Two layers of trial court share the load:

• The four magisterial district courts. They try summary cases, the bottom grade of offense. Think speeding, a disorderly conduct citation, or an underage drinking ticket. With bigger charges, their role stops after two early hearings, first on bail and then on the evidence.
• The Court of Common Pleas. This is the 8th Judicial District, which serves this one county. Misdemeanors and felonies come here after an MDJ sends them up. After a summary conviction at an MDJ, a defendant can file an appeal here within 30 days, and the courthouse judge retries everything.
• Juvenile court. Part of Common Pleas, it hears charges against people younger than 18.

A federal crime goes to the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania instead.

Pleas, trials and sentencings for Common Pleas cases take place at the county courthouse, 201 Market Street, Sunbury, PA 17801. Offices there open Monday 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Tuesday through Friday 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

• Court Administration, which builds the hearing schedule, is on the second floor, 570-988-4167. It posts a court calendar for October to December 2026.
• The criminal records office (Clerk of Courts) keeps case files and takes filings, 570-988-4148.
• The County Administration Center, 399 Stadium Drive, Sunbury, PA 17801, 570-988-4100, houses district court 08-3-04.

The court also warns about a scam. It never calls anyone demanding a fee for skipped jury duty, so hang up on that caller.

Where the arrest took place decides the MDJ. Every borough, city and township here feeds into one of these four:

• 08-2-01, 150 S Market Street, Mount Carmel, PA 17851, 570-339-2140. Covers both Mount Carmels, Kulpmont, Marion Heights, Riverside, Ralpho, Rush, East Cameron and West Cameron.
• 08-3-02, 45 Locust Street, Milton, PA 17847, 570-742-7446. Covers Milton, Watsontown, Turbotville, McEwensville, Delaware, Lewis, Point, Turbot, East Chillisquaque and West Chillisquaque.
• 08-3-03, 2 E Arch Street, Shamokin, PA 17872, 570-644-0736. Covers Shamokin City, Snydertown, Coal Township, Shamokin Township and Zerbe.
• 08-3-04, 399 Stadium Drive, Sunbury, PA 17801, 570-988-4485. Covers the city, Northumberland borough, Herndon, Jackson, Jordan, Rockefeller, Washington, both Augustas and all three Mahanoys.

Window hours change from office to office and day to day. Phone before you drive.

Both early hearings belong to the MDJ.

Preliminary arraignment. Pennsylvania's crime victim office describes it as usually taking place within six hours of arrest, and video links are common. The judge names each charge and gives the defendant the complaint in writing. Next comes a word on hiring or asking for a lawyer, a bail ruling and a date to return. A county outline adds that no prosecutor attends.

Preliminary hearing. Rule 540 sets the deadline at 14 days when the defendant sits in jail, or 21 days when they are out. Prosecutors must present a prima facie case, a Latin label for a first look at the proof. The MDJ checks two things: whether a crime likely happened, and whether this defendant is the likely culprit. Defendants rarely testify. The outcome is one of these:

• charges dismissed in whole or in part,
• charges held for Common Pleas, or
• a waiver, where the defense skips the hearing and the case moves on.

Disorderly conduct is often charged as a summary offense. The MDJ decides it alone, with no jury, and the cap is 90 days plus a $300 fine (18 Pa.C.S. §§ 1101, 1105). A defendant who loses there gets 30 days to take it up to the courthouse, where a judge hears it fresh.

A first DUI is normally a misdemeanor. It gets both MDJ hearings and then heads to Market Street for a plea or trial. DUI grading has changed more than once in recent years, so let defense counsel confirm the grade. Misdemeanor limits:

• M1: 5 years and $10,000
• M2: 2 years and $5,000
• M3: 1 year and $2,500

Many first DUI cases qualify for ARD, a diversion track that can end in dismissal. The District Attorney's Office answers questions about it at 570-988-4134.

