Texas Court Records Search by Name

Texas has three practical record-access layers

Texas Court Record Route Finder

Select the kind of record you need. These expandable routes do not collect names or personal information.

What re:SearchTX actually is

re:SearchTX is the Texas statewide electronic-access system operated by Tyler Technologies under contract with the Texas Office of Court Administration. It is tied to the state’s e-filing infrastructure and, where local clerk systems are integrated, can also receive case data and documents through clerk case-management systems.

The Office of Court Administration’s FY 2025 report, published in January 2026, reported:

OCA explains that integration can give re:SearchTX a near-real-time view of local case information, including docketed events and upcoming hearings.

How to search Texas court records by name in re:SearchTX

Texas government agencies using re:SearchTX document a search workflow based on the main search bar plus filters such as location, case category and case type. The interface can evolve, so use the live labels you see after signing in.

1. Open re:SearchTX. Use the official research.txcourts.gov address.
2. Sign in or register. Existing eFileTexas users can use their eFileTexas credentials. A new user can create a re:SearchTX account.
3. Start with the person’s legal name. Enter the full name when known. A last-name search can be useful when spelling or first-name formatting is uncertain.
4. For a business, use the legal business name. Try reasonable variations only when necessary.
5. Review the Location filter. If you know the county or court, narrow the search there instead of scanning unrelated statewide results.
6. Use Case Category or Case Type filters. This can separate civil, family, probate or other records where the platform exposes those categories.
7. Open a possible match only after checking court and case context.
8. Review the case style, parties, attorneys, docket events, hearings and available documents.
9. Record the exact case number and court. These identifiers are more useful than the person’s name when you contact the local clerk.
10. For an authoritative copy, move from statewide discovery to the actual clerk that maintains the case.

Name-search sequence for common names

re:SearchTX document access and current public pricing

Texas Supreme Court Miscellaneous Docket No. 21-9150 established the public/registered-user re:SearchTX document fee that remains reflected in current OCA guidance:

The biggest Texas mistake: searching the wrong clerk

Texas’s court system is decentralized. The office that maintains a felony case may be different from the office that maintains a misdemeanor, probate, eviction or municipal citation.

How to locate the exact Texas clerk

1. Open the Texas Judicial Directory.
2. Use the live Directory Search when current contact information matters.
3. Select the relevant county.
4. Identify the court type.
5. Look for District Clerk, County Clerk or the individual Justice/Municipal Court.
6. Save the official phone number and website.
7. Call before ordering an old or certified file if the online instructions are unclear.

Texas court structure in 2026: why the record can be in several places

The Texas Office of Court Administration’s December 2025 court-structure chart illustrates why a single county-name search cannot represent the entire judicial system.

Searching a Texas appellate case is a different workflow

Texas’s statewide appellate search is separate from the trial-court record system. The Texas appellate Case Search covers the Supreme Court, Court of Criminal Appeals and Courts of Appeals.

The current appellate search includes fields such as:

• full or partial appellate case number;
• civil or criminal case type;
• active/inactive status;
• date filed;
• case style;
• attorney name or bar number;
• trial-court case number;
• originating Court of Appeals;
• trial-court county;
• trial court.

1. Open Texas Appellate Case Search.
2. Select All Courts or the known appellate court.
3. If you have the appellate case number, use it first.
4. If not, search the case style or attorney information.
5. Use Trial Court County and Trial Court Case Number when known.
6. Open the appellate case.
7. Review filings and documents.
8. Return to the local trial-court clerk if you need the underlying district/county court file.

Texas public-access law: court case records are not a normal Public Information Act request

This is a Texas-specific legal distinction that many generic public-record pages get wrong.

The Texas Judicial Branch states that courts and Judicial Branch agencies are not subject to the Texas Public Information Act or the federal Freedom of Information Act.

Texas Rule of Judicial Administration 12 applies to certain administrative judicial records, not ordinary records filed or created in connection with a court case.

How to get a certified Texas court record

re:SearchTX is useful for locating and reviewing electronic documents, but a receiving agency may specifically require a certified copy from the clerk of the court.

Texas district-clerk certified-copy requirements

Texas Government Code § 51.3033 specifies features of a certified copy made from an original document filed in a district clerk’s office, including clerk certification information and the district-court seal or approved electronic certification method.

Current statutory district-clerk copy fees

County-clerk certified-copy fees follow a similar statutory structure

Texas Local Government Code § 118.052 lists:

Statutory fee provisions reviewed August 30, 2026. Mailing, payment-provider, local service or other lawful charges can affect a specific request. Confirm the clerk’s current fee page before submitting payment.

Certified-copy workflow

1. Locate the case in re:SearchTX or the local court system.
2. Write down the complete case number.
3. Identify the court and filing county.
4. Determine whether the custodian is the District Clerk, County Clerk, Justice Court or Municipal Court.
5. Identify the exact document: judgment, order, decree, disposition, pleading or other filing.
6. Ask the receiving organization whether it needs a plain, certified, exemplified or authenticated copy.
7. Open the clerk’s official copy-request instructions.
8. Verify fee and payment method.
9. Submit the request directly to the custodian.
10. Keep the case number and receipt until the request is complete.

Older Texas cases: use retention schedules and historical microfilm instead of assuming the record vanished

Texas’s local court-record retention system is another reason an old case may not appear in a modern statewide search.

The Texas State Library and Archives Commission publishes separate retention schedules for district clerks, county clerks, justice courts and municipal courts.

