Broward County FL Court Records Search

Which Broward court actually holds the case?

Florida has a County Court in every county and Circuit Courts with broader trial jurisdiction. Broward County alone makes up Florida’s Seventeenth Judicial Circuit.

Broward Court Search Route Finder

How to search Broward County court records by name

The Broward Clerk’s public portal has specific rules that make this more useful than a generic “enter a name” instruction.

1. Open the official Broward Clerk Case Search.
2. Choose Party Name Search.
3. Select the Court Type if you know it. The current portal groups Civil, Family, Probate, Felony, and Traffic/Misdemeanor case types.
4. Enter Last Name. This is required.
5. Enter First Name. This is also required.
6. Add Middle Name when useful. It is optional and can reduce false matches.
7. Add Date From and Date To when you know the filing period. Both dates must be supplied for a filing-date range search.
8. Select Search.
9. If there are too many results, add Court Type, Middle Name, or a filing-date range.
10. Open the candidate case.
11. Verify case number, court type, filing year, party role, and other lawful identifiers before assuming identity.
12. Review case activity and document availability.

Broward’s short-name rules can change your results

The portal stops at 200 search results

Broward’s public Case Search currently limits a search to the first 200 results. A very common name can therefore require refinement.

How to search a Broward business or organization

1. Open Broward Case Search.
2. Select Business Name Search.
3. Choose Court Type when known.
4. Enter the business name.
5. Add Date From and Date To when useful.
6. Search.
7. If you receive too many results, narrow the court type or filing range.
8. Open the case and verify that the entity name and case context match.

The Clerk notes that business names shorter than three characters return exact matches only.

Broward case-number decoder: the format depends on the case family

Broward publishes its own case-number examples. This is useful because civil/family/probate cases and felony/traffic/misdemeanor cases use different structures.

Civil, family and probate examples

The Clerk says these case numbers begin with a 3- or 4-character case-style prefix, followed by a two-digit year and a six- or seven-digit sequence number. They are entered without spaces, dashes, or other characters.

Felony, traffic and misdemeanor examples

For these case families, Broward describes a 13-character format containing a two-digit year, six-digit sequence, two-letter division identifier, two-digit location, and companion designator.

Verified Broward division identifiers

CF Criminal Felony · CO County Ordinance · CT Contempt of Court · MM Misdemeanor · MO Municipal Ordinance · NI Other Infractions · TC Traffic Criminal · TI Traffic Infraction

Traffic citation search has two Broward-specific limitations

1. Open Broward Case Search.
2. Select Citation Number Search.
3. Enter the citation without dashes or spaces.
4. Search.
5. If no result appears, remember the citation may not yet have been entered into the Clerk’s case-management system.
6. If it is a boating citation, use Party Name Search instead; the Clerk says Citation Number Search is currently for Traffic citations.

Case information and electronic document access are not the same thing

The Clerk specifically warns that not every progress docket has electronic case records available for viewing online. Florida’s electronic-access standards also restrict some cases and documents based on court type, case type, year, and user access level.

Traffic and misdemeanor records have another historical issue

Broward says Traffic and Misdemeanor cases filed before 2011 were routinely purged from the main case-management system and can only be obtained by submitting a Court Records Request or visiting in person.

Broward Archives has unusually deep historical coverage

The Archives Division publishes the record series it can access. This makes it much easier to determine whether an old Broward file should be routed to Archives rather than treated as nonexistent.

How to request an older Broward court file

1. Search the current Broward Case Search first.
2. Save the case number if an index result appears.
3. Identify the case category: Circuit Civil, County Civil, Family, Felony, Probate, Traffic/Misdemeanor, or another division.
4. Identify the specific document needed.
5. Open the official Court Records Request page.
6. Download the Court Records Request Form when necessary.
7. Provide the case number and party information you already know directly to the Clerk.
8. Choose Copies Only or Certified Copies on the form as applicable.
9. Wait for the Clerk to calculate the cost when a mailed/request-form order is required.
10. Do not send cash by mail.

What the Broward Court Records Request Form actually asks for

The Clerk’s current downloadable Archives form identifies itself as a request for documents filed in the Broward County Seventeenth Judicial Circuit. The form asks for requestor contact information plus available case details such as party name, case type, case numbers/document dates, and requested document type.

Selectable document examples on the form include:

• Disposition
• Judgment
• Sentence
• Order of Probation
• Docket Sheet
• Information
• Arrest Report where contained in the requested court file
• Complaint
• Dissolution of Marriage document
• Will
• Other identified court document

The form lists Redactarchives@browardclerk.org for submission by email and fax number 954-831-5550. Because the form carries a revision date of August 22, 2022, verify the current submission route on the Clerk’s Records Request page before sending sensitive identifying information.

Broward court-record copy and certification costs

Fees checked: August 30, 2026. Verify the current Clerk fee before submitting a large or formal records request.

