Court Records

Every court record is kept by the clerk of the court that heard the case, and which court that is depends on what the case was: a felony, a divorce, a will, a $4,000 claim and a traffic ticket in the same county sit in four or five different courts with four or five different indexes. Pick the court above. Each one shows its official links, the court portals, dockets and statutes, and under them what that court hears, who keeps its file, which states put it online and which keep it at the counter, what it costs and what is closed, with the state by state detail and every state's judgment clock. Three words to keep apart first, from the federal judiciary's own glossary: the docket is "a log containing the complete history of each case in the form of brief chronological entries summarizing the court proceedings," the record is "the official documented account of the proceedings in a case, including all pleadings, evidence, and exhibits submitted in the course of the case," and the case file is "a complete collection of every document filed in court in a case." A website that says it has "court records" almost always means docket entries; the documents are a second step, and the clerk's certified copy is the only version a court, an agency or a lender will accept.

The right to look is old and has edges. In Nixon v. Warner Communications, 435 U.S. 589 (1978), the Supreme Court wrote that "the courts of this country recognize a general right to inspect and copy public records and documents, including judicial records and documents," and in the same opinion that "the right to inspect and copy judicial records is not absolute." Every court below draws that line in its own place, and every court index is a name search: the index shows the case, not the person, and two people with the same name in the same county cannot be told apart from the index alone. The document in the file, an address on a complaint, a middle name on a judgment, is what separates them, and the criminal records page explains how a professional pins a record to the right person.

The federal system is one system. The judiciary describes "94 district or trial courts," "13 appellate courts that sit below the U.S. Supreme Court," and "90 U.S. bankruptcy courts," with the Supreme Court above them, and every one of those courts files into the same electronic case system, so one account and one index cover the whole country. The judiciary's guide to finding a case says that "PACER allows anyone with an account to search and locate appellate, district, and bankruptcy court case and docket information," and that you should "use the PACER Case Locator if you are not sure which specific federal court the case was filed" in, to "conduct nationwide searches to determine whether or not a party is involved in a federal case." The locator is at pcl.uscourts.gov, a "nationwide index of federal court cases" updated daily, per PACER. You search by party name or case number, get the court and case number back, and then open the docket in that court.

What it costs is set on the PACER fee page: "$0.10 per page" for documents, search results, reports and transcripts, with a cap, "you won't be charged more than $3 per document." Search results, reports that are not tied to one case, and transcripts have "no maximum fee." Recordings of hearings are "$2.40 per audio file." "Court opinions are always free." And the part most people miss: "spend $30 or less on court records in a quarter and fees are WAIVED." "Case files may also be accessed from the public access terminals in the clerk's office of the court where the case was filed," the judiciary notes, where viewing is free, and the Government Publishing Office's United States Courts Opinions collection carries opinions from the participating appellate, district and bankruptcy courts at no charge.

Older cases are on paper. "Most cases created before 1999 are maintained in paper format only," per the same judiciary page. The National Archives explains that "generally, federal court records less than 15 years old are still in the possession of individual courts and are not held by the National Archives"; older files sit in regional Federal Records Centers, and the court "may refer you to a Federal Records Center to obtain copies." The district court fee schedule prices the work: "$34 per name or item searched" for a records search by the clerk, "$12" for certification of a document, "$24" for exemplification, "$.50 per page" for paper copies, and "$70" for retrieval of one box from a Federal Records Center.

What the public federal file leaves out is spelled out. The Judicial Conference's privacy policy for electronic case files keeps out of the public criminal file "unexecuted summonses or warrants of any kind," "pretrial bail or presentence investigation reports," "juvenile records," "documents containing identifying information about jurors or potential jurors," financial affidavits filed to get a court-appointed lawyer, and "sealed documents (e.g., motions for downward departure for substantial assistance, plea agreements indicating cooperation or victim statements)." Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 5.2, a filing may show only "the last four digits" of a Social Security or taxpayer number, "the year of the individual's birth," "the minor's initials," and "the last four digits" of a financial account number, and Criminal Rule 49.1 adds that a home address appears only as "the city and state." Rule 5.2 also limits remote access in Social Security and immigration cases: a nonparty can see "the docket maintained by the court" and any "opinion, order, judgment, or other disposition" from home, but the rest of the file only at the courthouse.

Every county in the country belongs to exactly one federal district, and the assignment is written into the statute. Sections 81 to 131 of Title 28 of the United States Code divide the fifty states and the District of Columbia into 90 judicial districts, county by county: 28 states are a single district, 12 are two, 9 are three, and California, New York and Texas are four each, with 28 U.S.C. 88 making the District of Columbia one district and 28 U.S.C. 131 giving Wyoming the only district that crosses state lines, "Wyoming and those portions of Yellowstone National Park situated in Montana and Idaho." Puerto Rico and the three territorial courts bring the count to the 94 the judiciary describes. A federal case from a county is on that district's docket and nowhere else, so a person who lived in Bakersfield is searched in the Eastern District of California, not the Central, and the state pages on this site list every county of every district from the statute. The Case Locator searches all 94 at once, which is why it is the right first step when the district is unknown.

