Connecticut Court Records

Connecticut Court Record Lookup

Modern, access to some Connecticut court records online is straightforward despite the Connecticut courthouses being some of the oldest in the country, with proceedings having begun 1636. Most court records are public documents available to anyone who performs Connecticut court records search.

Superior courts

The trial courts in Connecticut are called superior courts, and they are divided into civil (called geographical area courts) and criminal (called judicial district courts) categories. Within the civil category are family court proceedings, such as Connecticut child support and custody cases, small claims, landlord-tenant disputes, juvenile cases, and non-jury trials. Automobile-related cases are found in the criminal division and can be obtained through Recordsfinder.com's Connecticut criminal records. Probate decisions which affect guardianships, trusts and estates, and the mentally ill are heard in a separate division.

Superior courts dispose of 53,000 civil cases per year, 2,674 criminal cases and 155,000 motor vehicle cases.

Some Connecticut CT court records are shielded from public access due to privacy laws regarding juveniles or the names of crime victims. Additionally, any record that has been sealed or expunged will not be available to the public.

Appeals courts

Panels of three judges review decisions made in lower courts to determine if state law was appropriately applied in selected cases. The appellate court makes about 500 determinations on lower court cases each year which can be viewed by Connecticut court case lookup.

At the top of Connecticut’s judiciary is the state supreme court, which advises legislators on the constitutionality of proposed laws, oversees members of the state bar and judiciary, and hears appeals of decisions made by state administrative agencies. It meets in eight two-week sessions per year.

Bankruptcy courts

When a Connecticut resident declares bankruptcy, he must go through the U.S. District Court for his geographical area. These federal courts also handle violations of federal law and cases that involve multiple states. Case information is available online by conducting Connecticut court record lookup.

Connecticut Notable Court Cases

In 2016 the state's ban on assault weapons was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court by default – the court refused to hear a gun rights group's challenge to the law. Despite saying the ban was a violation of the Second Amendment; the U.S. Supreme Court agreed that Connecticut may have such a law by refusing to hear the challenge. Connecticut enacted the assault weapons ban after the tragic murder of more than 20 young students and teachers at an elementary school in Newtown, CT in 2012.

The state's most violent killers are being resentenced due to the state Supreme Court's decision that the death penalty is cruel and unusual punishment and violates the state constitution. All of Connecticut's 11 death row prisoners are going back to state superior court for sentencing in 2016, revisiting some of the state's most bloody events. Among them is Joshua Komisarjevsky who was convicted of the 2007 Cheshire, Conn. home invasion that resulted in the deaths of a mother and her two daughters.