| A Cup of Tea, Coffee, or Something Else investigating | | | | subjects, or crimes with stiffer penalties (such as |
| an individual or business, one of the most basic checks | | | | armed robbery, cases of gross malpractice, and often |
| is for lawsuits, criminal charges, and bankruptcy filings. | | | | divorce). Lower courts will deal with misdemeanor |
| But how do you research the court system? Is there | | | | crimes and small money claims (ie, small claims court). |
| one simple site to go to where you pop in a name and | | | | In criminal cases of all sorts, the prosecutor is usually |
| are rewarded with a listing of all court filings across the | | | | the United States government (from the State's |
| country pertaining to that individual? No such luck ... yet, | | | | attorney office), and the case will be lised as The |
| anyway! To understand court research, you first need | | | | State of Wherever V. Lastname.Upper and lower |
| to understand a bit about the USA's court | | | | courts are relatively simple to understand -- big money |
| system.There are two major separate court entities in | | | | cases or cases involving serious crimes go the upper, |
| the USA, the State court system and the Federal | | | | and everything of lesser importance to the lower, but |
| court system. The Federal court system is divided into | | | | don't forget that most divorces are tried in the upper |
| three branches, the federal criminal, civil, bankruptcy, | | | | court! Unfortunately, the State court system doesn't |
| and appeals courts. These courts are not 'single | | | | stop there, but also includes, depending on the State, a |
| entities' -- there are a number of federal courts | | | | variety of other courts such as the municipal court or |
| scattered across the United States, each covering a | | | | traffic court, which handle matters specific to their |
| certain geographic district within a 'circuit'. For a map of | | | | speciality (ie, argue traffic tickets in traffic court). There |
| the circuits, see example, there is a Northern Mississippi | | | | are also appellate courts, for dealing with appeals.So, |
| district court, as well as a Southern. Cases are | | | | now that we understand the court system a bit better, |
| prosecuted by US Attorneys, who are elected, or | | | | how do we go about finding court records? For |
| Assistant US Attorneys, who are government | | | | Federal courts, this is a relatively simple matter: The |
| employees. Regarding federal law, federal statutes are | | | | majority of records are accessible through a system |
| divided into sections called Titles. Title 11, for example, | | | | called PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic |
| deals with bankcruptcy, and under that Title you will | | | | Records). PACER allows searching different courts by |
| find Chapters, such as Chapter 7 regarding liquidation | | | | a variety of fields, including name. You as a citizen can |
| of a business. All personal and business bankruptcies | | | | sign up for PACER with a credit card at -- the service |
| fall under federal statutes and are dealt with in federal | | | | isn't free, but only charges a few dollars for good |
| court, and bankruptcies make up nearly 70% of all | | | | documentation on most cases. Note that some |
| federal court cases. This makes researching whether | | | | districts still aren't in the PACER system (for example, |
| an individual has a history of bankcruptcy a | | | | the Alaska district court) -- in this case, you can |
| considerably simpler matter, since only the relevant | | | | always pay a visit to the nearest district federal |
| federal court needs to be searched.Title 18 contains | | | | courthouse.Every district has one, and the records |
| the majority of the criminal statutes for the federal | | | | should be open to the public for free. Feel free to drive |
| criminal court. Note that in many cases it can be | | | | there and peruse! If the district court is further than you |
| decided for an individual to be tried in the federal rather | | | | want to travel, there are courthouse researchers |
| than State court system, under federal-question | | | | across the country who make a living looking up court |
| jurisdiction rules, for a variety of reasons. For example, | | | | records for those to far away from the court to visit in |
| in a recent case where two teens burned a cross in a | | | | person.State records are somewhat more complex. |
| black family's yard, it was decided to prosecute them | | | | To access these records over the Internet, not only |
| in federal rather than State court -- the penalties that | | | | should the State records be online, but also the |
| could be imposed by the federal court system were | | | | individual county in question. Most State higher court |
| greater. Likewise, cases involving citizens from | | | | and appellate courts are online with free searching, but |
| different States will be tried in Federal courts if the | | | | many lower (county) courts are not, only offer some |
| monetary amount involved in the case is greater than | | | | records, or charge high fees. Of course, if you're only |
| $75,000. There are a number of other types of cases | | | | interested in researching cases in your area, all you |
| that are likewise defaulted to federal court, including | | | | need to do is drive to your local county courthouse, |
| cases involving patents or copyrights, cases | | | | where the records are, by Federal law, public access. |
| challenging State laws (usually for Constitutional | | | | Your county courthouse should not charge you a fee |
| reasons), and cases involving federal agencies.The | | | | to access these records, they should be free to |
| State court system is somewhat more complex in its | | | | peruse.Charging a fee online is for 'electronic access', |
| terminology, since this terminology differs from State to | | | | not for seeing the actual documents themselves. Once |
| State, but in the end the terminology resolves into a | | | | again, if the county is outside your area you can hire a |
| system of 'upper' and 'lower' courts in civil and criminal | | | | courtresearcher to do the job for you. To find county |
| matters. The State civil court was an 'upper' and | | | | court researches and county/State courts on the |
| 'lower' court, as does the State criminal court. In some | | | | Internet, simply do a search engine search for |
| States, these are referred to as the 'supreme' and | | | | 'Countyname county court', and follow the links from |
| 'county' courts, or the 'superior' and 'justice' courts.The | | | | there. |
| upper courts tend to deal with more important | | | | |