Bankruptcy is federal and only federal, filed in one of the "90 U.S. bankruptcy courts" the judiciary describes, which means every bankruptcy case in the country is on the same electronic system and in the same nationwide index. Under 11 U.S.C. 107, "a paper filed in a case under this title and the dockets of a bankruptcy court are public records and open to examination by an entity at reasonable times without charge," subject to the section's protections for trade secrets and for information that would create "undue risk of identity theft." The petition, the schedules of assets and debts, the list of creditors, the trustee's reports and the discharge are all in the file, searched by debtor name through the PACER Case Locator at the federal prices, 10 cents a page, $3 a document at most, waived under $30 a quarter.

A bankruptcy record has its own clock on a consumer report. The Fair Credit Reporting Act's list of what a consumer reporting agency may not report, 15 U.S.C. 1681c, starts with bankruptcies older than ten years, against the seven years for civil suits, civil judgments and arrests, and a discharged debt may not be collected, which is why a judgment search that turns up an old judgment should be followed by a Case Locator search for a bankruptcy that may have wiped it out. The bankruptcy docket is also the one place a creditor can see whether a debtor listed the debt, whether the trustee found assets, and whether the case was dismissed rather than discharged, which leaves the debt alive.

An appeal is a new case in a different court with its own docket, and the appellate courts, unlike the trial courts, nearly all post theirs online, because the appellate record is small, the parties are few and the opinions are meant to be read. The Supreme Court of the United States keeps its own docket search, which "contains information about cases, both pending and decided, that have been filed at the Court," with complete status information for cases filed since the 2001 Term, searchable by docket number, case name or words from a docket entry; earlier dockets, 1791 to 1995, are scanned at the National Archives. The 13 federal courts of appeals are on PACER with the district courts.

The state appellate courts are online even where the state's trial courts are not. Kentucky's public online access to its courts is limited to the appellate courts' C-Track public access, which the Administrative Office provides "to allow easy and expeditious access to appellate cases," while the trial court system online is a subscription for attorneys, agencies and licensed businesses. Tennessee's public case history "allows you to look up cases in the Supreme Court, Court of Appeals and Court of Criminal Appeals," and nothing below them. Wyoming, which puts no trial court docket online, runs a Supreme Court case search. South Carolina's appellate courts have their own C-Track. California's Appellate Courts Case Information system is searchable by party, Michigan's own search covers the Court of Appeals and Supreme Court with opinions since 1996, and Alabama's appellate courts have a public portal beside the trial courts' paid system. Texas has two courts of last resort, the Supreme Court for civil and juvenile matters and the Court of Criminal Appeals for criminal matters, with the courts of appeals below them, per the Texas Judicial Branch. New York's four departments of the Appellate Division hear "appeals from judgments or orders of the superior courts (Supreme, County, Family and Surrogate) in civil and criminal cases," per the court system's structure page, with the Court of Appeals, "New York State's highest court and court of last resort in most cases," above them.

An appeal changes what the trial court's index means. A conviction on appeal is still a conviction in the trial court's docket until the reviewing court's mandate comes down, a reversed judgment can sit in a database copy for years after the appellate court erased it, and the appellate docket is the only place to see whether either happened.

A civil case is one private party against another, or a person against a government, over money, property, a contract, an injury or a right. The complaint, the answer, the motions, the judgment and the record of what was paid are all in the court's file, and in nearly every state the index of civil cases is the most open part of the court system, because the privacy rules that close criminal, family and juvenile documents do not apply to a contract dispute. California's rule 2.503 says it in one line: a court that keeps records electronically must give remote access to "all court records in civil cases," with listed exceptions, while criminal, family and juvenile documents are read at the courthouse.

Which court hears the case turns on the amount. Florida's section 34.01 gives the county courts civil cases up to $50,000, with the circuit courts above that. In New York the County Court, "established in each county outside New York City," takes civil cases up to $25,000 and the Supreme Court, which despite its name is the trial court, takes the rest, per the court system's structure page. In Texas the district courts hear "civil matters in which the amount of money or damages involved is $200 or more," the county courts at law have a jurisdiction that "varies considerably and is established by the statute which creates the particular court," and the justice courts handle "minor civil matters," including evictions, per the Texas Judicial Branch. In Nevada the district courts hear "civil disputes involving amounts greater than $15,000" and the justice courts hear "evictions," per the Nevada Judiciary. So an empty search in the wrong court level proves nothing; a landlord's eviction, a credit card suit and a car crash claim against the same person can sit in three courts in one county.

The civil index is where the money records live. Minnesota Court Records Online describes its scope as "case, hearing, and monetary judgment search results; case record information; Registers of Actions; monetary judgment details; and documents for publicly accessible district court cases," in its own case search notice, and its judgment search is by debtor name. Delaware's CourtConnect is a civil and judgment search for the Superior Court, the Court of Common Pleas and the Justice of the Peace Court. South Dakota's records page offers a Civil Judgment Query, "a tool that provides public access to UJS' civil judgments database." New York's eCourts carries WebCivil Supreme for every county's Supreme Court and WebCivil Local for the City, District and New York City Civil Courts, free by party name. Connecticut's Judicial Branch gathers its civil, family, housing and small claims look-ups on one case look-up page. What a civil docket does not tell you is what the case was about in any detail, or who was right: a person can be a defendant in a civil case and have done nothing more than fail to answer a debt collector's letter, "disposed" means the court is finished and says nothing about who won, "dismissed" can mean the plaintiff dropped it, the parties settled, or the court threw it out, and the disposition line, judgment, dismissal, settlement, default, is the only line that carries a result.

