Montana People Search

Montana has no free statewide court search, so a search usually starts with these state offices to find the county where a person lives, then goes to that district court and clerk and recorder.

• Montana DOC offender search (ConWeb)Inmates, probationers and parolees under the Department of Corrections
• Montana DOJ Criminal History Online Public Record SearchState criminal history by full name and birth date, for a fee
• Montana Sexual or Violent Offender RegistryRegistered sexual and violent offenders, kept by the Department of Justice
• Montana Secretary of State business searchCorporations, LLCs and assumed business names with agents
• Montana Cadastral, Montana State LibraryOwners and parcels in all 56 counties
• DPHHS Office of Vital RecordsHow to order birth and death certificates

Montana puts the public's right to know in its constitution (Article II, Section 9), so government records are open unless a law or a privacy interest says otherwise. The state has 56 counties and 22 judicial districts.

There is no single statewide court search, so you usually need to find the right district court first. Oil work in the Bakken has brought many short term residents to eastern counties such as Richland, and tribal courts have their own records.

The state business, corrections, offender and criminal history searches are linked in Where to Look.

Montana has no free statewide case search for the public. To find a case, contact the clerk of the district court, the justice court or the city court where it was heard; the Montana Courts site lists every court.

• Montana CourtsDistrict, justice and city courts with clerk contacts

Common Mistake: assuming a clean search in one county, such as Yellowstone, means a person has no record in Montana. A conviction in Missoula will not show in a Yellowstone search; the DOJ criminal history search covers the whole state.

Each county has a clerk and recorder who records deeds and plats and issues copies of birth and death certificates. The Department of Revenue values property, and the Montana Cadastral map of the Montana State Library, linked in Where to Look, shows owners and parcels statewide.

Professional licenses, including real estate licenses of the Board of Realty Regulation, are issued through the Department of Labor and Industry. A license record confirms a person's standing and business address.

• Lookup Licensed Individual, Department of Labor and IndustryProfessionals licensed by the state boards

The Department of Corrections offender search and the offender registry are linked in Where to Look. People held in county jails are listed by the county sheriff.

The Department of Public Health and Human Services (DPHHS) keeps vital records. Birth records are restricted to the person named, family and other eligible people, and full birth records can be released to the public 30 years after the birth (MCA 50-15-122). Certificates can also be bought at any county clerk and recorder office in Montana.

Montana voter files are public, but the statewide list must be bought from the Secretary of State and may not be used for commercial purposes. You can check your own registration on My Voter Page.

• My Voter Page, Montana Secretary of StateYour registration, polling place and ballot status

The Montana Historical Society in Helena is the official state archives. It holds pioneer, territorial and mining records, county marriage indexes and naturalization records.

• Montana Historical Society research centerState archives, library and photograph archives

Montana features unique governmental structures, notably the Anaconda-Deer Lodge County and Butte-Silver Bow consolidated city-county governments, where municipal and county records are entirely merged.

When searching in Montana, researchers must respect Tribal jurisdictions (Blackfeet, Crow, Flathead, Northern Cheyenne, Fort Belknap, Fort Peck, Rocky Boy's). Crimes committed by tribal members on sovereign land are adjudicated in Tribal or Federal court, meaning they will not appear in Montana District Court searches.

Because the right to know is in the constitution, officials can withhold little. The constitution also has an explicit right of privacy, and courts weigh the two when deciding whether to release investigative records.

Privacy Note: Montana's constitutional privacy protections mean that certain administrative and personnel files that might be public in other states are heavily redacted or withheld here.