Electronic certified copies: Broward has a different workflow from ordinary paper certification

Broward’s Electronic Certified Documents service digitally signs the record through the Clerk and provides an electronic certification that can later be authenticated.

1. Perform a Broward Case Search.
2. Open the correct case from the search results.
3. Confirm that the desired document is viewable electronically.
4. Select the red Purchase Certified Copies Online button on the case-detail page.
5. Accept the service terms.
6. Select the document or documents.
7. Select the green purchase button and complete checkout.
8. Watch for an email from eCertify@browardclerk.org containing links to the certified documents.
9. Download and save the file rather than depending on the email link indefinitely.
10. Use Broward’s verification service when authenticity needs to be checked.

Broward courthouse routing: not every records counter is in the same building or room

The central judicial complex is at 201 SE 6th Street, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301, but the Clerk’s divisions are split among the West, North, East, and Midrise buildings.

County Civil and Traffic also have regional Broward courthouse locations

How to understand a Broward case result responsibly

Charge, arrest and court disposition are separate events

Broward court records vs jail, official records and vital records

Florida appellate records: Broward cases generally route to the Fourth DCA

The Florida Fourth District Court of Appeal handles appeals and extraordinary writ matters from the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit, including Broward County.

There is also an important portal-migration detail:

How to check a Broward appeal

1. Save the Broward trial-court case number.
2. Determine whether an appeal was filed.
3. Open ACIS.
4. Select/search the appropriate Florida appellate court.
5. Search by available case or party information.
6. Confirm that the originating court is the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit, Broward County.
7. Review appellate docket entries and public documents.

Federal cases in Broward County use the Southern District of Florida and PACER

Broward County is part of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. A federal lawsuit, federal criminal prosecution, or federal bankruptcy matter is not searched through Broward Clerk Case Search.

PACER pricing checked August 30, 2026

If Broward Case Search returns no result, use this decision path

1. Check spelling. Confirm legal first and last name rather than a nickname.
2. Check Court Type. A restrictive category can hide the expected result.
3. Remove an unnecessary date filter.
4. If the name is common, add Middle Name and a narrower filing range.
5. Remember the 200-result limit.
6. For traffic, check whether the citation has actually entered the Clerk system.
7. For boating citations, use Party Name Search rather than Citation Number.
8. For family/probate/guardianship/mental-health or juvenile records, consider user-level and confidentiality restrictions.
9. For older Traffic/Misdemeanor cases, remember the pre-2011 main-system issue.
10. Check Archives for older Civil, Felony, Probate, Traffic/Misdemeanor, or County Civil material.
11. If it is a state appeal, use ACIS.
12. If it is federal, use PACER.

Identity matching: do not connect a Broward case to the wrong person

• Compare full first and last name.
• Check middle name or initial.
• Confirm the Broward case number.
• Confirm filing year.
• Confirm court type.
• Check party role.
• Review attorney information where relevant.
• Use date-of-birth information only when lawfully displayed and necessary.
• Do not republish full DOB, addresses, financial information, or other sensitive identifiers.
• If uncertainty remains, do not claim the case belongs to that individual.

Sealed, expunged and restricted Broward records

Florida court-access rules can restrict particular cases, documents, or information. The Broward Clerk also states that sealed or expunged Traffic, Misdemeanor, and Felony records are handled through the division where the case is filed.

Do not attempt to bypass sealing, expungement, juvenile confidentiality, domestic-violence restrictions, redaction, or registered-user access rules by searching cached copies, leaks, or scraped databases.

Official Broward and Florida sources reviewed

• Broward County Clerk Case Search — Party Name, Business Name, Case Number, Citation Number, search rules, result limits, case-number formats and case-type filters.
• Broward Clerk Records Request — electronic-document availability, copy routes, processing times, fees and Archives routing.
• Broward Court Records Request Form — Archives request instructions, requested identifiers, copy/certification fees and document types.
• Broward Electronic Certified Documents — online certification workflow, digital verification and document access rules.
• Broward Archives Division — historical record-series coverage.
• Broward Clerk Hours and Locations — division rooms, phones and regional courthouses.
• Florida Courts — Circuit Courts — Seventeenth Circuit and current circuit jurisdiction.
• Florida Supreme Court — Court System — County Court jurisdiction and Florida trial-court structure.
• Seventeenth Judicial Circuit of Florida — Broward trial-court divisions.
• Fourth District Court of Appeal — appellate jurisdiction covering Broward.
• Florida Appellate Case Information System — current public appellate docket system.
• Southern District of Florida — confirms Broward County is within the Southern District.
• PACER Pricing — current federal electronic-record pricing.

Research review: August 30, 2026. Court records can change after publication. A current portal can display a historical case; the article’s review date does not make an older filing recent.

Frequently asked questions about Broward County court records