Minnesota Court Records
How Minnesota's courts are organized, where their records are kept and how to search them.
Minnesota has a unified, state-funded court system, with one district court in each of its 87 counties. All of them use the same case management system, and the public can search cases and view many documents online for free.
Minnesota's Rules of Public Access to Records of the Judicial Branch set out what can be seen, and the state also makes criminal conviction history available to the public online.
How Minnesota's courts are organized
Minnesota's judicial branch has three levels.
Minnesota Supreme Court
Seven justices review Court of Appeals decisions, hear first-degree murder appeals directly and oversee the courts and the bar.
Minnesota Court of Appeals
Hears most appeals from the district courts and state agencies, and must decide every appeal it receives.
District Court
The single trial court, organized into ten judicial districts. It hears civil, criminal, family, juvenile, probate, housing, traffic and conciliation (small claims) cases.
Searching Minnesota court records online
MCRO is the place to start for Minnesota district court records.
- Minnesota Court Records Online (MCRO)Free search of public district court cases statewide, including many case documents.
- P-MACS appellate case searchPublic docket search for the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals.
- Minnesota Judicial BranchOpinions, court locations, forms and self-help.
Getting records from the clerk's office
Each county's district court administrator keeps the official files. Public access terminals at every courthouse let you view more documents than are available remotely. Court administrators provide copies and certified copies for set fees.
Deeds and other land records are kept by the county recorder.
- Find a Minnesota courthouseLocations and contact information for every district court.
What is public, and what is not
The Rules of Public Access to Records of the Judicial Branch make most court records public. Juvenile, adoption, civil commitment and many family records, along with personal identifiers, are not. Some documents can be seen at the courthouse but not online.
Minnesota allows expungement of many records by petition, and a Clean Slate law now provides automatic expungement for many eligible offenses. Expunged records are sealed from public view.
- Minnesota Judicial Branch: ExpungementHow expungement works and how to apply.
Older and archived records
Closed court files are kept under the judicial branch's retention schedule. Historical district court records from many counties are held by the Minnesota Historical Society, which serves as the state archives.
- Minnesota Historical Society: State ArchivesHistorical court records and research help.
Criminal history and background records
A court file tells you what happened in one case in one court. A criminal history record (often called a rap sheet) pulls together arrests, charges and outcomes reported from across the state, so it is a different product kept by a different agency.
The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) keeps the state's criminal history records and offers a free public search of recent adult convictions.
- BCA public criminal history searchFree public search of Minnesota adult convictions from the past 15 years.
- Minnesota predatory offender searchDepartment of Corrections search of Level 3 predatory offenders.
- Minnesota Department of Corrections offender locatorFind people in Minnesota state correctional facilities.
Federal court records in Minnesota
Federal cases, including federal crimes, bankruptcies, and lawsuits over federal law or between citizens of different states, are not filed in Minnesota's state courts. Minnesota is a single federal judicial district, and each has its own clerk's office:
Federal case files are searched through PACER, the federal judiciary's records system. PACER charges a small fee per page, but you pay nothing if your charges stay under the quarterly fee-waiver threshold, court opinions are free, and every federal courthouse has public terminals you can use at no cost. Many PACER documents have also been copied into the free RECAP Archive on CourtListener. Appeals from Minnesota's federal courts go to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.
Tips for a faster search
- Minnesota case numbers begin with a two-digit county code and a case type, such as CR for criminal or FA for family.
- If a document is not viewable on MCRO, try a courthouse public access terminal, which shows more.
- The BCA's free search only covers adult convictions from the past 15 years.
- Have the full names of the parties, the county and a rough date range ready. A case number is the fastest way in if you have one.
- Online indexes are not the official record. If a decision depends on it, get a copy (or a certified copy) from the clerk's office that holds the file.
Legal help and law libraries
Clerks and law librarians can explain how to find a record, but they cannot give legal advice. These organizations can point you in the right direction:
- Minnesota State Law LibraryPublic law library in the Judicial Center in St. Paul.
- LawHelpMNFree legal information and a directory of legal aid.
- Minnesota Court Self-Help CenterHelp by phone and online for people without a lawyer.
This guide is general information about public records, not legal advice. Court websites, fees and rules change, so confirm details with the court before you rely on them. Civics-Online.org is not affiliated with any court or government agency.