Tioga County Prothonotary Office
The official Tioga County page uses the combined label Prothonotary / Clerk of Courts. Heather Lundgren is listed as the official. The office is at 118 Main Street, Wellsboro, PA 16901, with phone number 570-724-9281. Public hours are 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, and passport hours are 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
For Phase B naming, the primary clerk name for Pennsylvania is Prothonotary. In Tioga County, that means the civil clerk side of the Court of Common Pleas. The same county office page also includes the Clerk of Courts function, which is the criminal filing side. That distinction is important because a divorce, judgment, lien, custody filing, or civil appeal is not requested the same way as a Common Pleas criminal case file.
Prothonotary / Clerk of Courts
Official: Heather Lundgren
118 Main Street
Wellsboro, PA 16901
570-724-9281
9:00 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Monday-Friday
The county's Prothonotary / Clerk of Courts office page is the source for the office title, official, duties, hours, and public counter information.
The page also explains why Pennsylvania uses the term Prothonotary, which helps users avoid searching for a county clerk office that does not match the local court structure.
Tioga County Prothonotary Duties
The Prothonotary is the Clerk of the Civil Division of the Court of Common Pleas and is elected to a four-year term. The office files, records, and processes civil actions, equity actions, judgments, federal and local tax liens, city liens, family court matters, arbitrations, license-suspension appeals, appeals to higher court, and passport applications. It also files and records judgments, orders, and decrees of court and sends notice of entry to parties and counsel.
- File and process civil, family, equity, arbitration, and appeal paperwork.
- Record judgments, orders, decrees, liens, and related civil docket entries.
- Issue writs and process other court documents for civil matters.
- Review pleadings for compliance with Pennsylvania Rules of Civil Procedure and Tioga County Rules of Court.
- Collect filing fees and turn those fees over to county and state accounts.
- Handle passport applications during the office's posted passport hours.
Criminal filings are the Clerk of Courts side of the same county page. For criminal charges, pleas, dispositions, sentencing entries, and Common Pleas criminal dockets, use the criminal filing function and the UJS docket path, not the civil Prothonotary path alone.
Request Tioga County Certified Copies
A certified copy is a clerk-certified version of a record, often needed for legal, agency, name-change, appeal, or filing purposes. Tioga County's fee schedule lists certified copies, certified copies of dockets, plain copies, mailed copies, and docket copies. The best first step is to identify the exact case type because a certified divorce decree, civil docket, lien, judgment, or criminal docket may route through a different side of the office.
- Identify the docket number, party names, filing year, and whether the case is civil, family, divorce, judgment, lien, or criminal.
- Check public docket information through the court portal if the docket number is unknown.
- Call or visit the Prothonotary / Clerk of Courts office to confirm the record custodian and copy fee.
- Specify whether a plain copy, certified copy, certified docket copy, or mailed copy is needed.
- Pay the required fee and follow office instructions for pickup, mail, or in-person file review.
Note: Recent docket entries may appear online before every underlying document is available as a certified office copy.
Tioga County Records Request Fields
For court case files, the practical request starts with the clerk or court custodian. For county agency records outside the court case file, Tioga County also provides a Right-to-Know process. Jennifer Cochran is listed as the Tioga County Open Records Officer at 118 Main Street, Wellsboro, with phone 570-723-8200, fax 570-723-8206, and email jcochran@tiogacountypa.us.
| Field | Required | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Date requested | Yes | Used on the county Right-to-Know PDF request form. |
| Submission method | Yes | Checkbox options include email, U.S. mail, fax, and in person. |
| Requester name and address | Yes | Include street, city, state, county, and ZIP fields. |
| Telephone and email | Yes | Gives the office a way to clarify the request or respond. |
| Records requested | Yes | Describe the docket, document, agency record, date range, or case detail clearly. |
| Certification checkbox | Optional | Use when a certified copy is requested and available. |
| Signature and date | Yes | The PDF includes signature and agency response areas. |
The online Right-to-Know form requires county website registration and sign-in before the form opens.
Use this county request route for agency records when the record is not a court case file controlled by the court custodian.
Tioga County Prothonotary Fees
The Tioga County Prothonotary fee schedule lists civil filing fees, family filing fees, lien fees, copy charges, docket copy charges, expungement fees, and self-help kit costs. These fees are useful for record access because copy and certification costs often apply even when a docket can be searched for free online.
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Basic new civil filing | $156.00 |
| Petition to change name | $161.00 |
| Mechanics lien | $45.00 |
| State lien | $45.00 |
| Federal lien | $38.00 |
| Divorce / custody | $203.00 |
| Expungements | $132.00 |
| Certified copy | $5.00 |
| Plain copies | $0.50 per page |
| Mailed copies | $1.00 per page |
| Certified copy of docket | $10.00 |
| Copy of docket | $5.00 |
Tioga County Prothonotary Forms
Tioga County Court Administration hosts several civil and access forms that affect Prothonotary filings and record review. Court staff cannot fill out forms or give legal advice, and the self-help center warns filers to use the packet documents as provided. The Prothonotary fee schedule lists self-help custody and divorce kits at $10.00 each.
- Tioga County civil local rules for local civil filing practice.
- Divorce Complaint Self-Help Package for pro se divorce filings.
- Court Administration Self-Help Center for packet instructions and filing-fee warnings.
- Confidential Information Form and Confidential Document Form, linked from Court Administration, for restricted or redacted material.
Tioga County Clerk Access Channels
Tioga County Court Administration states that people searching for a public-record case can either visit the Clerk of Court/Prothonotary office and check the file or use the Pennsylvania Unified Judicial System website for a free search. That gives users two primary channels: UJS for public docket sheets and the local office for the underlying file, copies, and certifications. Older or non-digitized records may require in-person office help.
County agency records have a separate fallback through the Tioga County Right-to-Know page. The county page lists the Open Records Officer and request channels, while the court case itself remains subject to judicial access policies and the proper court custodian.
For walk-in planning, the county directory places the Prothonotary on the courthouse first floor. Court Administration, the District Attorney, Public Defender, Domestic Relations, Jury Recording, and the Master's Office are listed in the courthouse annex on the second floor. That floor-level split can save a trip to the wrong counter when a record request crosses civil, criminal, family, or agency lines.
The Right-to-Know page is a fallback for county agency records, not a substitute for the Prothonotary counter when a civil case file or certified court copy is needed.