Civil records have a clock on a consumer report. Under 15 U.S.C. 1681c, a consumer reporting agency may not report "civil suits, civil judgments, and records of arrest that, from date of entry, antedate the report by more than seven years or until the governing statute of limitations has expired, whichever is the longer period," or "paid tax liens which, from date of payment, antedate the report by more than seven years," limits that fall away for credit transactions and life insurance of $150,000 or more and for jobs paying $75,000 or more a year. Under 15 U.S.C. 1681k, an agency that reports public record information for employment must either notify the person at the time or "maintain strict procedures designed to insure that whenever public record information which is likely to have an adverse effect on a consumer's ability to obtain employment is reported it is complete and up to date," and "up to date" means "the current public record status of the item at the time of the report." The employer's side is set out by the Federal Trade Commission: written notice "in a stand-alone format" and written permission before the report, "a notice that includes a copy of the consumer report you relied on to make your decision" before acting on it, and afterward "the name, address, and phone number of the consumer reporting company that supplied the report," the right to dispute and the right to a free copy within 60 days. A court record that cost you a job or an apartment is corrected through those notices, with the clerk's certified disposition as the document that wins the dispute.

Small claims is the people's court: a simplified civil case, usually without lawyers, for an amount under a limit the legislature sets, and the limit is the first thing to know because it decides where the file is. Since January 1, 2024 an individual in California may sue in small claims for up to $12,500 and a business for up to $6,250, and a case is a limited civil case up to $35,000, per the Judicial Council's self-help guide. Florida's county courts hear small claims up to $8,000 under section 34.01. New York's small claims run to $10,000 in the New York City Civil Court since the 2019 amendment, $5,000 in the city courts outside the city, and $3,000 in the town and village courts. Texas justice courts hear small civil claims up to $20,000, per the Texas Judicial Branch. Nevada's justice courts take "small claims disputes up to $15,000," per the Nevada Judiciary. Illinois small claims run to $10,000 in the circuit court under a small claims case prefix.

A small claims judgment is a real judgment. It is docketed, it can be recorded as a lien in most states once the statute's step is taken, Utah's 78B-5-202 says a small claims judgment is not a lien until it is recorded as the section provides, and it shows on a judgment search by debtor name for as long as the state's clock runs. Iowa's judicial branch gives the rule for its own: "The statute of limitations for small claims judgments for execution purposes is twenty years, and liens on those judgments exist for ten years," per its judgment questions. Connecticut's judgment lien statute treats a small claims judgment separately, with a ten-year lien instead of twenty. Small claims files are in the same court index as the other civil cases in unified states such as California, and in the justice, magistrate or district court index in the rest, and the county pages on this site link the court that hears them.

A criminal case is the state or the United States against a person, and the court's file of it is the public half of a criminal record: the charges, the hearings, the plea or verdict, the sentence. The other halves, the police record and the state's fingerprint repository, are kept by law enforcement, and the criminal records page explains the five records and who keeps each. Three things about the court's criminal file are true in every state.

First, the index shows the case, not the person. California's rule 2.507 lists what "must be excluded from a court's electronic calendar, index, and register of actions," and in All of Us or None v. Hamrick, decided in 2021, the Court of Appeal held that the rule "prohibits the Riverside Superior Court from allowing searches of its electronic criminal index by use of an individual's date of birth or driver's license number." Harris County's district clerk search in Texas goes the other way and searches by name and date of birth, and if the pair return nothing "a Certified Letter of Disposition may be requested." Amador County's court reminds its own users not to "assume a person listed as a defendant in a criminal or traffic case was convicted." Do not report a charge as a conviction until you have read the disposition, guilty, not guilty, dismissed, nolle prosequi, deferred, diverted, because the two are separated on the docket by exactly one line.

Second, the index shows what its court heard, and nothing else. Harris County's search says it plainly: "Only public criminal cases (causes) will be shown via this search," "searches return Harris County data, only," and "no federal or other County's records, or Justice of the Peace or other Municipalities Class C Misdemeanors will be searched." New Jersey's PROMIS/Gavel public access search carries a narrower rule still: "Only defendants with a case(s) on which he or she was convicted and sentenced in Superior Court, will display in your search results," so a pending case, a dismissed indictment and a municipal court conviction are all invisible to it. New York's WebCrims "provides information on criminal cases with future appearance dates for selected New York State Courts of criminal jurisdiction," a calendar of pending cases, not a history, while the Office of Court Administration's Criminal History Record Search sells the statewide history for "$95.00" on "an exact match of Name and DOB." Connecticut's criminal and motor vehicle case look-up searches pending cases and convictions statewide, free. And the date matters: Nebraska's JUSTICE states "a 24 hour lag-time between when a new case is entered into the system, and when it appears on the search," Washington's search "is updated every 24 hours at 3:00 am," and Kansas's news release of January 2024 recorded its portal coming back online after the autumn 2023 security incident that took the judiciary's systems down for weeks.

