Minnesota Court Records

Minnesota Court Records Lookup

Public records are those documents created by a public entity that is available to anyone who makes a request. Minnesota MN Court records are public documents in Minnesota and all other states. They include Minnesota criminal records, civil court cases, traffic court cases and more. They can be accessed by performing Minnesota court records search.

Limited jurisdiction courts

The state has instituted a number of diversion courts to keep nonviolent offenders out of the mainstream legal system, including drug courts, truancy courts, veterans courts, mental health courts, teen courts, and domestic violence courts.

The state’s executive branch administers two limited jurisdiction courts, one for tax disputes and one for appeals of state workers compensation board decisions.

District courts

Minnesota’s district courts are the general trial courts with broad jursidiction over civil cases, including Minnesota child support and custody, and criminal issues. One court is located in each of the state’s 89 counties. Records created in these Minnesota courthouses include child custody orders, financial judgements, evictions, probated wills, probation orders, and more. 

In a recent year, the total number of cases filed in state district courts was more than 1.25 million, including 948,000 minor criminal cases, almost 40,000 family cases, nearly 35,000 juvenile cases, and more than 68,000 major criminal cases (felonies), which can be accessed via Minnesota court case lookup.

Courts of appeals

Minnesota has both an interim court of appeals and a supreme court, both of which hear disputed decisions from lower courts and state agencies.

Federal courts

Each state has at least one U.S. District Court, a federal court with jurisdiction over bankruptcy declarations, violations of federal laws, and lawsuits that involve multiple states. By conducting Minnesota court record lookup anyone can access Minnesota court records online.

Minnesota Notable Court Cases

A woman who lost her job at a bank was able to qualify for unemployment – but only after taking the case to the state's intermediate court of appeals. The mother of two told her boss that she needed some time off to address her child's health condition, then lost her housing, requiring more time off. The bank claimed she quit the job and the state unemployment commission denied her unemployment insurance claim. A district court judge sided with the bank, but the court of appeals said the woman never intended to leave the job and had asked for time to rectify her household situation.

A school cafeteria worker who was charged under the state's anti-sexting law saw the case go to the state Supreme Court, and she won. The father of a high school boy found nude photos of the woman on his son's computer and sought to have her punished for soliciting sex under a 2014 state law that forbids electronic communication with a minor with intent to engage in sexual contact. Both a trial court and the state appeals court sided with the woman, saying that the law was too broad and abridges First Amendment rights to freedom of expression.