Historical search workflow

1. Identify the county.
2. Estimate the filing decade.
3. Identify District Court, County Court, Justice Court or Municipal Court.
4. Search the modern local portal or re:SearchTX first.
5. If not found, contact the clerk and ask whether the file is paper, microfilm, electronic, archived or transferred.
6. Ask which retention schedule/record series applies if the file is very old.
7. For historical county records, check the Texas State Library’s County Records on Microfilm guide.
8. Use the case number or historic index entry to identify the correct roll or file.
9. Request certification from the current legal custodian if you need an official certified copy.

Texas criminal court records and Texas criminal history are not the same thing

The current Texas DPS online name-based Criminal History Search charges one $1 search credit per search. DPS warns that name-based searches can produce false matches or miss the correct person.

DPS specifically explains that:

• the system tries full and partial name combinations;
• a full date of birth can narrow results;
• Soundex can return similarly sounding names;
• a “no matching records” response still consumes the search credit;
• fingerprints are the only method DPS describes as positively linking a person to a criminal record.

Texas protective-order information uses another specialized system

The Texas Office of Court Administration maintains a statewide Protective Order Registry. Public access is intentionally limited because these records can involve family violence, stalking, sexual assault and human trafficking.

The OCA specifically states that:

• public access is limited and subject to confidentiality safeguards;
• sealed or confidential information is not provided through the Registry;
• Registry information should not be treated as an official court record;
• the official record must be obtained from the court maintaining the proceeding.

How to read a Texas court docket responsibly

How to find a Texas court date

A statewide electronic record can display upcoming hearing information when the local clerk’s integrated case-management system publishes it, but Texas does not guarantee one statewide hearing calendar for every trial court.

1. Search the case in re:SearchTX or the local clerk’s portal.
2. Open the case and look for hearing/docket events.
3. Identify the specific court.
4. Open that court’s official calendar or docket page if available.
5. For a time-sensitive appearance, call the court coordinator or clerk using the Judicial Directory.
6. Verify whether the hearing is in person, remote or hybrid.
7. Recheck shortly before the hearing because settings can change.

Federal court records in Texas: four districts, one PACER system

Federal cases do not appear in Texas state-court systems merely because they were filed in Texas.

Texas has four U.S. District Courts:

PACER search workflow

1. Open the official PACER website.
2. Create an account if needed.
3. If you know the federal district, search that court directly.
4. If you do not know the district, use PACER Case Locator.
5. Search the party name.
6. Confirm the Texas district and case number.
7. Open the docket only after identifying the correct case.
8. Use date filters to reduce billable docket pages.

PACER pricing checked August 30, 2026

What if a Texas court-record name search returns nothing?

1. Do not conclude that no case exists.
2. Check the person’s name spelling and reasonable legal-name variation.
3. Search by case number if you have it.
4. Narrow or change the county/location filter.
5. Check whether the case should be in District, County, Justice or Municipal Court.
6. For criminal matters, contact the local district/county clerk because statewide criminal-document access is not complete.
7. For an old case, ask about paper, microfilm, archives and retention schedules.
8. For an appeal, move to Texas Appellate Case Search.
9. For criminal history, move to Texas DPS.
10. For federal cases, move to PACER.
11. For a protected or sealed case, respect the restriction.

Wrong-person checklist before relying on a Texas name match

• compare full legal name;
• check middle name or initial;
• compare known aliases carefully;
• confirm county;
• confirm court level;
• confirm case number;
• compare filing date;
• check party role;
• review attorney information;
• use DOB only where lawfully available and appropriate;
• read final disposition;
• do not make an identification if material uncertainty remains.

State court record vs criminal history vs jail record

FCRA and responsible-use boundary

Public-Court-Records.us is not a Consumer Reporting Agency and should not be used as an FCRA consumer-reporting service for:

• employment screening;
• tenant or housing screening;
• credit eligibility;
• insurance eligibility;
• other decisions regulated by the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

Public access to a record does not remove the obligation to identify the correct person, distinguish allegations from outcomes, respect sealed/confidential information, and avoid misleading secondary publication.

Official Texas sources reviewed for this guide

• Texas Judicial Branch — Court Records FAQs — confirms OCA does not maintain individual case files and directs trial-court researchers to local clerks/courts.
• re:SearchTX — statewide electronic-access system for participating Texas court records.
• OCA FY 2025 Judicial Support Annual Report — current published re:SearchTX user, document and integration statistics.
• OCA re:SearchTX Integration FAQ — integration, criminal/civil configuration, role-based public access and document pricing.
• Supreme Court Misc. Docket No. 21-9150 — re:SearchTX public document fee of $0.10/page with a $1 minimum.
• Texas Judicial Branch — About Texas Courts — current court structure and jurisdiction resources.
• Court Structure of Texas — December 2025 — current published court counts and jurisdiction structure.
• Texas Judicial Directory — official courts, judges, district clerks and county clerks.
• Live Texas Judicial Directory Search — current court and clerk contact database.
• Texas Appellate Case Search — statewide appellate case and document search.
• Texas Judicial Branch — Open Records Policy — Public Information Act/FOIA distinction and Rule 12 guidance.
• Texas Constitution and Statutes — Government Code §§ 51.3033 and 51.318 and Local Government Code Chapter 118 copy/certification provisions.
• Texas State Library — District Clerk Retention Schedule.
• Texas State Library — County Clerk Retention Schedule.
• Texas State Library — County Records on Microfilm — historical local-court research route.
• Texas DPS Criminal History Name Search — separate statewide criminal-history service.
• Texas Protective Order Registry — specialized and limited protective-order access.
• PACER Pricing — current federal court electronic-access fees.

Research review date: August 30, 2026. re:SearchTX integration, criminal-document permissions, local clerk portals, court contact information, fees and federal pricing can change. Verify transaction-sensitive information at the official source.

Frequently asked questions about Texas court records search by name