What civil records are and what information they contain?

Civil court records are all court dockets regarding civil cases. A civil record search is a great way to find out more about a person.

The US justice system divides court cases into two main categories – civil and criminal. Criminal cases concern law offences such as murders, robberies, and other type of felonies. Civil cases regard issues such as marriage and divorce, property transactions, some financial issues and so on. Civil court records originate from court proceedings on a civil trial. Typically a civil court record will contain information about the person involved in the court proceeding (name, address, social security number) and details about the case. For example a divorce record will contain the date of the divorce, the divorcees names and what was the decision of the court.

How to obtain county civil records?

County civil records can be obtained at the county court clerk’s department. Courts’ clerk departments are the offices that deal with court public records. If you need to get a record you will need to file a request for county civil court records. Usualy there is a fee that must be paid for every record request.

Another way to obtain civil public records is via the Internet. There are many online public record databases that offer court record search facilities. These websites are connected to all county court public records databases and this is why you can search many courts at the same time. Using an online search has many advantages - you can search from your home or office, you do not need to pay for every record you want to view and you can get the records right away.