Court Records Search: Public Case Lookup Guide

Independent website notice: Public-Court-Records.us is an independent educational website. It is not a court, clerk, PACER service, law firm, law-enforcement agency, background-check company, or government agency. This guide explains how to identify, locate, verify, and request court records. It does not control official court databases and cannot certify, seal, expunge, modify, or remove a case.

Court records search starts with one question: which court actually handled the case?

There is no single official database containing every state, county, municipal, federal, bankruptcy, and appellate court case in the United States. A useful court-record search therefore begins by identifying the jurisdiction and court—not by entering a person’s name into the first search box you find.

Most ordinary criminal, civil, family, probate, eviction, small-claims, and traffic cases are handled by state or local courts. Federal district, bankruptcy, and federal appellate records use the federal Judiciary’s PACER system. The U.S. Supreme Court maintains its own docket search.

National public-case lookup guide Federal routes checked: August 30, 2026 PACER pricing checked: August 30, 2026

Court Search Route Finder: choose the record you actually need

Select the type of record

This tool does not search a database and does not collect names, birth dates, Social Security numbers, case numbers, or other personal information. It only routes you toward the appropriate official source.

State court case Criminal case Civil lawsuit Divorce / family Probate / estate Traffic / city case Federal case Bankruptcy Appeal U.S. Supreme Court Certified copy Old / archived case

Start with the official judiciary for the state where the case was filed.

State systems vary. Some have one statewide search; others use separate county, circuit, district, superior, justice, or municipal portals. Use the state’s official court website to identify the correct trial court before searching.

Open USAGov’s Federal, State, Territory, County and Municipal Courts Guide

Use the court that prosecuted the case—not the jail database.

Felony, misdemeanor, municipal, and traffic-criminal cases can be split among different courts. Find the official trial-court case search and check the latest disposition rather than relying on arrest or booking information.

Use the civil division of the trial court that received the lawsuit.

General civil, small-claims, landlord-tenant, tort, contract, foreclosure, and judgment cases may be handled by different courts depending on the state and amount/type of claim.

Start with the state or county family/domestic-relations court.

Divorce, custody, support, and paternity matters frequently have stronger privacy restrictions than ordinary civil cases. A public case index does not mean every family filing is downloadable.

Look for Probate, Surrogate, Orphans’, Chancery, Circuit, or another locally named probate division.

Estate, will, guardianship, and conservatorship records are not organized under the same court name nationwide.

Check local court structure before searching.

Traffic and ordinance matters may be maintained by a municipal, city, justice, district, county, mayor’s, or similar local court rather than the main county civil/criminal portal.

Use PACER.

If you know the specific federal court, search that court directly for current docket information. If you do not know the court, use the nationwide PACER Case Locator.

Open Official PACER Find a Case

Bankruptcy is federal.

Do not search county civil court. Bankruptcy case information is available through the appropriate U.S. Bankruptcy Court and PACER.

Open Official PACER Case Search Options

First determine whether the appeal is state or federal.

A state appeal belongs in the state’s appellate-court system. A federal appeal is searchable through PACER. Do not assume a trial-court portal contains the complete appellate docket.

Use the Supreme Court of the United States Docket Search.

The Court currently states that its online docket contains complete status information for cases filed since the beginning of the 2001 Term. Search by docket number, case name, or other words/numbers appearing in the docket.

Open Official Supreme Court Docket Search

Identify the record custodian first.

A web docket or downloaded PDF is not automatically a certified copy. Contact the clerk/court administrator maintaining the case and ask for the exact judgment, order, decree, disposition, or filing you need.

Older state and federal cases often require an archive route.

For state cases, ask the original court/clerk about archive, microfilm, off-site, or state-archive transfer. For older federal files, the National Archives may hold records that have been retired by the court.

Open National Archives Court Records

There is no official nationwide search for every state-court case

This is the most important fact to understand before searching the keyword court records.

The United States has separate federal and state judicial systems. Each state’s constitution and laws establish its courts. State trial courts can be called Superior Court, Circuit Court, District Court, County Court, Court of Common Pleas, Supreme Court, Justice Court, General Sessions Court, or other names depending on the jurisdiction.

Some states offer centralized statewide case searching. Others use county-by-county systems. Some use a mixture of statewide indexes plus local clerk portals. Municipal courts can maintain separate systems even within a county.

State court vs federal court: which system should you search?

How to locate a state or local court record

Because state systems differ, there is no honest national instruction such as “click one search box and search all states.” Use this jurisdiction-first workflow instead.

1. Identify the state. Court records are normally maintained by the jurisdiction where the case was filed.
2. Identify the county or city if possible. This is especially important for traffic, municipal, small-claims, and lower-level criminal cases.
3. Determine the likely case type. Criminal, civil, family, probate, traffic, eviction, and juvenile matters can use different courts.
4. Open the official state judiciary website. Use the state court directory or case-search page—not a commercial people-search result.
5. Find the trial court serving the filing location.
6. Check whether the state provides a statewide search.
7. If not, open the official local clerk/court portal.
8. Use party name or case number according to the portal’s actual options.
9. Open the matching case and verify identity.
10. Review the docket and disposition.
11. Check whether document images are available.
12. Contact the clerk for a certified copy or missing older record.