Third, the documents are usually not online. California's rule 2.503 puts "records in a criminal proceeding" among the files read only at a courthouse terminal, so a California portal shows the register of actions, the charges, the hearing dates and the disposition, and the complaint and the sentencing minutes are read at the courthouse. Vermont's portal notice shows the criminal docket itself "only at courthouse public access terminals." Pennsylvania is the open end: its case information service lets anyone "search and view individual court case information (including docket sheets)" for free, and a docket sheet shows the charges, the dates, the bail, the disposition and the sentence.

What comes off the criminal file, and what does not. A sealed case stays in the courthouse but out of the public index and the public file; an expunged case is removed or destroyed under a statute, and in most states the person may lawfully deny it happened. A dismissal after probation, the California form of "expungement," does something narrower: under Penal Code section 1203.4 the person "shall thereafter be released from all penalties and disabilities resulting from the offense," but "the order does not relieve him or her of the obligation to disclose the conviction in response to any direct question contained in any questionnaire or application for public office, for licensure by any state or local agency, or for contracting with the California State Lottery Commission," and "in any subsequent prosecution of the defendant for any other offense, the prior conviction may be pleaded and proved." Hawaii's eCourt Kokua states the permanence rule for the ordinary case: "The information cannot be removed unless the case records are sealed by a court order." Alaska's CourtView removes "certain criminal cases in which the defendant successfully completed a suspended imposition of sentence and the court set aside the conviction." And no court order reaches a copy that left the courthouse before it: rule 2.503, subdivision (h), says that when a record is later sealed "the court is not required to take action with respect to any copy of the record that was made by the public before the record became inaccessible," which is the copy the databases hold, and the criminal records page covers the federal rule that makes the copy catch up.

Family cases, divorce, custody, child support, paternity, adoption, domestic violence protection, are court records too, and they are the ones the law closes most often. The divorce itself is generally a public case: the index shows the parties, the filing date and the judgment, and a divorce decree is the document a person needs to remarry, refinance or claim a benefit. The papers inside the case, the financial affidavits, the custody evaluations, the children's names, are what the rules protect.

The state rules put the line in different places. California's rule 2.503 keeps "records in a proceeding under the Family Code" off remote access, so a California divorce is in the index online and read at the courthouse. Vermont's portal shows family cases "only at courthouse public access terminals." Nevada's district courts hear "family law matters like divorce, child custody, and adoption," per the Nevada Judiciary, and Clark County's case and calendar inquiry offers a "Civil, Criminal, Family, and Probate Case Search" by name for Las Vegas. New York's Family Court handles "cases involving youths between 8 and 16 years old," custody, adoption, support and paternity, per the court system's structure page, with appearances searched through WebFamily on eCourts, while divorce is a Supreme Court file kept by the County Clerk. Hawaii's eCourt Kokua carries "District / Circuit / Family (Adult) Court criminal" and "Family Court civil" cases, in the system's own words, and the word "Adult" is the rule: juvenile matters are not in it. The District of Columbia's Superior Court posts its "Domestic Violence Division" docket through its case search. Adoption records are sealed in every state, juvenile delinquency records are closed or limited in every state, and an order of protection is public in some states and confidential in others; the state page for each state says which.

A divorce case produces the most detailed personal file in the state court system. The family court section above explains which court hears the case in each state. This section explains what the file contains, why the money pages matter, and how access differs from one state to the next.

The layers of a divorce file

The petition or complaint opens the case and names the spouses, the children and, in many states, the property to be divided. A sworn financial statement follows in almost every contested case, under names like financial affidavit, income and expense declaration, sworn financial statement, case information statement or statement of net worth. It lists the employer, pay, other income, expenses, bank and investment accounts, retirement plans, vehicles, real estate and debts, often with pay stubs and tax returns attached. Motions and responses argue over support and property and restate the numbers. The settlement agreement, when there is one, assigns each asset and each debt. The decree or judgment makes the division an order of the court, and a qualified domestic relations order names the retirement plan and the share awarded.

Who may read it

The decree is a public court record in almost every state, the clearest exception being New York, where Domestic Relations Law 235 closes the judgment of dissolution along with the rest of the file for 100 years. Beyond that, the states fall into three groups. Most keep the entire file open, including the sworn financial statement, unless a judge seals a document on motion. A second group, which includes New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maryland, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Colorado, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Nevada, New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont among others, keeps the case public but closes the financial statement and sometimes the settlement agreement and QDRO by rule or statute. A third group closes the file itself to anyone but the parties and their attorneys: New York for 100 years by statute, West Virginia except for orders and the index, Utah except for the case history, judgments, orders and decrees, Idaho in cases involving children, and Delaware, whose Family Court rule opens its records only to the parties, their attorneys, other courts and agencies, and persons the court approves. Each state court records page on this site states the rule for that state and links to its text.

Online index, courthouse file

Nearly every state now runs an online case search that lists divorce cases by party name with the case number and the register of actions. Far fewer let the public open the documents from home. California bars remote public access to family law documents by rule and provides them only on courthouse terminals. Illinois limits remote dissolution documents to the parties and attorneys. Maine makes divorce records viewable only at a courthouse. Vermont and South Dakota keep family case information off the anonymous public portal entirely. Wyoming offers no remote access to any district court filing. The usual pattern is that the index is online, the file is at the clerk's counter, and copies cost a per page fee that is set by statute or rule.

