Luzerne County, PA Probate Information

The first Luzerne County question is which path fits the estate, and then how the office wants you to open it. Pennsylvania probate begins at the Register of Wills, where the will is admitted and letters are granted; the Orphans' Court Division then supervises the administration. A qualifying small estate can instead be settled on a petition to the Orphans' Court division (20 Pa.C.S. § 3102), and some assets pass without any grant of letters at all (20 Pa.C.S. § 3101). The statewide thresholds and paths are covered on the Pennsylvania state page. A jointly owned Wyoming Valley home or a beneficiary-designated account often passes outside the estate, so the estate that actually goes through probate can be smaller than the family expects. Because Luzerne opens estates by in-person appointment, it is worth sorting the path out before you call.

Before you file, identify every bank, credit-union, brokerage, and retirement account, life-insurance policy, business interest, and parcel of Luzerne County real estate, along with every debt, and identify each heir by name. Only then can you pick the right path, calculate the correct county filing fee, and decide whether counsel is needed. Sunset's asset-discovery work, searching more than 2,300 financial institutions, exists for this step.

The Luzerne County Register of Wills and the Luzerne County Orphans' Court Division serve all of Luzerne County, in the Wyoming Valley of northeastern Pennsylvania. The county takes in Wilkes-Barre, the county seat, along with Hazleton, Nanticoke, Pittston, Kingston, Plymouth, Dallas, the Mountain Top and Back Mountain areas, Hanover Township, Wilkes-Barre Township, Plains Township, Exeter, West Pittston, Swoyersville, Edwardsville, Ashley, Freeland, and the county's many other boroughs and townships. Under Pennsylvania's venue rule in Title 20 of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes (20 Pa.C.S.), letters are granted only by the register of the county where the decedent had a last family or principal residence (20 Pa.C.S. § 3151). A decedent who lived anywhere in Luzerne County has the estate opened here, regardless of which municipality within the county the person lived in.

Luzerne County is the 11th Judicial District, a single-county district, so the Orphans' Court judges who supervise administration are Court of Common Pleas judges of that district. The Register of Wills and the Clerk of the Orphans' Court are run together in the county's Division of Judicial Services and Records at 153 North River Street in Wilkes-Barre, so the grant of letters and the later administration filings are handled at the same courthouse-complex office. A satellite office in Hazleton accepts most filings on Tuesday and Thursday for the southern end of the county.

Luzerne is a home-rule county without an elected Register of Wills. The Luzerne County Home Rule Charter, approved by voters in November 2010 and in effect since January 2, 2012, abolished the county's elected row offices; the elective office of Register of Wills, which also serves as Clerk of the Orphans' Court, was abolished at the end of the term of the Register elected in 2009 (Charter section 12.04). The functions are now run inside the county's Division of Judicial Services and Records, led by an appointed division head. The office still performs every Register of Wills task: admitting the will, granting letters, and taking the REV-1500. Because the office is administered rather than headed by an elected Register, this page refers to the office rather than the officeholder.

Opening an estate is by in-person appointment. Luzerne County opens estates by appointment, not on a walk-in basis. Call (570) 825-1672 or (570) 825-1646 to schedule, and plan to appear in person, because the executor or administrator must be sworn before the Register. Bring the original will (if any), a certified death certificate, photo identification, an estimate of the gross estate value, and the completed Petition for Grant of Letters. A person named as co-executor who declines to serve, or a person with equal priority who steps aside, signs a notarized Renunciation.

Both offices share the courthouse complex, with a Hazleton satellite. The Register of Wills and the Clerk of the Orphans' Court are the same Division of Judicial Services and Records office at 153 North River Street in Wilkes-Barre (mailing address 200 North River Street), so the grant of letters and the later administration filings are handled at one counter. A satellite office in Hazleton is open Tuesday and Thursday, 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., for the southern end of the county; it accepts every filing except adoptions and guardianships, probates there are conducted by video with the Wilkes-Barre staff with the paperwork then filed at the annex, and the annex does not take cash. The main office is open Monday to Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., with filings taken until 4:20 p.m.

Estate records are online through Landex; newer Orphans' Court records are not. Register of Wills and most Clerk of the Orphans' Court records filed from 2004 to the present can be viewed at the public terminals in the office or through the county's paid Landex online services, and all estates from mid-1998 to the present are available on Landex; estate indexes from 1875 to 2004 are searchable free on the county's IQS system. The exception is the court side: Orphans' Court records filed after January 6, 2018, other than marriage licenses, are not available remotely and must be viewed in the office, and guardianship records after that date are restricted to the interested parties. The statewide UJS Portal case search covers estates unevenly, so use the county's own systems or call the office to confirm a specific filing.

Estate notices run in the Luzerne Legal Register. The county legal periodical for the advertisement required under 20 Pa.C.S. § 3162 is the Luzerne Legal Register, published weekly by the Wilkes-Barre Law and Library Association. The grant of letters must be advertised once a week for three successive weeks in both a newspaper of general circulation near the decedent's residence and the Luzerne Legal Register.

Pennsylvania does not require an attorney to open a probate estate, and many uncontested Luzerne County estates are handled with the statewide forms and the Register of Wills. Counsel makes sense when a will is contested or an appeal is taken from the Register to the Orphans' Court Division; when the estate is large, taxable, or holds a business interest or out-of-state property; when Luzerne County real estate must be sold and the terms are disputed; when the heirs are unknown or in conflict; or when a formal accounting or a dispute over the personal representative is filed. The Register of Wills and the Clerk of the Orphans' Court can explain procedure but cannot give legal advice. Sunset can connect families to a vetted Luzerne County probate attorney when the situation calls for counsel.

Find the accounts and assets. Sunset searches more than 2,300 financial institutions and public records to surface bank and credit-union accounts, retirement plans, brokerage holdings, life insurance, Luzerne County real estate, business interests, and unclaimed property, so you know the estate's value during estate settlement and can pick the right Pennsylvania path before you file.

Generate the probate packet. Sunset assembles the Luzerne County filing: the Petition for Grant of Letters (Form RW-02), the inventory (Form RW-09), and the supporting documents from Pennsylvania's statewide set, or the small-estate petition where the estate qualifies, ready to present at the appointment with the Register of Wills.

Find a local probate attorney. When an estate is contested, taxable, or otherwise calls for counsel, Sunset connects families to a vetted Luzerne County probate attorney to file and appear.

Sunset is free for families. Revenue comes from bank partners that pay Sunset while estate funds sit in an FDIC-insured estate account ($3M coverage).