Worcester County
Worcester County is the largest county in Massachusetts by area. It was established on April 2, 1731, and the City of Worcester serves as its county seat. It spans 1,579 square miles and borders New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Rhode Island states. The county is named the second most populous county and houses more than 860,000 people at present.
The Superior, District, Probate and Family, Housing, and Juvenile Courts sum up the court system in the county where residents hope to be provided with justice and fairness. There is only one Superior Court, and it presides over cases where parties seek injunctive relief and civil actions over $50,000. The District Courts handle matters involving mental health commitment treatments and civil and criminal cases. The Probate and Family Court helps prevent abuse in families by issuing protective orders, handling adoption proceedings, and filing wills.
Landlord-tenant cases, breach of contract, property damage, and code enforcement actions are handled by the Housing Courts. The Juvenile Courts protect the public from delinquent activities, handle Children in Need of Services, and rehabilitate minors.
The clerks of the District and Superior Courts are constitutionally charged to provide records that are filed and have gone through proper adjudications. In the past, records were stored in microfilms. They are currently digitized, and the judicial archives serve as a repository for court records.
Interested parties can view the following court records, as they are not sealed by statute or state law:
- Probate Court Records
- Criminal Court Records
- Traffic Court Records
- Land Court Records
- Civil Court Records
- Family Law Court Records
The Massachusetts Trial Court Case Access system provides online access to public case information. Access to these records is usually determined by the chief justice of the trial courts, both for attorney and public case searches. Official records or hard copies can be obtained from the office of the clerk of court who filed such records. In the same vein, the Supreme Judicial Court and Appeals Court of Massachusetts
