Butler County is only one of the 67 counties in the state of Pennsylvania. Because of a change in the state laws, there is now easier access to many Butler County Public records. That law, called the Right to Know law, opened up most but not all public records and the information that they contain. There are restrictions to the Right to Know law, which are meant to protect the individual as well as the public’s health and safety. For instance, you cannot access the home address of publicly elected or appointed officials, law enforcement personnel or others in the position of authority. You also cannot access social security numbers or driver’s license numbers. Other records, however, can be seen by the public. There are several ways to access these documents.

Getting Butler County Public Records Online

There are a number of online resources and websites for your search. You can start your search for a number of different public records at the official Butler county website’s home page and then follow the links to the right department. You can search by the type of record you are looking for, including marriage, divorce, birth, death and criminal records.

If you are looking for records that are very old, you might not be able to access them online. Some counties chose to only put their records online so far back, leaving some of the older records in the archives to be searched the old fashioned way.

Your Butler County Public Records Offline

There are also a number of ways to search offline for any of the Butler County public records that you might need. You can go to the public offices of each department for the records, however, you may be faced with long lines and busy office workers, especially during certain times of the month or the day. Archived records may not be available in these offices any longer and may be sent to a centralized office for safe keeping. Access to the older records might take some time.

In many cases, you may be asked to prove who you say you are by showing your photo identification and some records requests may require a payment as well. Make sure that you know who you are paying the fee to and why because there are scam services that will ask for payment and provide no information at all.