Searching court records by name: start broad, then verify carefully

A party-name search can be useful when the case number is unknown, but the search syntax varies by court.

A portal may support:

Safer name-search workflow

Use a case number whenever you already have it

Case-number searches are generally more precise than common-name searches because they target one court file.

However, case-number formats are not standardized nationwide. A number can encode the filing year, court, division, case type, or sequence. Hyphens, leading zeros, letters, and separators may be mandatory in one system and optional in another.

1. Copy the complete case number from the citation, notice, order, docket, or court correspondence.
2. Open the official court system that issued the number.
3. Select Case Number or equivalent.
4. Enter the number in the format requested by that portal.
5. If it returns no result, read the portal’s formatting instructions before removing letters, zeros, or punctuation.
6. Confirm the court, parties, and filing date before opening documents.

How to confirm you found the right person

A matching name is never enough to establish identity. This is particularly important for common surnames and criminal cases.

• Compare full first and last name.
• Check middle name or initial.
• Check suffix when shown.
• Confirm the court.
• Confirm the complete case number.
• Check the filing date or year.
• Verify the person’s party role.
• Compare attorney information where useful.
• Use age or date-of-birth information only where lawfully displayed and necessary.
• Do not claim a match if material uncertainty remains.

Party-role decoder: appearing in a case does not mean someone was accused

Docket decoder: what common court entries generally mean

Court terminology is not perfectly standardized, but these general distinctions can prevent major interpretation errors.

Filing does not equal proof

Arrest, charge, court case, and conviction are different records

A jail roster can tell you about current or recent custody. It usually does not replace the official court docket for determining what happened in the case.

Court records vs jail, property, vital, and prison records

Index, docket, document image, and certified copy are not the same thing

How to find a court date

There is no nationwide calendar covering all state and local courts.

1. Identify the court handling the case.
2. Open that court’s official case-search or calendar page.
3. Use the case number whenever possible.
4. If name searching is permitted, verify the correct person and case.
5. Open the current docket or calendar entry.
6. Confirm hearing date, time, courtroom, judge, and remote/in-person status where displayed.
7. For an imminent hearing, recheck the official source because calendars can be changed, continued, or reassigned.

How to get a certified court record

If you need a court record for immigration, licensing, an apostille, another court, a government agency, or another formal purpose, first ask the recipient what type of copy it requires.

1. Find the case.
2. Save the complete case number.
3. Identify the exact document. For example: judgment, divorce decree, sentencing order, dismissal, final disposition, or another filing.
4. Identify the record custodian. This is usually the clerk or court administration office that maintains the case.
5. Open the court’s official copy-request instructions.
6. Select plain, certified, exemplified, or another requested copy type.
7. Check per-page, certification, search, archive, or retrieval fees.
8. Submit the request using the authorized online, mail, or in-person method.
9. Save your receipt or confirmation.
10. If authentication/apostille is needed, follow the separate authentication procedure after confirming what the receiving authority requires.

What to do when the case is old or missing online

Online coverage dates differ dramatically across courts. A portal may show modern cases but omit older paper files, microfilm, archived dockets, or document images.

1. Estimate the filing year.
2. Identify the original court.
3. Search the current online index first.
4. Save the case number if an index entry exists.
5. Contact the court clerk or archive/records unit.
6. Ask whether the file is electronic, paper, microfilm, off-site, transferred, or destroyed under a retention schedule.
7. Ask whether retrieval or copy fees apply.
8. For older federal files, ask whether the case has been transferred to a Federal Records Center or the National Archives.

Older federal court files

The National Archives currently advises that federal court records less than about 15 years old are generally still held by the individual court rather than the National Archives. Older transferred files can include federal district, circuit, appellate, bankruptcy, and selected territorial court records.

Federal case search: use PACER differently depending on what you know

PACER provides electronic access to federal appellate, district, and bankruptcy records. It is administered by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts on behalf of the federal Judiciary.

PACER Case Locator workflow

1. Register for a PACER account if you do not already have one.
2. Open PACER’s Find a Case page.
3. Select the nationwide PACER Case Locator when the specific federal court is unknown.
4. Search with the available party, case-number, date, or other supported criteria.
5. Review the court, case number, filing date, and closed date returned in the index.
6. Open the linked court-specific case only after confirming the correct result.
7. Use docket filters to limit unnecessary billable pages.

PACER fees: what a federal record search costs in 2026

PACER pricing verified: August 30, 2026. Recheck the official PACER pricing page after January 1, 2027 or before a large search.

Supreme Court docket search is separate from PACER

The Supreme Court of the United States maintains its own public docket search. The Court currently says the online docket provides complete status information for cases filed since the beginning of the 2001 Term.

