Kansas Court Records

Kansas Court Record Lookup

Obtaining Kansas KS court records is a matter of finding the right court. These Kansas court records online are public and therefore available to anyone who runs a Kansas court records search, except those involving juvenile cases or that identify victims of certain crimes.

Limited Jurisdiction

Municipal courts are located throughout the state. These Kansas courthouses have limited jurisdiction over violations of local ordinances and hold trials without juries.

There is one tax court in Kansas, located within the Executive Branch of state government. This court has narrow jurisdiction over disputes regarding state and local taxes.

Trial Courts

Trial courts of general jurisdiction are the district courts located in each of Kansas’ 105 counties. These courts are arranged into 31 districts and have jurisdiction over family, juvenile, small claims, probate, and other matters.

Anyone can perform a Kansas court record lookup, but access to some records is restricted due to the ages of individuals named (such as juvenile cases) or details of victims of certain crimes. You can also use Recordsfinder.com's Kansas criminal record search tool to find out more information.

In a recent year, Iowa district courts received over 188,000 new civil matters, such as Kansas child support and custody order, and criminal cases and disposed of almost as many. Another 163,000 traffic cases, 14,000 juvenile, and 9,000 probate cases were filed.

Appeals Courts

Cases from trial courts that are disputed may be appealed to the state’s interim court of appeals, these can be viewed via Kansas court case lookup. This court is comprised of 14 justices that sit in panels of three in three locations around the state.

At the top of the Kansas judiciary is the state supreme court, which has jurisdiction over all lower court cases as well as automatic appeals of death row cases. It has authority over the state  bar. This court may also review decisions of state administrative agencies.

Federal Courts

Bankruptcies, class action suits, and violations of federal law are handled by the U.S. District Court with jurisdiction in Kansas.

Kansas Notable Court Cases

A case against former Kansas state attorney general Philip Kline resulted in his disbarment by the state Supreme Court. The court found that Kline violated codes of conduct when allowed access to medical records of patients of an abortion clinic. Kline was allegedly investigating an abortion doctor, whom he accused of shielding pedophiles by not releasing information on pregnancies of underage girls. Kline's handling of the patients' medical records, including attaching them to public documents, was one of several misconduct allegations. A grand jury forewoman in the case against the abortion doctor also alleged that Kline mislead judges and jurors in the case. Kline's case against the abortion doctor was later dropped by prosecutors.

Parents and teachers waited in nervous anticipation as the state Supreme Court threatened to shut down public schools over a fight with legislators over the constitutionality of school funding mechanisms. The court had ruled that the state's funding mechanism for schools unfairly punished low-income districts by forcing them to levy higher taxes to fund schools. A frenzied period of negotiations resulted in legislators reinstating an old funding formula for one portion of the budget, which the court approved. Still, the court seeks to equalize funding for poor districts and wants the legislature to channel additional tax revenue to those schools, an aspect of the case that is still pending in mid-2016.