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Clerk of Courts
Joshua G. Parsons, Esq.
2nd Floor, New Courthouse
8:30 AM - 5:00 PM
Mailing Address:
Office of the Clerk of Courts
County of Lancaster
50 North Duke Street
P.O. Box 83480
Lancaster, PA 17608-3480
Phone: (717) 299-8275
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Welcome to the website for the Office of the Clerk of Courts. The Clerk of Courts is an independently elected public official responsible for efficiently maintaining accurate criminal records for the Court of Common Pleas of Lancaster County.
The sixth most populous of the 67 counties in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Lancaster County has over 519,000 residents. Our department has the responsibility for maintaining criminal records on behalf of those citizens. Each year our office handles approximately 8000 new criminal court records as well as thousands of other tasks relating to constables, private detectives, and bail bondsmen. Since all documents pertinent to a criminal court case must be filed with the Clerk of Courts, our office is sometimes considered the hub of the criminal court system in the County.
We continuously strive to deliver high quality, efficient service to the taxpayer at an extremely low cost. In fact, we are proud to be one of only a few government agencies that is self sustaining - paying for itself and costing taxpayers no money. Through good management, we actually return substantial revenue to the County treasury each year.
Sincerely,
Joshua G. Parsons, Esq.
Clerk of Courts of Lancaster County
Recent Major Accomplishments
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Slashed office budget nearly 8% in one year (2012), while handling a record number of criminal filings and other work.
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Our department is self sustaining - paying for itself and costing taxpayers no money. In fact, through good management, we are actually returning substantial revenue to the County treasury each year.
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Reduced processing time for a criminal case file from average of 7 months to average of 14 days.
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Replaced outdated, inefficient computers/technology - all without using taxpayer funds.
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Released a five point plan to modernize the whole criminal court system. This plan, along with advocacy from other fiscal conservatives, directly resulted in the first major overhaul of the criminal courts and criminal justice system in decades. This increased efficiency is projected to save Lancaster County taxpayers millions of dollars a year.
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Identified nearly 14,000 old criminal cases where the defendants had never paid off their fines, costs and restitution. Launched a major project to file civil judgments on each case. We did this without additional cost or hiring additional staffing. Entry of a civil judgment is when the Clerk of Courts takes the court’s order for a defendant to pay fines and costs for the criminal proceeding and converts that order into a civil action in the Prothonotary’s office. This is bringing in additional revenue to the County.
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Overhauled front desk operations to make them more efficient and customer friendly.
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Began a program to serve County entities such as the Prison and Solicitor’s Office with scanned court and documents instead of hard copies, thereby saving resources and improving efficiency. |
Content Last Modified on 5/3/2013 10:40:22 AM
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