Nebraska Criminal Records

Nebraska runs every one of its 93 county and district courts on one case management system, JUSTICE, and admits in writing that a new case takes a day to appear in it. The State Patrol sells a name-based criminal history report to the public, and the same statute that makes Nebraska criminal history public strips arrests out of it on a timetable: one year if no charge was filed, two if the prosecutor dropped it, at once when a court dismisses or acquits. And a Nebraska judgment goes dormant at five years but can be brought back for ten more. This page gives the Nebraska rule and the Nebraska search for each record, with government sources only.

The Nebraska State Patrol sells its criminal history through the state's online limited criminal history search, where anyone may "view and download official criminal history reports from the Nebraska State Patrol" by name and date of birth, and through its record request page, which says to "click here to request an online report" or "bring your completed Criminal History Record Request form along with a payment in the amount of $45.00 (cashier's check, personal check or money order) in person to any Nebraska State Patrol Troop Area office." The request form itself says what the report is and what it costs by mail: "This form is used to request a Record of Arrest and Prosecution (RAP) sheet for person of interest listed below. The RAP sheet includes only Nebraska fingerprint-based arrests and resulting dispositions. There is a $30.00 fee for this service," with certification by the Patrol on request. The word "limited" is the statute's: under Nebraska Revised Statute 29-3523 the public copy omits the arrests the section has removed and the records a court has sealed, and a citation or a summons that never produced a fingerprint card is not in it at all. It is a name search, and the criminal records page explains why a name match is a guess.

Felonies are tried in the district courts and misdemeanors in the county courts, one of each in every county, and both post to the JUSTICE case search, which "provides access to criminal, civil, traffic, juvenile, and probate cases filed in all 93 of Nebraska's county and district courts," and which states the gap that this site's criminal records page describes for every database: "There is a 24 hour lag-time between when a new case is entered into the system, and when it appears on the search." The Judicial Branch's search policy sets the terms: "A One-Time search is available which allows access to information about court cases throughout Nebraska for an up-front search fee which can be paid using a credit card. The research and corresponding results are able to be viewed over a three day timeframe. There is a 30 case limit," with a subscription for regular users. The free route is the courthouse: the branch's eServices page says "case information in the statewide trial case management system known as JUSTICE and the appellate case management system SCCALES can be accessed for free at any courthouse kiosk or law library." The clerk of the court where the case was heard certifies the file, and the county pages on this site link each courthouse. A background check company's "Nebraska court record" is a JUSTICE pull on the date it was made, and the criminal records page explains what a copy misses.

Nebraska's rule for arrests that went nowhere is written into Nebraska Revised Statute 29-3523. An arrest with no charge filed leaves the public record after one year, an arrest whose charges the prosecutor dismissed before trial after two, and an arrest that ended in acquittal or a court's dismissal, in the statute's words, "shall not be part of the public record after three years from the date of arrest," while subsection (7) now goes further for the courts: "upon acquittal or entry of an order dismissing a case," the court "shall order that all records, including any information or other data concerning any proceedings relating to the case, including the arrest, taking into custody, petition, complaint, indictment, information, trial, hearing, adjudication, correctional supervision, dismissal, or other disposition or sentence, are not part of the public record and shall not be disseminated to persons other than criminal justice agencies," with notice to the Crime Commission, the State Patrol and the agencies in the record. Convictions are different. Nebraska does not expunge a conviction; a person who has completed the sentence may ask the court to set the conviction aside under Nebraska Revised Statute 29-2264, which restores civil rights and lets the person say the conviction was set aside, but the conviction stays on the court record and the State Patrol's report with that notation. A copy sold before a removal order keeps the arrest, and the federal rule on complete and up to date public records, on the criminal records page, is what forces the copy to catch up.

Nebraska's public records statutes, 84-712 and following, open every public record and list in 84-712.05 the records that "may be withheld from the public," among them, in subdivision (5), investigatory records of law enforcement, which the statute's annotations define as records where "the activity giving rise to the document sought is related to the duty of investigation or examination with which the public body is charged" and the document relates to that investigation. The arrest itself is not an investigatory record; it is criminal history record information, which Nebraska Revised Statute 29-3520 makes public except as 29-3523 removes it. So a Nebraska arrest is public when it happens and stays public until the statute's clock, or a court's order, takes it out. Who is in custody is in the Department of Correctional Services' incarceration record search for state prisoners, and in the county jails' own locators, the Douglas County Department of Corrections' for Omaha among them, linked from the county pages. The arrest records page covers what happens to a booking after it leaves the roster.

A Nebraska judgment goes dormant early and can be revived late. Under Nebraska Revised Statute 25-1515, as the courts have read it, "a judgment becomes dormant and ceases to be a lien on real estate in five years from date thereof unless execution is sued out within such period, and a judgment revived is a lien on the real estate of judgment debtor from date of the order of revivor." Under 25-1420, "if a judgment becomes dormant, it may be revived in the same manner as is prescribed for reviving actions before judgment; provided, no judgment shall be revived unless action to revive the same be commenced within ten years after such judgment became dormant," which gives a Nebraska creditor fifteen years in all. A county court judgment is not a lien until it is transcribed to the district court. The court records page covers where the judgment records are searched.

Nebraska is a single federal judicial district, the District of Nebraska, under 28 U.S.C. 107, and court is held at Lincoln, North Platte and Omaha. A federal criminal case from any of Nebraska's 93 counties is on that one docket and on PACER, whose prices and gaps are on the criminal records page.

Whether a person has a Nebraska record: the State Patrol's report answers it by name, online or $30 by mail, fingerprint-based arrests and dispositions only.

Whether a person was charged in a county: JUSTICE answers it for all 93 counties, for a one-time fee online or free at a courthouse kiosk, a day after the filing.

Whether a person was arrested: the arrest is public criminal history until the statute's clock or a court's order removes it.

Whether a person is in custody now: the county jail's locator answers it, and the Department of Correctional Services' search for state prison.

Whether an old case can still be found: a removed arrest is off the public record, a set-aside conviction is still on it, a judgment goes dormant at five years and can be revived for ten more, and a copy that predates a removal is reached through the federal rule.