Broward County
Situated in southern Florida, Broward County is in the Miami metropolitan area, and is the second-most populous county in Florida after Miami-Dade County. Its county seat is Fort Lauderdale. Broward County was established in April 1915 and is named for Napoleon Bonaparte Broward, the Florida governor between 1905 and 1909. Broward County is home to over 1.94 million residents.
Four county courts and one circuit court make up the court structure in Broward County. The county court in Broward County has concurrent jurisdiction with the circuit court over landlord-tenant cases involving claims in amounts within its jurisdiction limitations. County courts have exclusive jurisdiction of proceedings relating to possession rights of real property and the forcible or unlawful detention of lands and tenements. However, circuit courts have jurisdiction if the amount in dispute exceeds the jurisdiction limit of the county court.
Generally, county courts are courts of limited jurisdiction where minor criminal or misdemeanor and civil cases are heard. In the circuit courts - the highest trial courts in the county, major criminal or felony, civil, family, juvenile and probate matters are heard.
Court records in Broward County are maintained by the clerk of circuit and county courts. The county clerk website allows users to view public court records online via its case search resource. Users can search records by party name, business name, case number, and citation number. Case record information is available in the following categories:
- Appeals (criminal)
- Civil
- Family
- Felony
- Parking and permitting
- Probate
- Traffic and misdemeanor
Note that in accordance with the Standards for Access to Electronic Court Records, state law restricts access to cases, documents, and information based on the record and the requester's access level. If you are unable to find public court documents online, you may make a record request to the clerk's office.
Via a record request, you can obtain electronic certified documents or file a record request in person or by email. Electronic certified court documents cost $8 per document. In-person requests cost $1 per court document page, $2 per court document (certified), and $2 to search a case per year. The fees for email requests are the same for an in-person request; however, you must submit a Court Records Request Form to Redactarchives@browardclerk.org.
