New Jersey Court Records

New Jersey Court Record Lookup

Copies of New Jersey NJ court records can assist in executing the legal orders of a judge, including establishing child support payments, claiming an inheritance, evicting a tenant, enrolling in a treatment program, finding out NJ criminal records or clearing a driving record in New Jersey. These documents are public record and can be requested by anyone, they can be viewed by conducting a New Jersey court records search.

Courts of limited jurisdiction

New Jersey’s 539 municipal courts handle only violations of municipal ordinances and traffic violations. 

There were over 8 million cases filed in municipal courts in a recent year, including over 32,000 DUI charges, which can be viewed via New Jersey court case lookup.

The state’s tax court hears appeals of decisions made by the Board of Taxation.

Trial court

The superior court is the general jurisdiction court that hears criminal and civil cases. A specialized family division oversees cases of New Jersey child support and custody cases, neglect, paternity, domestic violence, guardianship, foster care, and adoption.

Statewide, the trial courts received more than 47,000 criminal case filings and over 463,000 civil in a recent year.

Some records are restricted due to confidentiality laws, including those of juvenile cases and others in which victims of certain crimes are named.

Appellate courts

When one party disputes the decision of a lower court, the case may be appealed to the state’s intermediate appellate court, part of the superior courts. This body also hears appeals of tax board and state administrative agency decisions.

New Jersey supreme court is the state’s highest court, with jurisdiction over all cases in which capital punishment is the sentence, constitutionality is in question, or redistricting of voters is involved.

The intermediate appellate court received 5,600 cases and the supreme court received 1,200 petitions for hearings in a recent year. Anyone can obtain New Jersey court records online via performing New Jersey court record lookup.

Federal court

Bankruptcy cases, violations of federal law, class action lawsuits, and civil lawsuits involving more than one state are handled in U.S. District Court. Each state has at least one of these New Jersey courthouses. 

New Jersey Notable Court Cases

A case of note originating in New Jersey is that of New Jersey v. Adkins. The case was originally filed after a man (Adkins) was arrested and convicted for a DWI and his blood tested 0.157 BAC. A 2013 decision in Missouri v. McNeely by the U.S. Supreme Court stated that if a driver is suspected of driving drunk, "'the dissipation in a suspected drunk driver's blood is not an automatic exigent circumstance." And thus, without sufficient probable cause, police needed to obtain a warrant to conduct blood tests.

Adkins cited this decision when filing a pre-trial motion claiming the police should have obtained a warrant in his case and therefore blood results should be thrown out. The trial court agreed, and the state appealed the case to the New Jersey Supreme Court, which then sent it back to the trial court to determine if the police had probable cause to test Adkins' blood.