Nebraska Court Records

Nebraska Court Record Lookup

Nebraska court records are public documents that are important to accomplishing certain actions, from establishing child custody to enforcing an eviction, collecting a court-ordered payment to proving one’s innocence. These records can be requested by anyone in any state and can be found by performing a Nebraska court records search. Also they can be found online and will include NE criminal records, civil cases, traffic violations, and more information.

Limited jurisdiction courts

Nebraska has several specialty courts that deal with specific issues: juvenile, small claims, and workers compensation matters. In addition, the state has set up problem-solving courts such as drug court, domestic violence, DUI, and mental health courts to connect offenders with treatment to reduce repeat violations of the law.

Trial courts

County courts are found in each of the state’s 93 counties. The mentioned Nebraska courthouses handle misdemeanors, civil lawsuits under $51,000 in value, and selected domestic and juvenile issues.

District courts have jurisdiction over felonies, civil lawsuits, such as Nebraska child support and custody cases above $51,000 in value, and some appeals of disputed decisions from county courts. There are 12 districts in the state.

Cases that concern juveniles or that name victims of certain crimes may be restricted from public access due to confidentiality laws.

The fourth district, which encompasses Omaha the largest city in the state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County, historically has the most cases, including nearly 15,000 cases in a recent year while the majority of other districts log fewer than 3,000. In total the district courts saw more than 42,000 cases filed in a recent year, 23,000 of which were domestic relations and 12,600 were criminal. These court documents can be viewed via Nebraska court case lookup.

Appellate courts

Those unsatisfied by the decision of a local, county, or district court may appeal to the state intermediate court of appeals to have the case reviewed. At this level, a panel of judges considers whether the law was correctly applied.

The state supreme court is the court of last resort in Nebraska, hearing selected appeals from lower courts as well as automatic appeals of death sentence cases and those that question the constitutionality of state law.

Federal courts

There is at least one federal court in each state. These U.S. District Courts have jurisdiction over bankruptcy cases, multi-state civil suits, and violations of federal law. Anyone can access Nebraska court records online via performing Nebraska court record lookup.

Nebraska Notable Court Cases

One of the most memorable cases originating in Nebraska was that of Charles Starkweather. Only 19 years old at the time, Starkweather murdered a gas station attendant in 1957. He then talked his 14-year-old girlfriend, Caril Fugate, into going on a spree with him in 1958 and killing a total of ten people. Starkweather was executed in Nebraska on June 25, 1959. Fugate was originally sentenced to life imprisonment, but was paroled in 1976.