Indiana Court Records

Indiana Court Record Lookup

Requesting Indiana IN court records from Indiana city, circuit, or superior courts is a matter of finding the right court location. Court records are public documents that are available to anyone by performing an Indiana court records search online with some restrictions. Find out IN criminal records, civil cases, warrants and more info through Recordsfinder.com's online Indiana Court Record Lookup tool.

Courts of Limited Jurisdiction

Indiana has many municipal courts that handle violations of local ordinances, misdemeanors, and other small issues. There are 22 town courts and 43 city courts throughout the state.

In addition to the municipal courts, the state has a tax court that hears appeals of tax determinations made by state agencies. Individuals can also appeal inheritance tax levies made by probate courts. These Indiana court records online can be found via Indiana court case lookup.

Trial Courts

Both superior and circuit courts exist in most counties across Indiana, and both are general trial courts with jurisdiction over civil matters, such as Indiana child support and custody cases, and criminal cases, juvenile, family, small claims matters, and appeals of decisions from municipal courts. Differences between the two trial courts vary by county. The state is making family courts its own division due to demand; these Indiana courthouses handle custody, divorce, child support, delinquency, and related issues.

Records are available online via Indiana court record lookup, but access to some records may be restricted for confidentiality reasons, including juvenile cases that involve minors and the names of crime victims.

Trial courts statewide saw about 280,000 criminal cases, 70,000 juvenile cases, and nearly 195,000 small claims cases in a recent year.

Appeals Courts

When someone involved in a trial disputes the judge or jury’s decision, he may appeal it to the intermediate court of appeals. At this level, judges hear the facts of cases and decide if the lower court applied the law correctly. These judges also hear appeals of some state agencies such as the Worker’s Compensation Board, Department of Workplace Development, and Utilities Regulatory Board.

At the top of the state judiciary is the supreme court, which hears selected cases from lower courts as well as automatic appeals of death sentences. The supreme court may also oversee the state bar and advise the state legislature on the constitutionality of laws.

Federal Courts

When individuals join a class action lawsuit or file for bankruptcy, those cases are handled by federal courts. These records can be accessed by conducting Indiana court records search. There is at least one federal court in each state, which also has jurisdiction over violations of federal law. 

Indiana Notable Court Cases

A man serving a 70-year sentence for dealing cocaine got his sentence modified when he represented himself before the state appeals court panel. The 61-year-old man had spent more than 15 years in jail without any behavioral infractions, using the time to earn an associate's degree and a paralegal certificate. A lower court judge modified the sentence to send the habitual offender to a community correctional facility for the duration of his sentence but he appealed, saying the judge abused his discretion in modifying but not reducing the sentence. The appeals court did not agree completely, remanding the case to the trial court for rehearing.