Users can search by:

• Supreme Court docket number;
• case name; or
• other words or numbers contained in the docket report.

The Court gives docket-number examples such as 21-471 and 22-5301. Individual pending-case docket pages can also provide an email-subscription option for new activity.

Sealed, expunged, restricted, and redacted records

Public access has legal limits. Courts may restrict or seal entire cases, individual filings, exhibits, addresses, financial information, juvenile information, medical records, victim information, or other sensitive data.

Federal electronic filing rules also require redaction of sensitive information such as Social Security/taxpayer-identification numbers, dates of birth, minor children’s names, financial account numbers, and—in criminal filings—home-address information according to applicable federal rules.

Why a case can disappear or change after you first find it

Court records are not static. A case can later show:

• dismissal;
• amended complaint;
• amended charge;
• plea;
• conviction;
• acquittal;
• vacated judgment;
• reopened proceedings;
• appeal;
• satisfaction of judgment;
• sealing or expungement where authorized.

When accuracy matters, review the latest official docket activity, not a screenshot captured months or years earlier.

Why FOIA is usually not the way to request a court case file

The federal Freedom of Information Act applies to executive-branch agency records, not federal court records. Federal court case files are normally obtained through PACER, the filing court, or—when transferred—the National Archives/Federal Records Center process.

State and local judicial records are governed by each jurisdiction’s own laws and court-access rules rather than federal FOIA.

What should I do next?

Common court-record search mistakes

Responsible-use and FCRA notice

Public-Court-Records.us is not a Consumer Reporting Agency and does not provide consumer reports under the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

Official national sources reviewed for this guide

• USAGov — Federal, state, territory, county, and municipal courts — national routing between federal, state/territory, county, and municipal court systems.
• U.S. Courts — Comparing Federal & State Courts — structure and jurisdiction distinctions.
• U.S. Courts — Court Records — federal case files, dockets, PACER, and courthouse access.
• PACER — Find a Case — specific-court vs nationwide-index federal searching.
• PACER Case Locator — nationwide federal appellate, district, and bankruptcy index.
• PACER Pricing — current per-page charge, document cap, audio charge, quarterly waiver, and fee-saving guidance.
• PACER — Temporary Fee Increase Effective January 1, 2027 — announced 2027 pricing change.
• U.S. Courts Federal Court Finder — locate a federal court by location or court name.
• Supreme Court of the United States — Docket Search — Supreme Court case-status search.
• National Archives — Court Records — older transferred federal court records.

National federal-source review date: August 30, 2026. State and local search systems, fees, coverage dates, court names, and access rules must be verified separately for the jurisdiction involved.

Frequently asked questions about court records

1. Is there one official website to search all U.S. court records?

No. State and local court systems are separate from the federal Judiciary, and state court structures vary. Federal appellate, district, and bankruptcy records are available through PACER, while state/local cases must generally be searched through the appropriate state judiciary, court, or clerk.

2. Can I search public court records by a person’s name?

Many court systems allow party-name searching, but the available fields and search syntax vary. Use the official portal’s supported name fields and verify the court, case number, filing date, party role, and other lawful details before assuming a result belongs to a specific person.

3. Is PACER used for state court records?

No. PACER is the federal Judiciary’s electronic public-access system for federal appellate, district, and bankruptcy court records. State criminal, civil, family, probate, traffic, and other state-court matters generally use state or local court systems.

4. How do I find a federal court case if I do not know which court filed it?

Use the PACER Case Locator, which is a nationwide index of federal appellate, district, and bankruptcy court cases. Once you identify the specific court and case number, open the court-specific case for the current docket and available documents.

5. Does a court docket include every document in the case?

Not necessarily. A docket or Register of Actions lists case events, but remote document images can have different availability rules. Some filings may require clerk access, courthouse inspection, or a copy request, while sealed or confidential documents may not be publicly available.

6. How do I find the latest court date?

Use the official docket or calendar maintained by the court handling the case. Court dates can be continued, canceled, reassigned, or changed, so recheck time-sensitive information close to the scheduled appearance.

7. Is a downloaded court document the same as a certified copy?

No. A document downloaded from a public portal can be useful for research, but formal certification normally comes from the clerk or court administrator. Ask the receiving organization whether it requires a plain, certified, exemplified, authenticated, or other official form.

8. Why can’t I find an older court case online?

The court’s online database may not cover the filing year, older documents may be stored on paper or microfilm, or the file may have moved to off-site storage or archives. Contact the original court or clerk and provide the filing year and case number if known. Older transferred federal cases may be held by the National Archives.

9. Can I search sealed or expunged court records through another website?

You should not attempt to bypass a court’s sealing, expungement, confidentiality, redaction, or remote-access restriction. If you are legally entitled to restricted information, follow the official court procedure for authorized access.

10. Can Public-Court-Records.us be used for employment or tenant background checks?

No. Public-Court-Records.us is not a Consumer Reporting Agency and should not be treated as an FCRA consumer-reporting service for employment, tenant, credit, insurance, or similar eligibility decisions.