California People Search

California has no statewide court search, so a search pairs state offices with the superior court and the recorder of the county where the person lived. These six offices are the usual first stops.

• Secretary of State bizfile OnlineCorporations, LLCs and limited partnerships with agents and filings
• California Courts, Find My CourtEach county superior court and its online case search
• Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County ClerkDeeds and other recorded documents for the largest county
• CDPH Vital RecordsState birth and death records and who can order certified copies
• Department of Consumer Affairs license searchLicenses from more than 40 boards and bureaus
• State Bar of California attorney searchLicense status and discipline for California lawyers

The California Public Records Act, recodified in 2023 as Government Code section 7920 and the sections after it (formerly section 6250), opens government records to the public. How much is online differs from county to county.

Unlike states with a single portal for all court cases, California relies on its 58 counties. Since the passage of Proposition 220 in 1998, California has operated under a unified trial court system, meaning every county has a single Superior Court handling civil, criminal, family, and probate matters. However, the data systems for these 58 Superior Courts are entirely separate.

Records are kept where a person lived, worked or owned property, from Los Angeles County to rural Alpine County, so find those counties first.

Start with the state offices in Where to Look above, then go to the superior court and the clerk-recorder of each county where the person lived.

The Judicial Council of California and the California Courts public access portals provide structural guidance, but remember that actual case lookups must be performed at the county level. For state-level checks, start with the Department of Corrections, the Secretary of State, and statewide licensing boards.

California keeps a few statewide databases for specific records. The sex offender registry is the one open to everyone.

• California Megan's Law sex offender registryDepartment of Justice registry search by name, address or map

Common Mistake: Looking for a "California Statewide Criminal Court Search." It does not exist for the public. You must search the Superior Court website of the specific county where the event occurred.

California operates 58 Superior Courts. While some counties have adopted unified systems like Odyssey (Court Connect), the rollout is piecemeal. Large jurisdictions like Los Angeles have fragmented systems for civil versus criminal cases.

For federal cases, researchers must use PACER. California is divided into four federal districts: Central (CDCAL), Eastern (EDCAL), Northern (NDCAL), and Southern (SDCAL). The California Courts of Appeal (6 districts) and the CA Supreme Court maintain their own separate appellate dockets.

California mandates a strict separation of duties regarding real estate. In every county, the County Assessor is responsible for property valuations and tax mapping, while the County Clerk-Recorder handles the official recording of deeds, liens, and ownership transfers.

For the owner and value of a property, search the county assessor; for deeds and mortgages, search the county clerk-recorder. Most assessors search by assessor's parcel number (APN) or street address, not by owner name, while recorders index recorded documents by the names of the parties.

The Secretary of State's bizfile Online, linked in Where to Look, holds corporations, LLCs, limited partnerships and UCC filings.

The Department of Consumer Affairs license search, also linked above, covers more than 40 boards, among them the Medical Board, the Bureau of Real Estate Appraisers and the Contractors State License Board. The State Bar of California keeps its own search for licensed attorneys.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) oversees one of the largest prison populations in the country.

• CDCR Inmate Locator (CIRIS)Locating individuals currently serving time in state penitentiaries

CDPH Vital Records keeps state birth and death records from 1905 on, and each county recorder keeps the marriage records filed there. Only authorized people, such as close family or legal representatives, can get certified copies; anyone else gets an informational copy marked as not valid to prove identity.

California voter registration records are generally confidential and exempt from public disclosure under the CPRA to protect voter privacy. They are available only for specific political, journalistic, or academic purposes through the Secretary of State or county elections offices.

The California State Archives in Sacramento holds historical state government records. The California Digital Newspaper Collection at UC Riverside has millions of pages of digitized historical newspapers, free.

• California State ArchivesHistorical state government records in Sacramento
• California Digital Newspaper CollectionFree digitized historical California newspapers

Most California records are kept county by county. These are the largest courts and record offices:

• Superior Court of Los Angeles County, Access a CaseCivil, criminal, family and probate case lookups
• San Diego Superior Court online case searchCentral, East, South and North division cases
• Orange County Superior Court case accessCivil, criminal, family and traffic case lookups
• San Francisco Assessor-RecorderOne office for property values and recorded documents

Other large counties are Riverside, San Bernardino, Santa Clara, Alameda, Sacramento, Contra Costa, Fresno and Kern, each with its own superior court and clerk-recorder.

Researcher Tip: Proposition 47 (2014) turned many drug and theft felonies into misdemeanors and lets people ask to have old convictions reclassified, and later laws widened record sealing, so a criminal history can read differently today than it did ten years ago.

The California Consumer Privacy Act and the California Privacy Rights Act created the California Privacy Protection Agency. The Delete Act (SB 362, 2023) lets a person ask every registered data broker to delete their data with one request.

The agency's data broker registry lists the companies that trade personal data. The Secretary of State's Safe at Home program gives survivors of domestic violence a substitute address, and Marsy's Law (Proposition 9, 2008) gives crime victims rights under the state constitution.