1. Arrest and arraignment. An MDJ sets bail.
2. Preliminary hearing. Same district court, usually within two weeks.
3. Information. After a hold for court, prosecutors file the formal charging paper. They can add counts or drop them.
4. Formal arraignment. Usually a month or two on, at the courthouse. The defendant enters a plea.
5. Pretrial conference. Lawyers often trade plea offers here.
6. Trial. A panel of 12 citizens decides, unless the defense chooses a bench trial before a judge. All twelve must agree the proof leaves no reasonable doubt. A jury verdict requires every juror's vote.
7. Sentencing. County Adult Probation prepares a pre-sentence investigation, which the judge weighs along with the state's sentencing guidelines.

Top penalties: F1, 20 years and $25,000; F2, 10 years and $25,000; F3, 7 years and $15,000 (18 Pa.C.S. §§ 1101, 1103). Appeals from Common Pleas head to the Superior Court.

Yes. The gravest charges face tighter rules from bail through sentencing:

• Holding without bail. Allowed for charges punishable by death or life, or on proof that only jail would keep the community safe. Prosecutors must prove that at a hearing (Pa. Const. art. I, § 14).
• Homicide grades. First-degree murder carries death or a life term. Second-degree carries a life term. Third-degree allows up to 40 years (18 Pa.C.S. § 1102).
• Teen defendants. At 15 and up, a murder charge, or an armed violent felony on the state's list, starts out in adult court.
• Where time is served. A top term reaching 5 years means state custody, not Coal Township (42 Pa.C.S. § 9762).
• Victim voice. In injury crimes and burglaries, the victim can comment on a deal or a sentence before the judge rules.

Anyone in danger at home can call Susquehanna Valley Women in Transition around the clock at 800-850-7948. The District Attorney's Office lists that hotline.

ARD, short for Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition, is a second chance aimed mainly at first offenders. Prosecutors decide who gets an offer, and a judge has the final say (Pa.R.Crim.P. 310 and following). Completing it opens the door to expungement. Failing it puts the original charges back on track for trial.

• Return the county's ARD forms, plus a copy of the criminal complaint, to the District Attorney's Office, 201 Market Street, Sunbury, PA 17801, 570-988-4134.
• DUI applicants first complete a CRN evaluation. Call the DUI Coordinator at 570-495-2210.
• A second DUI, a reading of 0.16 or higher, or a drug DUI also requires a drug and alcohol assessment through County Drug and Alcohol, 570-495-2154.
• Expect to hand in a driver's license on placement day.

Treatment Court serves people whose cases grow out of addiction, with separate Drug Court and DUI Court forms. Applications go to Adult Probation and Parole on the fourth floor of 322 N Second Street, Sunbury, PA 17801, 570-495-2339.

Prosecution. Charges in county court are pressed by the District Attorney's Office, third floor, 201 Market Street, Sunbury, PA 17801, 570-988-4134. Staff are in Monday 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Tuesday through Friday 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Defense. Defendants without money for a private lawyer can ask for the Public Defender, third floor, 322 N Second Street, Sunbury, PA 17801, 570-495-2347. Its hours match, and it takes both adult and youth cases.

• Send in the county's counsel application quickly, before the preliminary hearing if you can.
• Each applicant signs an income affidavit (16 P.S. § 9960.1 and following), and the court decides who qualifies.
• Under the Public Defender Act, appointed counsel can appear from the preliminary hearing through trial, at probation or parole revocations, and in juvenile court.

Anyone can read adult criminal dockets from Mount Carmel to Milton at no cost on the UJS Web Portal case search, and no login is required.

1. Pick "Participant Name" as the search type and set the county.
2. Enter last and first names. Add a birth date to narrow it.
3. Open the docket sheet to view charges, bail, the courtroom and scheduled events.
4. Copy the docket number. Offices find a file fastest with it.

Entries made today might not show until later. Youth cases, sealed cases and expunged cases never appear. Questions about a Common Pleas file go to the criminal records office, 201 Market Street, Sunbury, PA 17801, 570-988-4148. For an earlier stage, call whichever MDJ has it.