Key Takeaway: Find the case in the state index, note the filing dates of the financial statement, the settlement agreement and the decree on the register of actions, then ask the clerk of the court that granted the divorce for those documents. Expect a courthouse visit or a copy order in most states.

• Common Mistake: looking for the divorce file at the state vital records office. Vital records offices hold a certificate or an index entry, and in many states nothing at all. The file is at the court.
• Common Mistake: assuming the family court is a separate building. In most states divorce is heard by the general trial court, a circuit, district or superior court, and the clerk of that court keeps the file.
• Common Mistake: assuming a confidential financial affidavit hides the property division. The decree and the incorporated agreement are usually public and usually name the accounts and the plans.

Probate is the court's supervision of what a person left behind: the will, if there was one, the appointment of an executor or administrator, the inventory, the claims of creditors and the distribution. A will is a private paper until it is filed for probate, and then it is a court record like any other, which is why probate files are the oldest and most searched records for family history and for finding who owns a piece of land.

Which court is the probate court differs by state. New York's Surrogate's Court, in every county, "addresses the affairs of decedents, including the probate of wills and the administration of estates and all matters relating to guardianships," per the court system's structure page, and its index is searched through WebSurrogate on the state's eCourts portal. Texas puts probate in the county courts and, in "12 of the state's 15 largest metropolitan areas," in statutory probate courts with "original and exclusive jurisdiction over their counties' probate matters, guardianship cases, and mental health commitments," so the county clerk, not the district clerk, keeps the file, per the Texas Judicial Branch. Georgia and Alabama have probate courts and probate judges in each county, and Alabama's probate office is also where a certificate of judgment is filed to make it a lien. In California probate is a division of the superior court, in Nevada a district court matter, and in Vermont a probate division searched at the courthouse terminal.

Where the state runs one docket the probate cases are in it. Alaska's CourtView information page explains the search by name for any case type, wills included. Nebraska's JUSTICE case search "provides access to criminal, civil, traffic, juvenile, and probate cases filed in all 93 of Nebraska's county and district courts." South Carolina's case records search covers the family and probate courts county by county. Clark County's case and calendar inquiry offers a "Civil, Criminal, Family, and Probate Case Search" by name for Las Vegas. Hawaii's eCourt Kokua reaches the Land Court and the Tax Appeal Court beside the circuit courts. Guardianships and conservatorships, which are probate matters in most states, are often closed or partly closed by statute because they concern a living person's health and money; the file exists, the index entry may not.

Traffic tickets, city ordinance violations and the fine-only misdemeanors are the most numerous cases in the court system and the least likely to be in the index you searched. They are filed in the lowest court, the municipal court, the justice court, the magistrate court, the Judicial Bureau, and that court's docket is often separate from the state's main index. Texas is the clearest case: Class C misdemeanors, "the fine-only offenses," are heard in the justice of the peace courts and municipal courts, per the Texas Judicial Branch, and Harris County's district clerk search says in terms that "Justice of the Peace or other Municipalities Class C Misdemeanors" are not in it, so a "clean" district clerk search says nothing about a person's traffic history. Oklahoma's docket search "does not search for municipal citations." The District of Columbia's case search page warns that "criminal citation cases are not available. You must contact the police district in which the citation was issued for the court date." Alabama's municipal ordinance cases, "including most city misdemeanors and traffic," are on AlaCourt only where the city has joined it. Nevada's 17 municipal courts "handle traffic violations, misdemeanors, and violations of city ordinances like noise complaints or zoning infractions," on their own records.

Other states fold traffic into the one docket. North Dakota's public access page "provides access to North Dakota District Court Case information for Criminal, Traffic, and Civil case types." Hawaii's eCourt Kokua begins its list with "traffic cases." Nebraska's JUSTICE includes "traffic." Pennsylvania's portal is searched "by citation number" as well as by name, and its magisterial district courts, which hear the summary offenses, are on it. Vermont's Judicial Bureau, which handles traffic tickets, is one of the two case types the public can search from home on the Public Portal. A traffic case matters more than it looks: a driving under the influence charge is a criminal misdemeanor in a traffic court's docket in many states, and the arrest records page covers why a citation can carry an arrest with it.

There is no national index of state court cases. Anyone who sells a "nationwide court records search" is reselling a patchwork of state and county indexes with gaps in it, and the gaps are where the mistakes come from. The fifty-one systems sort into four kinds, and the kind decides how a search is done. Each state page on this site carries the detail, the quotes and the fees; this is the map, and the cards above are the doors.

