7 September 2004. The commercial vendor On-Line Information Services, Inc. provides fee-based access to the trial court records for all counties in Alabama. According to information available at the Web site, subscribers have access to active cases and select disposed cases since 1970. Coverage includes civil and criminal cases, domestic relations and child support, traffic cases, outstanding alias warrants, trial court dockets and attorney case information. You can also access the state's "real-time" database and set up tracking and notification. 25 February 2002. Look up information about civil and criminal cases on appeal in Alaska courts. Search by party name, appellate case number, or trial court number. The system provides basic case information, including parties names, attorneys, documents filed, transcript availability, and more. 25 February 2002. Search the trial court name index, which contains case information for lawsuits filed in 30 Alaska counties. It covers civil and criminal matters, but not appellate, confidential or traffic cases. Generally, the database covers 1990 to present, but searchers will find some older data. Some of the records include dates of birth along with the usual case information. 25 April 2002. Revised 17 April 2008. The Arizona Judicial Branch offers a database of case information from 137 out of 180 courts in Arizona. The database covers criminal and civil cases, but does not offer information about sealed, non-served domestic violence, mental health, juvenile, or probate cases. It provides name, date of birth, city/state/zip (but not street address), criminal offense (if applicable), docket entries, and more.
When testing the database, I received many browser error messages. It appears the state limits the number of simultaneous users. If you receive an error message, it's best to try again later.
5 November 2002. Find gateway access to case information on civil and criminal matters in California appellate courts. Features include docket entries, trial court information (including case number), future scheduled actions, and if applicable, a link to the case on appeal in the Supreme Court. 25 February 2002. Search for case information about open or closed (but not sealed) matters from Colorado district and county courts. Types of cases covered by the database include civil, domestic relations, water, traffic, small claims, as well as, felonies and misdemeanors. Searchers will not find cases pertaining to probate, mental health and juvenile matters. Nor will they find social security numbers or street addresses.
Other public records available at the site include business information records, divorces, marriages, UCC liens, and the Social Security Death Index. 15 April 2002. Search for civil and family court matters by personal or business name. The database covers courts in several Connecticut counties, but does not specify years included. It provides the names of the parties, docket number, docket summary, case type, disposition date, date filed, attorneys, and more.
Update: 29 June 2005. The June 2005 issue of Public Records Update, a free monthly newsletter of BRB Publications, warns researchers about incomplete data at the Connecticut Judicial Civil Records Web site. The site states that it makes records available for up to 10 years. However, it periodically purges the database, and many "cases closed by settlement, dismissal, withdrawal, and even stipulated judgments may be removed from the website within a year after disposition." Recently, over half of the records in the database were purged, reducing the number from 309,000 to 145,000.
The caution should serve as another example of the importance of manual verification when you need a complete picture of a person's or business's litigation history. 28 September 2000. LLRX.com offers search access to source information for federal and state court rules, forms and dockets. The database includes links to over 700 sources. Search by keyword (e.g., pennsylvania forms to find links to federal and state court forms), or browse by one or more of the following criteria: jurisdiction, document type, or state. The database returns links to credible sources that match your query.
A tremendous improvement over the former court rules guide, this resource is easy to use, uncluttered, and fast.
13 May 2003. Revised 17 April 2008. This commercial research service provides searching and monitoring services for cases in federal district, bankruptcy and appellate courts as well as some state courts. Subscribers may order case documents online. The service also offers an interface to the PACER U.S. Case Party Index, which enables searching by name, social security number (SSN) or employer identification number (EIN), assuming these appear in the case caption. Access requires a paid subscription. The site also offers limited guest access upon registration. 13 May 2003. CourtWeb enables access to information about select rulings, as well as the text of available rulings, by participating judges in several federal district courts. For case information, search each court separately. For opinions, search individual courts or all of them. Access the full-text search option by selecting any court from the main menu, and then click the full-text search button at the bottom of the screen. 29 October 2007. The Roanoke Times makes available databases containing public records or public information. Find information about public schools, civil and criminal cases, sex offenders, Roanoke city permits, lobbyists, restaurant inspections, disciplinary actions concerning doctors, historical weather data, and more.