Bench warrants from Common Pleas are the Sheriff's job, while town police and constables handle other warrants. Ask the Sheriff's Office at 570-988-4155 whether one is open. Wanted lists include the Pennsylvania State Police Ten Most Wanted (tip line 800-472-8477), the Department of Corrections parole absconders page and the U.S. Marshals' 15 Most Wanted. When you're ready to resolve one, let a lawyer or the Public Defender schedule a surrender with the issuing judge, or phone that office to get a fresh hearing date. The criminal records office sits at 201 Market Street, Sunbury, PA 17801, 570-988-4148.

Northumberland's federal cases land in the Middle District of Pennsylvania. Its nearest courthouse is at 240 West Third Street, Suite 218, Williamsport, PA 17701, 570-323-6380.

• The U.S. Attorney's Office in Williamsport brings the case from 240 West Third Street, Williamsport, PA 17701, 570-326-1935.
• At the opening federal hearing, the judge picks release on conditions or detention until trial (18 U.S.C. 3142).
• Federal Probation and Pretrial Services works from 240 West Third Street, Suite 114, Williamsport, PA 17701, 570-323-3688.
• Federal detainees awaiting trial are tracked by the U.S. Marshals from their Middle District office, 235 North Washington Avenue, Unit 215, Scranton, PA 18503, 570-346-7277.
• Once a federal sentence starts, use the Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate locator.

It can. A detainer matters most at the moment the state case would free the person:

1. An ICE officer sends the jail Form I-247A, asking to be told before release and to have the person held briefly.
2. Federal rules cap that hold at up to 48 hours after they would otherwise be released (8 CFR 287.7(d)).
3. Pennsylvania falls under Galarza v. Szalczyk (3d Cir. 2014), where the appeals judges said a detainer is a request only, and a county acting on one by itself can face liability. Policies therefore differ by jail. Coal Township staff can explain theirs at 570-509-2701.
4. Any transfer to ICE runs through its Philadelphia Field Office, 114 N. 8th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107, 215-656-7164.
5. Look the person up on the ICE Online Detainee Locator, using name and country of birth.

Pleading guilty may carry immigration fallout. Non-citizens need a lawyer's advice on that risk before agreeing to any deal.

Pennsylvania's sentencing law looks at the maximum term (42 Pa.C.S. § 9762). Any maximum short of 2 years gets served in Coal Township. Five years or more puts the person in a state institution. Anything in the middle normally goes to the state as well, though the warden's office, the District Attorney and the sentencing judge can jointly approve local time.

Some sentences skip a cell entirely. Adult Probation runs electronic monitoring and community service, and a house arrest program reports each month to the Prison Board.

Anyone bound for the state goes through a reception and classification center first. Weeks or months of testing there set a security level. A long-term prison follows.

• Use the state DOC inmate locator to learn the state prison where they are housed.
• The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections main office is at 1920 Technology Parkway, Mechanicsburg, PA 17050, 717-728-2573.
• Profiles of each institution sit in our Pennsylvania state prisons section.

The Juvenile Act (42 Pa.C.S. § 6301 and following) covers most charges against minors. Juvenile Probation guides each case from intake to closing.

• Juvenile Probation and the juvenile courtroom are both on the third floor of 322 N Second Street, Sunbury, PA 17801. Probation answers at 570-495-2174.
• When a child can't be released to family, a juvenile detention center holds them, not the adult jail. Probation staff can name the center and the date of the detention hearing.
• Public defenders handle juvenile cases too.
• Teens 15 and older accused of murder, or of a violent crime on the state's armed-offense list, are charged as adults at first. Their lawyer may ask the judge to send the case to juvenile court instead.
• The public UJS portal leaves every juvenile file out.

The Crime Victims Act (18 P.S. § 11.101 and following) gives victims a voice. Among other rights, a victim may:

• get notice of key court dates and of any release,
• offer views on bail terms,
• speak up before a plea or a sentence in burglary cases and cases with injuries, and
• ask for restitution.

Reach the District Attorney's victim witness coordinator at 570-988-4120. PA SAVIN sends free release alerts; register through VINELink or by phone at 866-972-7284. VCAP, the state compensation fund, can cover medical costs, counseling and lost wages, 800-233-2339.

Relatives of the accused should give the victim total distance: no calls, no texts, no notes passed through friends. Any contact risks revoked bail and another arrest.