Minnesota Court Records Search

Minnesota Court System

The state Court System is pretty simple consisting of a Supreme Court, a Court of Appeals and the District Courts which are the trial courts for the state. The MN Supreme Court is the highest court in the state and the court of last resort. They receive about 700 requests for appeals and approve for review only 10-12% of them. The Minnesota Supreme Court also has the authority to hear appeals from the “Workers’ Compensation Court of Appeals and the Tax Court, two executive-branch agency courts, and petitions filed by the Lawyers Professional Responsibility Board, and the Board on Judicial Standards.” Sometimes the Supreme Court acts as court administration resolving cases involving the constitutional rights of the people.

All lower courts report to the Supreme Court and this court acts as the only MN appellate court. There are seven Supreme Court justices, and they are elected in a non-partisan, statewide ballot and serve six-year terms. These justices are also heavily involved in other Supreme Court boards and state agencies that make policy affecting all residents.

This state also has a single-entity court called Tax Court that has exclusive jurisdiction over all tax matters and tax-related cases. Although they have only one location, the judges do travel around and hold Tax Court throughout the state.

Supreme Court

Court of Appeals

District Court

MN Court Records That are not Open to the Public

Through the MN Public Access (MPA) Remote system, the general public can access most court records with a few exceptions. MN Judicial Branch website clearly states precisely which records are available and which will be excluded. Tax records are not available. Additionally, information like social security numbers, bank account numbers, tax IDs, juvenile records, protective orders, and any records sealed, expunged or labeled “non-public” will be removed from any files accessible by the general public. Any identifying information like home addresses will also be redacted. The United States federal government also has rules about details that must be redacted from files before public consumption.

MN Judicial Case Filing Information

Right on the main menu of the Minnesota Judicial Branch (mn.gov) website they have a link to all the court forms, making it easy for an individual or an attorney to download what they need and file it with the court. The forms are organized into links of categories so people can easily find forms for adoption, child custody, and things like name changes, small claims actions, and protective orders. Additionally, the website has a step-by-step guide to help users file their case electronically through the website or manually - this makes case management easy. They can also research using the law library. The court administrator supports both trial court and appellate court filings. Patrons can also contact the county courthouse to find a county attorney for their case.

Search for Court Records Online

Interested in finding out about someone’s records in the state? Use the Infotracer tool to quickly and easily access hundreds of MN case records all over the state, including Hennepin County, Ramsey County, St. Paul, Hennepin, and Dakota County. Per the MN Data Practices Act Minn. Statutes 13.01 et seq., the public is granted the rights to most civil cases, criminal records, case information, case numbers, court documents, District court records, family court issues, bankruptcies, probate matters, and more!

An individual may perform a public records search privately without providing any information at all. The person searching does not even need a reason. The only court information that will not be available are court-ordered closed records and private files like juvenile records.

Using a quick MN state court records name search, you can get free instant access to MN public records from most of the courts in the state. Quickly lookup court cases online from MN district courts, appellate courts, and the Supreme Court.

Minnesota Court Statistics

In 2012, the Minnesota courts received 1,598,994 filings. In 2016, the number of filings decreased by 19.7% and counted 1,283,798 filings and had 1,273,267 outgoing cases

Family Court Cases

Domestic relations caseload of Minnesota at year end of 2016 has decreased by 20.7% compared to the last 5 years.

Minnesota Criminal Caseloads

The number of criminal cases in Minnesota courts counts to 183,129, with 42,880 felony cases and 140,249 misdemeanors accordingly.

District Courts

Minnesota District Courts are the general jurisdiction courts for the state. They offer jury trials for many types of cases, but in others, a judge makes the final decision. These courts have exclusive jurisdiction over civil matters up to $15,000, all criminal offenses, domestic relations cases, juvenile issues including delinquency and traffic and other local ordinance violations. These courts may be divided into specialized divisions for things like small claims, probate & mental health court, family court, traffic court, juvenile court, housing court, civil court, and criminal court. The level of divisions depends on the district and its residents.