Twenty-odd states run one free public index of their trial courts. Alaska's CourtView covers every court, with the removals stated on its own page. Arizona's Public Access to Court Information covers "153 out of 180 courts in Arizona," with the superior courts' cases since July 1, 2010 on eAccess. Arkansas's Search ARCourts "also links to documents for some public court records." Colorado's Data Access covers the district and county courts with one exception it states itself, "Denver County court records are not included." Connecticut's Judicial Branch runs free look-ups for its single Superior Court from its case look-up page. Hawaii's eCourt Kokua covers traffic, criminal, civil, family (adult), land, tax and appellate cases and sells documents at "a flat rate of $3" for 1 to 30 pages. Idaho's iCourt Portal covers all 44 counties. Indiana's MyCase covers "most courts across the state." Iowa Courts Online covers all 99 counties, with a paid advanced search. Maryland's Case Search covers the district and circuit courts on one screen, and the judiciary says it is "a summary of what is contained in the official case file." Massachusetts's case access portal gives "free access to basic case information and scheduled court dates." Michigan's MiCOURT covers the courts on the state's case management system, which is most of them. Minnesota Court Records Online covers every district court, with documents. Missouri's Case.net covers the circuit courts of all 114 counties and the City of St. Louis. New Mexico's Case Lookup covers every court, "NO REGISTRATION REQUIRED." North Carolina's eCourts Portal, on the branch's services page, covers the state, and the same branch sells bulk extracts of all 100 counties through its Remote Public Access program. North Dakota's District Court Case Search is "made available to the general public, free of charge." Pennsylvania's UJS portal posts every docket sheet in the state. Rhode Island's Public Portal is "the point of entry for electronic access to case information." South Carolina's case records search covers all counties, one county at a time. Washington's name and case search covers "the municipal, district, superior, and appellate courts of the state" and "is updated every 24 hours at 3:00 am." Wisconsin's WCCA covers every circuit court, free, which is why it is the source of nearly every Wisconsin record a database sells. West Virginia's court record access now searches "circuit court records from all fifty-five counties statewide." The District of Columbia's Superior Court posts its docket through eAccess. Oklahoma's OSCN posts the largest counties and the appellate courts free, with the rest on a separate on-demand system. Virginia's Online Case Information System covers every general district court and "select circuit courts," so a felony often shows as the preliminary hearing and then disappears into a circuit court file that may or may not be online. Kansas's district court portal, Montana's two portals and Maine's re:SearchMaine cover the courts that have moved onto each state's new system, with the rest at the clerk. Oregon gives "free online access to court calendars and basic case information" through its records and calendar search, with the full register of actions behind the paid OJCIN OnLine.

A second group charges for the statewide search, and offers the same data free at a courthouse terminal. Alabama's AlaCourt Access sells "ON-DEMAND Access To Alabama State Trial Court Records... One Case At a Time," and warns that "a search result indicating 'No Matching Records on File' is a search," a paid one. Nebraska's JUSTICE is searched for "an up-front search fee" per its search policy, with a 30 case limit per search, while the branch's eServices page says the same data "can be accessed for free at any courthouse kiosk or law library." South Dakota's PARS charges "$20 fee for each search submitted," paid "regardless of whether the search returns any records," with a free registered eCourts summary search beside it. Utah's Xchange is a subscription "repository of district court and justice court case information." Kentucky's statewide system is searched free at the public terminals in any circuit clerk's office and online only by subscription, with the public's free online access limited to the appellate courts. New York sells the statewide criminal history for $95 and shows civil cases free through eCourts.

A third group has no statewide search at all, and the search is clerk by clerk. California has 58 superior courts and, as of this writing, 47 of them run a public portal where criminal cases can be looked up by name and ten do not, each named on the California page; Los Angeles sells its criminal name search at $1.00 a search for the first ten in a month, Sacramento's criminal search by name is free, and Alameda's eCourt portal sells unlimited name searches at $300 per 30 days. Florida has 67 elected clerks, each with a website and a case search, and no public statewide search; the clerks' Comprehensive Case Information System connects the 67 offices for judges, prosecutors and defenders, not the public. Georgia has 159 clerks of superior court and no free statewide search. Illinois has 102 circuit clerks, with the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County warning that neither the court nor the clerk "warrants the accuracy, completeness, or the currency of this data." Ohio has 88 clerks of courts, and the Supreme Court of Ohio's Rule 45(C) means "a clerk of court is not required to offer remote access to a particular case file or case document," as the Franklin County Clerk of Courts states on its own search. Tennessee has 95 counties of clerks and a state search that covers only the appellate courts. Texas has two clerks in every one of its 254 counties, the district clerk for felonies and the county clerk for misdemeanors and probate, with re:SearchTX the closest thing to a statewide search, covering the counties that file through the state's e-filing system, per the Texas State Law Library. Louisiana has 64 clerks of court, many sharing subscription portals. Mississippi's Mississippi Electronic Courts is bringing the circuit courts onto one docket with a per-page charge, and none of the justice or municipal courts are on it. Nevada's Clark and Washoe county district courts search online, through the Eighth Judicial District portal and Washoe's case and calendar inquiry, and several of the rural districts search only at the counter. Delaware's CourtConnect is civil only, with criminal case information from the Prothonotary in each county. New Jersey's statewide search shows Superior Court convictions only, with disorderly persons offenses in the municipal courts.

The fourth group keeps the public at the courthouse terminal. Vermont's criminal, family and probate dockets are searched "only at courthouse public access terminals." Wyoming's district and circuit courts post no public docket online; case information is searched at the public access terminals in the courthouses and at the State Law Library. New Hampshire's Case Access Portal lets the parties "view your electronically filed cases from home," and the public searches at the clerk's terminal or by written request.