The site offers an accompanying blog, called Datablog, and an RSS feed. The RSS feed contains updates from the blog. 24 June 2003. Florida's Clerks of Court provide subscriber and non-subscriber search access to civil case information, and other official records, in several, but not all, Florida counties. Search individual county courts or all available courts. Data provided includes the parties, filing date, county, type of document and more. Because the research system covers more than civil litigation, you can use it to find deeds, incorporations, death certificates, liens and more. You can also order certified or non-certified copies online. 18 May 2004. Case information aggregator Judici offers free and commercial search services for Illinois courts. For free, searchers can access and search one court at a time (see Participating Courts) to find criminal and civil case files. Currently, the site provides access to about 15 county courts in Illinois. Coverage varies from court to court, but averages from the late 1980s to present. Search by case number or party name. You can also limit the number of results by keyword in the description of the charge. Information provided includes case number, party name, date of birth, disposition, case type, judge, last known address, fines and fees and more. Paid subscribers can search all courts simultaneously and receive case updates and other services. 15 February 2002. Revised 17 April 2008. The Iowa judiciary offers case information from civil, criminal, probate, and traffic courts in all of its counties and from appellate courts. System documentation indicates coverage runs from 1997 to present, but the sample queries I ran found many cases dating farther back. 28 August 2000. Revised 25 June 2004. This subscription-based site provides a portal to case information and court docket systems for federal, state and local courts in the United States. It covers civil and criminal courts. Find online access to court docket sheets, basic case information, court calendars, opinions, orders, decisions, inmate information and document images. It also offers a Weblog on electronic filing and public records retrieval. 6 September 2000. Revised 18 April 2008. Exclusively available via LexisNexis (fee-based), CourtLink eAccess provides electronic access to court records in over 4,000 federal, state and local courts. CourtLink eFile - now available in 90 courts - provides online filing services. 28 February 2006. Revised 10 March 2008. The Maryland Judiciary makes available information on traffic, criminal and civil cases from state District and Circuit courts. Date coverage varies by jurisdiction. While Circuit court update frequency is almost immediate, there is a delay for Baltimore City, Montgomery and Prince George's counties. Search by name or case number to find full name, date of birth (when available), court, case type and filing date. Click the case number for more information. 12 February 2004. The Supreme Judicial Court and Appeals Court of Massachusetts offers this single search interface to publicly available cases. Search by docket number, party, attorney, originating court or originating court judge to find appellate case information and court docket sheets. 20 November 2007. Find the status of appeals filed with the Minnesota Supreme Court or the Minnesota Court of Appeals. For cases open in either court on or after 3 March 2003, the system provides the following information about the case: case title, appellate case number, parties, attorneys, docket entries, and links to orders or opinions. For cases archived before 3 March 2003, only case title, case number and abbreviated party information is available.
Search by any combination of the following criteria: case number, jurisdiction, filing date, party name, case status or type of case. Docket entries, detailed docket information and select filed documents are available for viewing online. 20 November 2007. Revised 28 November 2007. Conduct statewide or county level queries for criminal, civil, family or probate court records. In addition to appellate court records, the public access system in accordance with state court rules does not contain the following: records of harassment and domestic abuse, records not admitted into evidence (e.g., referrals for counseling, rehabilitation or treatment, recommendations regarding custody of minor children, psychological evaluations), pre-conviction records, and juvenile appeals.
Search by case number or party name (first and last names required).
Please note: In accordance with state court rules, some information that is public record cannot be displayed online. Therefore, information contained in the public access system is not the official record of the court. Thorough searching for due diligence or other comprehensive research needs must be performed at the courthouse. Moreover, at this time some counties have not yet converted to the new system.
Technical note: During our visit, the system was down. Queries produced error messages. 15 February 2002. Revised 17 April 2008. Find case information from civil, criminal, probate, and traffic courts in many Missouri counties as well as from the State's appellate courts.
15 May 2007. The Montana State Law Library provides access to the state's Supreme Court decisions. Search by docket number, party name, keyword (see advanced search) or other criteria. Initial search results provide the name of the case, docket number, official Montana citation and decision date. When you follow the link for the case caption, you will receive a list of documents available for review, including the opinion and briefs. 25 March 2002. Revised 17 April 2008. Search for information about civil, criminal, and traffic court cases in district and magistrate courts in New Mexico. The system also provides docket sheets and covers cases initiated from 1997 to present. Some older cases also appear in the database. Some records contain dates of birth. The database permits searching by SSN and driver's license number. 24 June 2003. New York's Future Court Appearance System lets you search for pending civil matters in several New York county courts. Search by plaintiff, defendant, court number, lawyer or law firm name to find case information and references to documents filed. Some detail is also provided. Full text opinions are available for select counties. 10 May 2007. Revised 15 May 2007. This is a database for finding criminal, traffic and civil district court filings. Search by name, citation number or case number to find the party's full name, date of birth, case number, description of case or offense, date filed/closed, docket entries and more. Searchers will also find the court calendars for all 53 counties.
