Salt Lake County
Salt Lake County is the most populous county in Utah. It was established on January 31, 1850, and named after the Great Salt Lake. The county covers 742 square miles and, as of 2020, was home to over 1,200,000 people. Its administrative center is in Salt Lake, which is the largest city in the county and the largest in Utah as a whole.
Salt Lake County's judicial system consists of a District, Juvenile, and Justice Court. The county's District Court can hear all civil and criminal cases within the county, including felonies and general civil claims without financial limits. The Juvenile courts exclusively handle cases related to abused, neglected, and dependent children. They also hear cases related to child protective orders, emancipation of minors, termination of a parent-child relationship, and adoptions. The Justice Courts are in charge of certain criminal and civil cases, including misdemeanors, infractions, municipal ordinance violations, and traffic offenses. They also handle civil cases where the amount in dispute is below $10,000.
Public court records are official documents generated about a court proceeding. Such documents typically include the case's docket number, testimonies and evidence submitted by parties to the case, the court's verdict, and other details about the case. These public court records are managed by the Salt Lake County Clerk of Court. The clerk provides access to the following court records:
- Criminal records
- Civil records
- Family records
- Probate records
Interested individuals may access the court records via the MyCourtCase portal, Utah's online public court records database. Alternatively, they may visit the Clerk's Office in person or send a request via e-mail.
While seeking to obtain court records, requesters may incur different fees depending on the type of record requested. To obtain paper copies of court records, requesters may incur a charge of $0.25 per sheet. Where the desired record is an electronic copy of video or audio records of court proceedings, then a $15 charge applies for each half day of testimony. Where the court records are to be sent by fax or e-mail, the record seeker will incur a $5 charge for the first ten pages and an additional $0.50 per extra page. Finally, when a court clerk prepares the record, the requester will incur an additional fee for the court clerk's time. While the first fifteen minutes is free, each extra hour of the court clerk's time costs $15.
