Idaho Court Records

Idaho Court Record Lookup

Idaho residents may need a certified copy of an Idaho ID court record to prove a fine was paid, to enforce a judgement, or to pursue expungement of an Idaho state criminal record. In Idaho and other states, court records are public documents that anyone can access by performing an Idaho court records search, but some are limited by confidentiality laws. 

Magistrate Courts

Elected officials with duties akin to a judge’s, magistrates have the authority to preside over small claims issues, traffic tickets, criminal misdemeanors, divorces, juvenile concerns, probate, and Idaho child support and custody cases. Trials are not held in these Idaho courthouses of limited jurisdiction. There are seven magistrate court districts in Idaho with 89 magistrates among them. Juvenile matters are rarely part of the public record due to confidentiality laws regarding information about minors.

District Courts

Those who disagree with magistrates’ decisions may appeal to district courts, which also have jurisdiction over small claims issues valued over $10,000 and criminal trials. Each county in the state has a district court, and within the district court is the magistrate court.

There are so-called problem-solving courts in 68 locations to keep first-time offenders, drug addicts, and veterans out of the mainstream justice system. There is also a separate legal system for issues and crimes that arise on the state’s sovereign Native American lands, called tribal courts.

In a recent year, the district courts saw 72,000 misdemeanor cases, 8,500 criminal cases, and over 12,000 family court cases. These Idaho court records online can be accessed via Idaho court case lookup.

Appeals Courts

Above the district courts are two courts of appeals: an intermediate appellate court and the state supreme court. The supreme court assigns cases to the intermediate appellate court. Four elected judges on the intermediate appellate court hear cases in panels of three.

Along with hearing certain cases from lower courts, the supreme court oversees the state bar and the Public Utilities and Industrial commissions. It hears automatic appeals of all capital murder convictions.

Bankruptcy Court

When an Idaho resident files for bankruptcy, it is done in the U.S. District Court for the state, a federal court. Bankruptcy records can be accessed by conducting an Idaho court record lookup. This court also handles prosecution of federal crimes, class action suits, and lawsuits that cross state lines. Proceedings of these cases are public.

Idaho Notable Court Cases

The state Supreme Court upheld a lower court's 2014 award of $3.7 million in a wrongful death suit brought by the husband of a woman who died a few days after a medical procedure. The woman had undergone a liposuction and fat redistribution procedure at a spa/clinic in the city of Eagle and days later, her husband alleged, died due to bacteria introduced into her body by medical instruments that weren't properly sterilized. A jury awarded the husband $3.7 million and the Supreme Court agreed, saying no errors had been made in the lower court's application of laws.

The decision of a district court judge to sentence a man to 18 months in prison for sexually assaulting his girlfriend's mentally disabled teenaged daughter was upheld by an appeals court panel. The man had reached a plea deal with the lower court to have rape charges dismissed but refused to take a psycho-sexual mental health examination prior to sentencing, so the judge sentenced him accordingly. The man said the judge violated his Fifth Amendment rights by making assumptions about his mental state because he refused the test but the appeals court sided with the district court and upheld the sentence. The man was also ordered to pay $5,000 in court costs, $5,000 in restitution to the girl and her mother and to be on the sex offenders' registry for the rest of his life.