There is no information about the scope of coverage. However, I did find civil matters from the late 1980s. I also found probate and family matters, such as divorce and child support. 15 February 2002. Find case information and dockets for appellate and district courts served by the Oklahoma Court Information System. The system provides information for civil, criminal, probate, traffic and other types of cases. Also use this system to find information about marriage and drivers licenses, tax liens, workers compensation claims, and more. Revised 5 September 2003. Listen to digital recordings of U.S. Supreme Court oral arguments or review the biographies of the 100+ justices that have served on the Supreme Court. The site also provides news concerning the U.S. Supreme Court and a listing of cases argued but not decided. Search or browse the site's collection of U.S. Supreme Court cases to find an abstract of a case, its participants (justices, attorneys), audio files (if available) of the oral argument and oral opinion, a transcript of the oral argument (if available) and a link to the written opinion at FindLaw. Recently, the site announced that it was converting many of the audio tapes to MP3 files. 12 February 2004. The Pennsylvania Unified Judicial System provides a single search interface to the case information and docket sheets of select courts in the state. First, choose whether you want to search select Courts of Common Pleas or appellate courts (Supreme, Superior, Commonwealth). Search by docket number or court and at least one of a variety of other criteria. Results appear in a small table at the bottom of the page. You click the "select" link next to the docket number in the results table to display the docket sheet. It loads in a separate window. Make sure you turn off any pop-up blockers. 25 September 2007. The Salt Lake Tribune and its advertising management company, MediaOne, offer several public records databases containing information about Utah residents or companies. Find criminal court charges - felonies, some misdemeanor DUIs, and other misdemeanors and infractions - for approximately 1997 to 2007. The actual date of coverage depends on the jurisdiction where the case was filed. Search by name only. Note: A name match alone - without independent confirmation of other identifying data (date of birth, Social Security number) - does not constitute positive identification.
Other databases available include Utah public salaries (salaries of public officials at all levels of Utah government, including cities, counties, state government, school districts and other agencies), Utah sex offenders (replication of the Utah Department of Correction's official Utah Sex Offender Registry with a mapping feature added), political contributions (Federal Election Commission records on Utah candidates and contributors for the current election cycle), divorces (divorce decree records from Utah courts), and more. 5 November 2002. Revised 17 April 2008. Civil and criminal courts in Virginia provide access to case information via this gateway. You may search only one jurisdiction at a time, and date coverage may vary. You will find matters relating misdemeanors, felonies, civil litigation, divorce, traffic, etc. Those conducting due diligence or criminal investigations should note that these databases do not contain criminal histories nor substitute for a manual search of court indexes. The terms of use specifically state that information in these databases does not constitute the official record.
Please note: Javascript must be enabled at this site. 25 May 2005. Revised 20 March 2008. This site provides several search options for finding litigation in Washington trial and appellate courts from 1975 to present. While you may search by person or business name or by case number, you must search each court, as well as each year, separately.
Types of cases available include traffic violations, misdemeanors, domestic disputes, civil, criminal, including juvenile offenders, and probate. You will not find disputes concerning adoption, paternity, juvenile dependency or mental illness.
Initial results for criminal searches provide the case number, filing date, defendant's name, and occasionally, a broadly described cause of action (misdemeanor, felony). Initial results for civil cases provide the case number, filing date, party's name and cause of action. If the case is active, you may retrieve the docket sheet.
Washington Courts has a fee-based service called JIS-Link which offers more search and reporting features.
28 February 2006. A commercial service by Northwest Location Services, Inc. of Wauna, Washington, this database provides fee-based access to civil and criminal court records. It covers Superior (appellate) courts in 39 counties and District (lower) and Municipal courts in many counties. The site documents the jurisdictions covered as well as the availability of historical data. There is no coverage of small claims or civil cases -- excepting domestic violence protection orders -- in the lower courts. Queries may find information on felonies, misdemeanors, upper-level civil cases, divorce proceedings, probate matters, traffic violations and juvenile matters. 15 February 2002. This site provides access to criminal, traffic, forfeiture, family and civil case information and judgments in circuit courts for most (but not all) Wisconsin counties. |
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