Maine Court Records

Maine Court Record Lookup

An official Maine ME court records or court document can be important to have for a variety of reasons: to enforce child custody, to collect a court-ordered fee, to enact an eviction, find ME criminal records or to prove a period of probation has been served. Records can be obtained by performing a Maine court records search, within certain limits. Perform

Limited Jurisdiction Courts

Probate courts in Maine are administered by county government officials, not by the state judiciary, yet they have the same responsibilities of deciding guardianships and dividing property among heirs.

Disputes between businesses and consumers are decided in a special Business and Consumer Division of district courts. This statewide docket is aimed at keeping costs of litigation low and expediting the legal process.

Traffic court is another limited jurisdiction entity within the state judiciary. In a recent year, there were over 86,000 cases filed in that venue.

District Courts

Non-jury trials administer justice through district courts in 31 locations across the state. These courts handle misdemeanors, traffic issues, and civil disputes, cases can be viewed via Maine court case lookup. Within district courts are family courts run by magistrates that have jurisdiction over Maine child support and custody, divorce, child support, and neglect cases. Another division of district court is drug court, aimed at keeping nonviolent offenders out of the mainstream legal system. Juvenile cases heard in district court are closed-door sessions.

Getting copies of district court records is a matter of finding the right court. Documents pertaining to juvenile cases and those that name victims of certain crimes are likely to be restricted or unavailable due to confidentiality laws.

In a recent year there were 47,857 cases filed in district courts and nearly 4,000 filed in superior courts.

Superior Court

Jury trials are held in Maine’s 16 superior courts, which are located in each county. Criminal trials, civil lawsuits, and appeals of state administrative agency decisions are heard in mentioned Maine courthouses.

Appellate Court

Maine is one of only 11 states without an intermediate appellate court, so all appeals from lower courts are considered by the Supreme Judicial Court at the top of the state judiciary. This court also issues advisory opinions to the governor’s office or state legislature on the constitutionality of state laws. These Maine court records online can be obtained via performing Maine court record lookup.

Federal Court

There is at least one federal court in each state that handles bankruptcy requests, class action lawsuits, violations of federal law, and lawsuits that cross state lines. 

Maine Notable Court Cases

In 2013 a case appealed to the Supreme Judicial Court involved neighbors who invited a boy to stay overnight at their house, then were sued by the boy's mother when he left the house and was hit by a car. The mother claimed that the couple was responsible for her son's injuries because they had been supervising him overnight and he hadn't gotten enough sleep to make a good decision or exercise ample caution about staying away from traffic the next morning. The court decided that adults can't be held responsible for the amount of sleep a child gets at a "'sleepover" at someone else's house, but did rebuke the neighbors for their actions leading up to the event, which included lying to the mother about whose house her son was sleeping at.

A Maine man convicted of armed robbery is appealing his case to the U.S. Supreme Court because, he says, he was forced to represent himself in his trial. He claims that representing himself was a violation of his Constitutional rights. His case was rescheduled several times as attorneys appointed to represent him withdrew again and again after he allegedly threatened them. He was convicted in May 2014 while accompanied by "'standby counsel." His current attorney argues that one's right to counsel and representation must be clearly waived and cannot be withheld due to a defendant's bad behavior.