Two habits carry across every state. First, treat the online index as a pointer, not the record. Maine's re:SearchMaine says so on its own sign-in: "re:Search is providing an unofficial copy of case index information and documents that were accepted in the eFiling system. The clerk of the court is the official custodian of the court's records." Second, when a search comes back empty, check the court level before you conclude there is no case. A small claims matter, a misdemeanor, an eviction and a felony can sit in four different courts in the same county, with four different indexes.

The most practical use of a civil court record is the one the courts themselves say the least about. A judgment is a piece of paper. The court that issued it will not collect it. California's self-help center puts it plainly: "the court doesn't collect the money for you. You must take steps to collect it."

The record is where collection starts, on both sides. If you are owed money, the docket tells you whether your judgment was entered, for how much, and whether the debtor has paid, appealed or filed bankruptcy. If you are checking a person or a business before you lend, hire, rent or sign, a judgment search tells you who has already won money against them and whether it was ever paid. Minnesota's MCRO has a judgment search by debtor name, New Jersey dockets every judgment with the Clerk of the Superior Court in Trenton so that one statewide index binds the debtor's real property anywhere in the state, and the federal bankruptcy docket on PACER shows whether a debtor has discharged the debt.

The tools on the collecting side, as the California courts list them, are a debtor's examination, where the debtor answers under oath about what they own and where they work; a writ of execution, which lets the sheriff take money from a "bank account (called a bank levy)" or a "paycheck (called wage garnishment)"; an abstract of judgment recorded against real property, so that "if the property is ever sold or refinanced, you may get paid from the sale"; and, against a business, a till tap, where "the sheriff can go to the business and take money from the cash register," or a keeper, who "can stay at the business for a short time and collect money from customers as they pay." Nevada's Civil Law Self-Help Center describes the same tools through the sheriff or constable, "attachment allows the judgment creditor, with the help of the sheriff or constable, to take personal property, such as a car, from the judgment debtor and sell it," and Texas adds the turnover order under Section 31.002, by which the court can "appoint a receiver to take possession of the property to sell in order to satisfy the judgment," per the law library. Every one of those steps runs through a public record: the judgment itself, the abstract or transcript recorded with the county, the writ issued by the clerk, the sheriff's return.

Judgments expire, and every state runs two clocks: how long the judgment can be enforced, and how long its lien on the debtor's land lasts once it is recorded or docketed in a county. In California "most civil judgments last 10 years," and the courts warn that "you must renew your Judgment before 10 years pass. If you wait even 1 day after 10 years, you're too late and can't try to collect your Judgment anymore. The earliest you can renew your judgment is after 5 years." The Clark County courts' self-help center says that "in Nevada, a judgment will expire within six years from the date it is entered," and that a renewal "must be done at least ninety days before the judgment is set to expire." The rules below are each state's, from its statute, its court rules or its courts' own words, and each state page on this site quotes the section.

The five-year states run on dormancy. In Kansas a judgment becomes dormant five years after entry or the last execution, garnishment or renewal affidavit under K.S.A. 60-2403, and may be revived within two years under 60-2404, after which it is released of record. In Nebraska "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," under 25-1515, and may be revived within ten years of dormancy under 25-1420. Ohio's R.C. 2329.07 makes a judgment dormant if no execution or certificate of judgment is issued within five years, with a revival action allowed within ten years of dormancy. Oklahoma's judgment and lien go dormant together five years after filing unless an execution or garnishment is issued in time. Wyoming's judgment goes dormant five years after entry or the last execution under Statute 1-17-307, "a judgment has a lifetime of 5 years from the last date of execution or date of judgment," as the Crook County clerk of district court puts it, and may be revived within ten years. Pennsylvania's judgment lien on real property must be revived on a five-year clock under its rules on revival of judgment liens, though the judgment itself survives. Michigan's recorded judgment lien "expires 5 years after the date it is recorded" under MCL 600.2809, and may be rerecorded once, while the judgment can be enforced for ten years under MCL 600.5809(3).

Nevada's judgment expires six years from entry unless renewed under NRS 17.214. Colorado's recorded lien lasts six years and may be renewed by a new transcript, and the judgment itself twenty years under section 13-52-102. Georgia's judgment goes dormant seven years after entry unless an execution is entered on the county's general execution docket, under O.C.G.A. 9-12-60, with three years to revive. Illinois's judgment can be enforced for seven years and revived under 735 ILCS 5/12-108 for up to twenty in all, with a recorded memorandum of judgment a lien for seven. Mississippi's judgment lives seven years at a time under Code 15-1-43, renewable by notice before the seven run, with the enrolled lien on the same clock under 15-1-47 as the Supreme Court of Mississippi applied it in Trustmark National Bank. Utah's judgments "shall continue for eight years from the date of entry" under 78B-5-202, renewable before they expire. Vermont's recorded judgment lien runs eight years from issuance under 12 V.S.A. chapter 113 and eight more from a renewed judgment under section 2903, on land records kept by town, not county.

