New Mexico Court Records

New Mexico Court Record Lookup

Public records are documents that anyone can request and obtain. New Mexico NM court records include official files kept by public officials, including New Mexico courthouses. Court documents, in New Mexico and other states, are available to anyone, they can be viewed by performing a New Mexico court records search.

Courts of limited jurisdiction

Probate courts are located in 33 counties across New Mexico, with jurisdiction limited to estates, wills, and trusts. These courts do not hold jury trials.

Problem-solving courts are designed to divert individuals from the mainstream legal system by connecting the offender with treatment options. These courts include adult and juvenile drug courts, mental health courts, DUI/drug court, and family dependency court.

Tribal courts are generally responsible for legal issues and crimes that arise on sovereign land held by Native Americans.

Workers compensation court deals narrowly with cases of workers injured on the job.

Bernalillo County Metropolitan court has jurisdiction over small claims, landlord-tenant disputes, domestic violence, preliminary hearings on felonies, and tort issues.

Municipal courts handle misdemeanors, traffic issues, and violations of local ordinances within city limits.

Trial courts

Magistrate courts handle landlord-tenant disputes, traffic violations, misdemeanors, tort issues, drunk driving, and other traffic violations. Jury trials may be held in these courts, which are located in 54 cities and towns across the state. There were 160,000 cases filed in magistrate courts statewide in a recent year; of those 56 were traffic issues and 34 percent were criminal. You can find information about NM criminal records by using Recordsfinder.com's search tools online.

District courts are located in each of the state’s 13 districts and are New Mexico’s general trial court with jurisdiction over civil cases, torts, contracts, general criminal trials, domestic issues, such as cases of New Mexico child support and custody, juvenile matters, mental health cases, and appeals of some lower court cases.

There were over 124,000 district court cases filed in a recent year; of them 74 percent were civil cases and 23 percent were adult criminal cases. These can be viewed via New Mexico court case lookup.

Some records may be restricted due to confidentiality laws, including juvenile cases and those that name victims of certain crimes.

Appellate courts

The state’s intermediate court of appeals hears disputed decisions from lower court cases, including civil, criminal, juvenile, and some administrative agency decisions.

The state supreme court takes direct appeals from death sentence cases and writs of habeas corpus, the Public Regulation Commission, and the removal of public officials. It also oversees the state bar.

Federal courts

Each state has at least one U.S. District Court, a federal court with jurisdiction over bankruptcy cases, violations of federal law, and cases that involve multiple states. Anyone can access New Mexico court records online via New Mexico court record lookup. 

New Mexico Notable Court Cases

In 2013, the New Mexico Supreme Court decided that same-sex marriages are protected by the state's constitution. Although there are no statutes regulating same-sex relationships in New Mexico, the laws which have been in place since 1961 require female and male citizens to apply for a license. Local issuing of same-sex marriage licenses led to the government asking the Supreme Court for an opinion on the matter.

On December 19, 2013, the justices issued a unanimous decision stating that the New Mexico is "'constitutionally required to allow same-gender couples to marry and must extend them the rights, protections, and responsibilities that derive from civil marriage." The opinion also stated that religious or other institutions that are against same-sex marriage are not required to "'solemnize" them.