To search court records, figure out which court heard the case, then go to that court’s system with either a case number or a party name. Federal filings live in a single online system called PACER. State, county, and municipal records live at the specific court where the case was filed, and access varies from statewide online portals to an in-person visit with the clerk. You don’t need a lawyer or a stated reason — most court records in the United States are public.
What to Have Ready Before You Search
A case number is the fastest way in. Every filing gets a unique alphanumeric code, and typing it into the court’s search tool takes you straight to the docket. Case numbers usually include the year and a sequence identifier, along the lines of 23-CV-1234 for a civil matter or 23-CR-5678 for a criminal one. If you have that number, most of what follows is unnecessary.
Without a case number, you search by name. A full legal name is the minimum. Common names return long lists, so add whatever you can: a date of birth, the approximate filing date, the county where the case was heard. Each identifier cuts the results.
Spelling is less rigid than it looks. Many court databases use phonetic matching — the Soundex system, for instance, groups names by consonant sounds, so “Smith” and “Smyth” produce the same code and turn up together. Names with prefixes like “Van,” “De,” or “La” may be indexed with or without the prefix, so try it both ways. If the name might have been transliterated or misspelled at filing, run variations.
Federal or State: Where the Case Lives
Records sit at the court that handled the case, and searching the wrong system returns nothing even when the case plainly exists. Federal courts hear cases involving federal law, constitutional questions, and disputes between residents of different states where more than $75,000 is at stake. That system includes district courts, circuit courts of appeals, the Supreme Court, and specialized courts such as bankruptcy courts. All of them file into one electronic system, which makes federal searches simpler than state ones.
State courts handle most legal matters people encounter: criminal prosecutions, divorces, personal injury suits, probate, landlord-tenant disputes. Most states have general jurisdiction courts (often called Superior, Circuit, or District) for serious criminal cases and higher-value civil claims, and limited jurisdiction courts (municipal, justice, or magistrate) for traffic, small claims, and misdemeanors. Some states run separate probate, family, or juvenile courts. A state trial court record won’t appear in a federal search, and a municipal traffic file won’t show up in the county general jurisdiction court’s index. When in doubt, start with the general jurisdiction court in the county where the events happened; it covers the widest range of cases.
Searching Federal Court Records Through PACER
The Public Access to Court Electronic Records system, known as PACER, is the central hub for federal filings. It covers district, bankruptcy, and appellate courts and holds over a billion documents. Registration is open to anyone; you don’t need to be a lawyer or explain why you want the file.
PACER charges ten cents per page for documents, docket sheets, and case reports, capped at $3.00 per individual document. If your total charges for a calendar quarter come in at $30 or less, the fees are waived, so casual users often pay nothing. Printing at a public terminal inside a federal courthouse also runs ten cents per page.
If you don’t know which federal court handled the case, use the PACER Case Locator. It searches a nationwide index that updates daily and returns the court and case numbers you need to pull the actual filings.
A Free Route: The RECAP Archive
The RECAP Archive, run by the nonprofit Free Law Project, offers free access to millions of federal court documents contributed by PACER users. It works as a browser extension: documents purchased on PACER are added to the public archive, and if someone else has already bought the document you need, you can download it without paying. RECAP won’t have every filing from every case, but for high-profile matters and frequently accessed documents it often does. Check it before paying PACER.
Searching State and Local Court Records
State systems are less centralized. Some states run statewide online portals covering every county. Others require you to search court by court. Some courts post dockets, filings, and scanned documents online at no charge; others still require an in-person visit or a written request.
At the courthouse, the clerk’s office generally has public terminals for searching the index and viewing files. Many clerks also accept written requests by mail if you can identify the case with enough specificity. Mail requests take longer — a week or two is typical, and busy offices run longer.
There is no single national database of state court records. Checking for cases across multiple states means searching each state or county separately, unless you rely on a third-party aggregator, which comes with its own accuracy problems.
What You Can and Can’t See
Courts generally make the full case file available: charging documents, complaints and answers, motions, orders, plea and sentencing records, docket entries, and final judgments. Bankruptcy petitions and schedules, wills and probate inventories, divorce decrees and custody orders are all typically public unless a judge has specifically sealed them. Final judgments are the most-requested piece because they show how a case ended, but the rest of the docket is what shows how it got there.
Several categories are restricted.
Juvenile and Adoption Records
Federal law requires that juvenile delinquency records be safeguarded from disclosure to unauthorized persons. The governing federal statute bars release of that information in connection with employment applications, licensing, or any civil right or privilege, and requires that responses to such inquiries be identical to those given about people never involved in a delinquency proceeding. A juvenile’s name and photograph cannot be made public in connection with the proceedings unless the juvenile is prosecuted as an adult. State laws impose similar or stricter protections, and adoption records are restricted in almost every jurisdiction.
Sealed and Expunged Records
Sealed records still exist but are hidden from public view. Law enforcement and certain government agencies can sometimes reach them with a court order; a standard records search cannot. Expunged records go further: the court directs the offices holding them to destroy them, and the record is treated as if it never existed, though some law enforcement databases may retain limited information. Sealing usually requires a motion showing that the need for privacy outweighs the public’s interest in access. Courts grant sealing in cases involving trade secrets, national security, and sometimes where pretrial publicity could compromise a fair trial. The standard is deliberately high because the presumption of public access is strong.
Redacted Personal Information
Even in fully public filings, some personal data must be partially redacted. Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 5.2 requires that filings show only the last four digits of Social Security and financial account numbers, only the year of a person’s birth, and only a minor’s initials rather than their full name. Redaction is the filer’s responsibility, not the clerk’s. If an unredacted document is filed by mistake, the filer can ask the court to restrict access and substitute a corrected version, and a court can order additional redactions for good cause.
What It Costs
Searching indexes and dockets is often free, whether online or at a public terminal. Fees come in when you want copies. Federal pricing through PACER is ten cents per page, capped at $3 per document, with quarterly charges of $30 or less waived. State and local fees vary widely; per-page copy charges commonly run from a quarter to a dollar or more. Certified copies — the stamped, signed versions that courts and agencies accept as official — carry a flat fee on top of the per-page cost. Some courts charge separately for clerk-assisted name searches, particularly for criminal history lookups, and those fees range from a few dollars to several dozen depending on the jurisdiction. Mail requests may add a processing fee and always add time.
Why a Third-Party Background Check Isn’t a Substitute
Commercial background check companies pull court records from thousands of jurisdictions into a single searchable database. That’s convenient until you need the result to be exactly right. These services rely on bulk data feeds and name-matching algorithms that don’t always have the identifiers a court clerk would use. When a database lacks a date of birth or other distinguishing information, it falls back on name-only matching, which can attach someone else’s record to a report.
Federal law imposes accuracy duties on these companies. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, any company producing background reports must follow reasonable procedures to ensure maximum possible accuracy. They cannot report information that has been expunged or sealed, they must include disposition information when reporting arrests or charges rather than the arrest alone, and they cannot report duplicate entries for the same event. When accuracy actually matters — an employment decision, a lease, a loan — going to the official court record is the more reliable path.