Dane County
Dane County is located in the southern part of the State of Wisconsin. It is named for Nathan Dane who helped carve the state out of the Northwest Territory. Dane County's seat is Madison, which also doubles as the county's largest city. Dane County is home to over 570,000 residents, making it the second-most populated county in the Badger State.
The court system in Dane County comprises a circuit court and several municipal courts. The municipal courts have exclusive jurisdiction over ordinance violations and hence typically handle ordinance violations, curfew violations, traffic violations, and non-jury trials for first-offense drunk driving. Jury trials are not held in the Dane County municipal courts but held in the circuit courts.
The circuit court in Dane County has original jurisdiction over all civil and criminal cases. The court handles legal matters beyond the jurisdiction of the municipal courts in the county. Examples of civil cases handled by the circuit court in the county include general civil claims, domestic relations, juvenile cases, civil equity cases, and probate matters
The clerk of the circuit court in Dane County maintains court records for the circuit court in the county. Circuit court records for some years are made available online for public access by the state judiciary. An online criminal index is available starting from approximately 1984, while the availability of civil action records online varies depending on the specific period. For detailed information on which record indexes are accessible online and the corresponding time frames, contact the Records Center at:
Dane County Courthouse
Room 1002
215 S Hamilton Street
Madison, WI 53703
Physical records can be accessed at the Records Center located within the courthouse at the address indicated. The clerk of the court's office typically keeps around five years' worth of records on-site, except for simple traffic violations and non-criminal ordinance violations, which are retained for only one year on-site. Older records may need to be retrieved from remote storage locations, which may take several days.
While the Dane County clerk of the circuit court does not take phone requests for court records, you may submit a request for court records by fax at (608) 267-8859 or email at Dane.courtrecords@wicourts.gov.
