Indiana City and Town Courts

Indiana has 65 City and Town Courts (42 City Courts and 22 Town Courts) throughout the state. One region also has an explicit Probate Court, and Marion County has a designated Small Claims Court to handle only civil issues of small claims. City and Town Courts are the limited jurisdiction trial courts for the state. Whether or not a town or city has a court is based on total population. These courts focus mainly on local ordinance violations and misdemeanor crimes.

The most popular legal issue in City and Town Courts are traffic violations. These courts also handle contract disputes of up to $3,000, small claims up to $6,000, tort cases, and other legal matters. Most cases use a jury to decide the verdict except for small claims that are decided by a judge. Residents vote judges into office for four-year terms. Town and City Courts differ in that Town Courts see only misdemeanors, traffic and other types of violations whereas City Courts see also tort cases, contract disputes up to $3,000, small claims of $6,000 or less and even misdemeanor cases and traffic violations.

Indiana’s Judiciary website has a list of each county’s courthouse along with the rules for the region, the official website of the county court, statistics, e-filing access and case search portal. Each county website has additional information including directions to courthouses, community services, and other legal resources. Some also include pictures of the courthouse. The Judiciary website also has information for users to lookup sex offenders and child abusers.

The majority (99.5%) of criminal cases are minor misdemeanors. Only 0.5% are violent misdemeanors. Another 78.8% are traffic and other ordinance infractions with the other civil violations (21.2) being ordinance violations. Forty-nine percent of civil suits are plenary, with 49.3% being collections matters.