How to Find Someone’s Court Records
American courts are presumed open, so most court records — civil suits, criminal cases, divorces, probate, judgments — are public. The hard part is not permission; it is knowing where to look. Records live at the specific court that heard the case, scattered across thousands of county systems plus the separate federal system. This guide shows you where court records live, how to search county and federal systems, which records are off-limits, and when a professional who knows the terrain is worth it.
The Short Version
Court records are presumed public under the open-courts principle, but they are filed at the individual court that heard the case — so the first job is identifying the right jurisdiction. State and county cases live in that county’s or state’s court system, searchable online in many states and only at a clerk’s public terminal in others. Federal cases — including bankruptcy — live in PACER, the federal courts’ nationwide system, at a small per-page fee. Sealed, juvenile, and many family-law records are restricted. To find everything on a person, you have to know every place they have litigated, which is exactly where a self-search falls short and a professional with multi-jurisdiction reach pays off.
Watch: Finding Court Records
Where they live, how to search, and what is off-limits.
Watch Overview
Where Court Records Live
Two systems, and you must know which court.
State and county courts. The vast majority of cases — civil disputes, most crimes, divorces, probate, small claims, traffic — are filed in state courts at the county level. Many states offer an online case-search portal where you can look up a party by name; others, by rule, make records viewable only on a public terminal at the clerk’s office. Either way, you are searching one court system at a time, and you need to know which county heard the case.
Federal courts. Federal lawsuits, federal crimes, and all bankruptcies live in the federal system, accessed through PACER, which charges a small per-page fee. The federal courts also provide a nationwide Case Locator to find which federal court a party appears in. For the criminal subset specifically, see how to find someone’s criminal history.
Types of Court Records
Different cases, different courts.
“Court records” covers a lot of ground: civil lawsuits and the judgments and liens they produce; criminal cases; family matters such as divorce, custody, and support; probate and estate proceedings; small claims and traffic; and, in the federal system, bankruptcy. Each type may sit in a different division or court, so a complete picture often means checking several. A civil judgment in particular is a thread worth pulling — it frequently leads to collectible assets, which is where a court-records search connects to an asset search.
What Is Restricted
Open by default does not mean everything is open.
Courts wall off categories that the public may not see. Sealed records are removed from public access by court order; juvenile matters are generally confidential; and many family-law filings shield sensitive personal and financial details, even when the docket itself is visible. Adoption, mental-health, and certain witness or victim information are also protected. And remember that a docket entry shows what was filed, not necessarily how it ended — always read through to the disposition before you draw a conclusion.
Why People Search Court Records
Most reasons come down to due diligence.
People pull court records to vet a business partner or counterparty, to research the other side of a lawsuit, to confirm a divorce or a probate matter, to check whether someone has a pattern of litigation, and — very often — to find and enforce a money judgment. If you hold a judgment and need to collect, the court file is the starting point and the assets behind it are the goal; see how to find a judgment debtor’s bank account. Just keep the FCRA line in mind: using court records to make a hiring or tenant decision requires a compliant report, not a self-run search — see our background checks.
When to Use a Professional
The jurisdiction puzzle is the whole problem.
Anyone can search one court. The difficulty is knowing which courts to search — every county a person has lived or done business in, plus the federal system — and then reading the dockets correctly. A professional maps the person’s footprint, searches the right jurisdictions, and pulls the dockets and dispositions that actually matter, then ties any judgments to recoverable assets. If you first need to find the person before you can know where they have litigated, that is our skip-tracing services and people search, where a verified locate typically comes back within 24 hours. For the broader method, see how to run a background check on someone.
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Our Commitment
When a one-court search is not enough, you get multi-jurisdiction court research with the dockets and dispositions read correctly — and, where it matters, the judgments tied to recoverable assets. A verified result, not a pile of half-read filings. More than twenty years of professional research, since 2004.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are court records public?
Mostly, yes. Courts are presumed open, so civil, criminal, probate, and most family dockets are public. Sealed, juvenile, and certain sensitive family records are restricted, and some states let you view records only at a clerk’s public terminal.
How do I find which court a case is in?
Cases are filed where the events happened or the parties live, so start with the county. For federal matters, the PACER Case Locator searches nationwide. If you do not know where someone has litigated, you have to check each likely jurisdiction.
Is there a national court-records database?
Not for state cases. PACER covers federal courts nationwide, but state and county records sit in thousands of separate systems with no single public search across all of them.
How much do court records cost?
Viewing in person at the clerk is usually free; copies carry a per-page fee. PACER charges a small per-page fee with a cap per document, and fees are waived below a modest quarterly threshold.
Can I use court records to screen a tenant or employee?
Not from a self-run search. Using court records to make a hiring, tenant, or credit decision is governed by the FCRA and requires a compliant consumer report with the proper disclosures.
Can you find all of someone’s court records for me?
Yes. We map where a person has lived and done business, search the right county and federal systems, and read the dockets, then tie any judgments to recoverable assets. It is far more thorough than searching one court at a time.
Need a Thorough Court-Records Search?
Tell us who you are researching and why, and we will search the right jurisdictions, read the dockets, and connect any judgments to recoverable assets. Need to locate the person first? A verified locate typically comes back within 24 hours. Contact us to get started.
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