.
Franklin County Court Record Roles
The District Attorney and Clerk of Courts touch the same Common Pleas case for different reasons. The District Attorney represents the Commonwealth and files the criminal information. The Clerk preserves the docket and filed papers. The arresting police agency owns its incident report. The Franklin County District Attorney page identifies the prosecutor's role.
The image points to the prosecutor, while the Clerk remains the court-record custodian. The Public Defender represents eligible defendants, but its office file is not the public Franklin County case file. The Franklin County Public Defender page gives that office's application and contact route.
That distinction helps a searcher send a records request to the Clerk while directing a request for legal representation to the proper office.
Access Rules for Case Records
Judicial files follow the Pennsylvania UJS Public Access Policy, not the county's normal Pennsylvania Right-to-Know Law process. Send a Common Pleas criminal case request to the Franklin County Clerk of Courts. Send a minor-court request to the MDJ office that holds it. The county Open Records Office handles executive-agency records, and the arresting police agency handles its own report.
Public access has firm limits. Juvenile files, sealed or limited-access cases, confidential-information forms, Social Security numbers, account data, specified victim contacts, and protected information about minors may be withheld or removed from the public view. An investigative police report can also be exempt even when a public criminal docket exists. Court rules prohibit assuming that a phone may be used to photograph a file, so ask staff about copies and device rules.
Held for Court in Franklin County
“Held for court” is a transfer result, not a conviction. It means the preliminary-stage record shows enough basis for a misdemeanor or felony charge to proceed to Franklin County Common Pleas. A defendant may later enter a plea, go to trial, obtain dismissal of a count, or receive another disposition. Read the result for each count instead of treating the filing grade as the outcome.
“Nolle prosequi” means the Commonwealth formally declined to keep prosecuting that charge. A dismissed count is not an acquittal unless the Franklin County docket states a not-guilty result. Bail sets release security and conditions, not guilt. Costs and restitution are separate fields.
If a public docket appears wrong or lacks a final result, compare it with the underlying Clerk file. For one's own Pennsylvania repository record, the Pennsylvania State Police Individual Access and Review process can reveal whether the disposition also needs correction at the repository level. The court remains the authoritative source for what happened in its case.