Ten years is the most common clock. Alaska's lien lasts "not more than 10 years from date of entry" under AS 09.30.010, with an action on the judgment due within ten under AS 09.10.040. Arizona's 12-1551 allows execution "within ten years after entry of the judgment and within ten years after any renewal," the period having been doubled from five in 2018. Arkansas's lien "shall continue in force for ten (10) years from the date of the judgment and may be revived" under 16-65-117, and a payment that tolls the judgment does not extend the lien. California's judgment is enforceable for ten years and renewable, earliest after five. Delaware's lien is lost at ten years "unless within the term of 10 years such judgment is renewed and continued" under Title 10, chapter 47. Hawaii's judgment is presumed paid ten years after rendition unless extended once, for up to ten more, under 657-5, with notice to the debtor required. Idaho's recorded lien continues ten years from the judgment unless renewed under 10-1110, by motion before it expires under 10-1111. Louisiana's money judgment "is prescribed by the lapse of ten years from its signing" under Civil Code Article 3501 and "may be revived at any time before it prescribes." Minnesota's docketed judgment "survives, and the lien continues, for ten years after its entry" under section 548.09. Missouri's judgment is presumed paid ten years after entry unless revived under RSMo 516.350. Montana's docketed lien "continues for 10 years unless the judgment is previously satisfied" under 25-9-301, and an action to renew "may be brought as a matter of right within ten years." North Carolina's docketed judgment is a lien "for 10 years from the date of the entry of the judgment" under G.S. 1-234. North Dakota's docketed judgment is renewable once by affidavit before ten years run and cancelled of record after ten unless renewed, under chapter 28-20. Oregon's "judgment remedies for a judgment in a civil action expire 10 years after the entry of the judgment" under ORS 18.180, renewable for ten more. South Carolina's lien "continue[s] for ten years" under 15-35-810 and the judgment is enforceable for the same ten, with no renewal. Tennessee's registered lien "will last for the time remaining in a ten-year period from the date of final judgment entry" under Rule 69.07. Texas's judgment goes dormant ten years after rendition unless a writ of execution issues, under chapter 34 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code, revivable within two years, and a recorded abstract of judgment is a lien for ten years under chapter 52 of the Property Code. Virginia's judgment dated after July 1, 2021 is enforceable for ten years, extendable by recording, and one dated before then for twenty, under 8.01-251. Washington's judgment can be executed on for ten years and extended once under RCW 6.17.020, with the lien following under RCW 4.56.210. West Virginia's "execution may be issued within ten years after the date thereof" under 38-3-18, with the lien docketed under 38-3-7. Kentucky's lien on a judgment entered on or after June 29, 2023 "shall expire ten (10) years after the date the final judgment was entered" under KRS 426.720, while the judgment itself can be enforced for fifteen years under KRS 413.090.

Several states give the lien ten years and the judgment twenty. Alabama's certificate of judgment is a lien "for 10 years after the date of such judgment" under 6-9-211, with the judgment presumed satisfied at ten unless kept alive and revival barred after twenty. Florida's recorded judgment is a lien for ten years under section 55.10, extendable once, and "no judgment, order, or decree of any court shall be a lien upon real or personal property within the state after the expiration of 20 years" under 55.081. Iowa's lien lasts ten years under 624.23 and the judgment twenty under 614.1(6). Indiana's "judgment lien is valid for ten (10) years," per the state's own enforcement manual, with the judgment enforceable for twenty. New York's money judgment "is presumed to be paid and satisfied after the expiration of twenty years" under CPLR 211(b), while the lien on real property runs "until ten years after filing of the judgment-roll" under CPLR 5203(a). South Dakota's docketed lien runs "ten years from the time of docketing" under 15-16-7 and the judgment twenty under 15-2-6. Wisconsin's docketed judgment is a lien "for 10 years from the date of entry" under 806.15, with the judgment enforceable for twenty.

The long clocks are twelve years and up. The District of Columbia's judgment is enforceable "for the period of twelve years only" from the first execution or the last revival under D.C. Code 15-101. Maryland's "money judgment expires 12 years from the date of entry or most recent renewal," Rule 2-625 as the Court of Special Appeals quoted it in a 2019 opinion. New Mexico's judgment "shall be enforced for not more than fourteen years" under Section 39-1-6, as carried in the legislature's bill text. Connecticut's recorded judgment lien "shall expire twenty years after the judgment was rendered, except any judgment lien recorded with respect to a small claims action shall expire ten years," under C.G.S. 52-380a, on land records kept by town. Massachusetts's judgment is enforceable for twenty years under chapter 260, section 20, and enforced by execution under chapter 235. Maine's judgment can be enforced for twenty years under Title 14, section 864, and an execution lien created on or after September 1, 2020 runs ten years under Public Law 2019, chapter 622, renewable, against twenty for the older ones under section 4651-A. New Hampshire's "actions of debt upon judgments" may be brought within twenty years under RSA 508:5, and the lien remains "for as long as a suit may be maintained upon the judgment" under RSA 524. New Jersey's docketed judgment is a lien on the debtor's real property anywhere in the state and enforceable for twenty years under N.J.S.A. 2A:14-5. Rhode Island's "actions on judgments" run twenty years under General Laws 9-1-17, with the recorded levy discharged of record after twenty under 9-26-33.

Read the clock before you read the amount. A judgment older than its state's period with no renewal, revival or execution on the docket is a debt the creditor can no longer enforce, and in the dormancy states it may already be released of record; a judgment inside the period is live money, and in the states whose lien binds after-acquired land it reaches property the debtor buys tomorrow.