How To Look Up Court Cases

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There are three methods look up court cases. Which method you will end up using will depend on the court that you want the information from and the services they offer. 

Some courthouses provide their records online. There are basically two types of online court portals... free or for a fee: 

• Free Court Websites: If you're lucky your court will have the information you need online. In many cases you will need to look at the documents to obtain important info you will need, such as addresses. Some free online court portals do provide images of the court documents and some don't. If you are unable to obtain the information you need you will need to most likely visit the courthouse.
• Fee Based Court Websites: Some of these will charge a modest monthly fee for the unlimited use of their system. Others will want to charge you by each document you look at. This can get very expensive, depending on the court you are having the pleasure of dealing with.

So you're not one of the lucky ones and you can't obtain the information online without paying a fee? Well, it's time for a trip to the good ole courthouse.  These days most courthouses have public access to court records portals that will give you all the info you will need. Here's some of the stuff you will need to know:

• Courthouse Rules: Before  heading down to the courthouse give them a call to find out if it's ok to bring a camera or a laptop with you. Most courthouses don't care but you should check first.
• Camera: If it's allowed bring a camera with you. This will save you tons of time. You can take hundreds of pictures of documents and later sort through them and input the info on a spreadsheet.
• Laptop: If you can't bring a camera but they allow laptops then you should bring one. In doing so you can add all of the info to a spreadsheet while at the courthouse.
• Copies: Although rare, you might run into a court that won't allow any cameras or laptops. This will require you to purchase copies of the documents. Depending on the court this can also get expensive.
• Handwrite: You could handwrite the information you need. This could take you a while not to mention writer's cramp.

Now if you are really, really unlucky and your court doesn't offer any online website or computer access at the court then you are gonna have to pull them the old fashioned way. By hand, looking at paper files. This is more common with the smaller courts. Bring lunch with you. It's gonna take you a while.

• Camera or Laptop: If the court allows them bring one of them with you.  Use one of these devices to capture the info you are sourcing. If they don't allow cameras or laptops you're in for a headache.
• Paper Files: Each court indexes their records differently it seems. You are gonna need to ask the clerk a few questions regarding the files. Once they show you how to locate them you will need to go through each one. Depending on the filing there could be hundreds of pages in a single file. Other filings may only have a few pages.

Q. I'm at the courthouse trying to figure out how to locate my leads and the clerk tells me basically to buzz off and hire a professional researcher. What should I do?

A. Buy leads from us.

Q. When sourcing leads from paper files what do you recommend bringing for lunch?

A. We like egg salad or tuna salad. Don't forget to bring some chips.

Q. All of this info is starting to give me a headache. Can you slow it down a notch?

A. Sorry Jr. Dawg. Take a couple of aspirin and call us in the morning.