Indiana Courthouse Records

If you need help looking for case records from an Indiana courthouse, before anything, you will need to be sure about why exactly you want them. This is because you will have to furnish the reasons when you apply for your Indiana courthouse records.

Are you looking for the records that touch you personally? Are you a trial lawyer investigating an important case? Or, perhaps you are a tax lawyer checking out the legal history of a new client. Are you a journalist dredging up backgrounds? Or, are you a demographer or social scientist checking out a case history? Maybe you are a genealogist trying to determine paternity. There are often employers too who check the background of a person before making that crucial hiring decision.

You may have any number of reasons for asking for Indiana courthouse records. Equally, there are many different types of court records to request.

Adoption Records: These records contain names of adopted children, the natural parents, and the adopting parents. You can have them opened only by a court order for "good cause shown", which is often only if you are the adopted individual.

Divorce Records: As the name suggests, this involves the information on whether the person has indeed been divorced or not, and if yes, then its date, and the name of the county from where it was obtained.

To get a copy of a divorce record, you must write to the county Indiana courthouse where the divorce was granted. When applying, be sure to include the names of the two spouses, year of the divorce, and your relationship to the couple. For county addresses, you could ask the state's justice department.

Naturalization Records: These records include petitions for citizenship with the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), a copy for the local court clerk, and a Certificate of Naturalization.

Probate records: These are useful if a case involves a will, evidence of assets, inheritance, names of survivors and their relationship to the deceased, etc.

As a rule, these are the most common case records people ask for, but these days there are others reasons too. You may be about to hire someone and need to check out his or legal background. Has the person been in any kind of legal trouble before? Or, given the age we live in, you may want to know if there is a previously convicted pedophile living in a neighborhood you’re thinking of moving into with your kids. What you are looking for will also determine the court you will want to address your inquiry to.

How to Find Indiana Courthouse Records

Before you can know how to find and who to approach for your Indiana courthouse records, you need to know the structure of the legal system in Indiana. Like other states, Indiana has a multi-tiered court system.

From the top, Indiana Supreme Court is the ultimate arbitrator of legal disputes brought to appeal when constitutional issues or serious criminal penalties are involved.

The Indiana Tax Court has exclusive jurisdiction over any case that arises under the Indiana tax laws. In addition, it has jurisdiction over certain appeals from the Department of Local Government Finance. The Indiana Court of Appeals presides over all appeals not taken to the Supreme Court.

Apart from these, certain Federal Courts also have jurisdiction in Indiana. Their records are governed directly by the federal justice system, and cannot be searched through the state circuit. Indiana Circuit Courts preside over Trial Courts (which form the bottom-most rungs of the judicial hierarchy).

How to Access Your Indiana Courthouse Records

To access records directly from the Indiana judicial system, your best course is to identify the county or circuit court at which a case was first heard. Visit, write or call the office of the clerk of that court – give the fullest relevant information about the case, the contending parties, their identity, approximate date of the proceedings, and other such information and you can get your records.

Remember, according to legislation, when you provide all the information that you are supposed to, you are legally bound to receive the Indiana courthouse records. As a citizen of the country, it is in your right to receive it.

Make sure to keep your request concise and cogent. Avoid confusing details. Where you cannot give absolutely accurate information, such as dates, try to provide an approximate time span. Be sure to enclose a stamped, self-addressed envelope to facilitate a reply. Allow a reasonable period of time for response.
 
The fact is, retrieving or viewing Indiana court records or the information contained within any court records of the state is restricted by both state and federal law. State and federal restrictions operating in conjunction with court orders and rules may affect specific cases.

They do not, however, foreclose your options. They do not preclude your procuring the same data that you need by other means.

There are now private online search archives where you can access the same database with all its information. The data, though official, is just as authentic. Go online, search, pay by debit or credit card and download!

One good way to access your records is to visit the clerk at the courthouse and ask for the records. You should however know that since this is what most people do, there can be a long queue and you might have to spend some time waiting. Alternatively, you can call up and also ask for the record. This can be time consuming as well as the record you want has to be found and then sent to you.

One good way to get your court records is through the Internet. In fact, this has become very popular in recent times as more and more people are now using the Internet for this.