New Jersey Court Records Search

New Jersey Court System

New Jersey’s Court System was established in 1947 with their state Constitution, and it consists of a Supreme Court, an Appellate Division of Superior Court, Superior Court, Municipal Courts, and Tax Courts.

New Jersey’s Supreme Court is the highest appellate court in the state and has a Chief Justice and six Associate Justices. This court reviews cases from the lower courts. The Superior Court Appellate Division is the intermediate appellate court for the state. It has 32 judges that rotate in two or three-member panels to review cases. This court hears appeals from the trial courts and Tax Court along with state administrative agencies. In a single year, they process about 6,500 appeals and 10,000 motions. Each court type has specific jurisdiction over the law and aims to serve the public in legal issues related to those areas of interest.

Supreme Court

Appellate Division of Superior Court

Superior Court

Municipal Court

Tax Court

New Jersey Court Records That are not Open to the Public

According to N.J.S.A. 2B:1-4, New Jersey allows public access to their records online. However, they have strict rules about the access and usage of the information. The records cover everything from criminal and civil cases to family and traffic-related issues. Additionally, in criminal cases, only files for defendants who were found guilty will show up. Juvenile, expunged, and sealed cases will also not be available to the public either. United States federal law prohibits certain private or identifying information to be shown to the public. Therefore, things like children’s names, home addresses, social security numbers, bank accounts, and tax IDs will be redacted from the files.

NJ Court Case Filing Information

New Jersey has thoroughly embraced technology to make the courts more efficient. Their NJ Courts website has an easy link for patrons to use to pay traffic tickets, find forms to file documents into their cases, find their case for review and also file online using the electronic filing system. The state has a dedicated self-help center where self-represented litigants can easily grab the forms they need, find instructions on how to fill them out, contact legal resources or get questions answered from the Court Clerk’s Office and find quick links to common legal issues like divorce, adoption, name changes, domestic violence, child support, a privacy notice, court rules, and juvenile delinquency. Patrons can also consult the county clerk or court administrator for help too.

Search New Jersey Court Records Online

The best way to search for court records in this state is by using Infotracer! Employing a simple NJ state court records name search, someone can access thousands of court cases in the Garden State, including the areas of Bergen County, Middlesex County, Trenton, Camden, Newark, and Essex County. Per the New Jersey Open Public Records Act, N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1 et seq., Infotracer is allowed to offer users access to criminal records, family court issues like divorces, disorderly person's offenses, NJ property records, civil cases, bankruptcies, and more.

Anyone can run court records search on an individual or company without obtaining permission or even having a reason. All court cases should be available except those that are sealed by court order.

Enjoy free instant access to NJ court records when you use Infotracer to lookup court cases online. Find New Jersey court records from superior courts, municipal courts, dockets, motor vehicle records, county courts, and even tax court!

New Jersey Court Statistics

In 2012, the New Jersey courts received 7,345,329 filings. In 2016, the number of filings decreased by 5.2% and counted 6,963,508 filings and had 6,898,969 outgoing cases

Family Court Cases

Domestic relations caseload of New Jersey at year end of 2016 has decreased by 11.7% compared to the last 5 years, in 2012 the number of incoming cases have been 279,888 but are higher than in 2015.

New Jersey Criminal Caseloads

The number of criminal cases in New Jersey courts counts to 753,057, with 239,497 felony cases and 513,560 misdemeanors accordingly.

Superior Courts

The State of New Jersey’s Superior Courts were created by the State Constitution in 1947, and they are the trial courts for the state. Superior Courts are local courts and operate in each county. The NJ Courts website lists each county and the Superior Courts within it. They also include courthouse locations, directions, phone numbers, hours of operation, and email address for questions. Superior Courts handle cases of most civil and criminal types such as civil suits up to $15,000, small claims up to $3,000, domestic relations cases, felonies, and juvenile issues. They have exclusive jurisdiction over civil matters, domestic relations, and juvenile cases. They also hear criminal appeals.

Municipal Courts

New Jersey’s Municipal Courts see the most substantial volume of cases and more than 6 million are filed in Municipal Courts each year. Municipal Courts are the limited jurisdiction trial courts for the state handling mostly traffic-related issues, parking tickets, minor criminal issues, municipal ordinance violations, and fish and game matters. Only things that occur within the boundaries of the municipality are eligible to be heard in Municipal Court. All serious offenses such as felonies are transferred to Superior Court for processing. Municipal Court judges must first be licensed attorneys for at least five years. They are appointed to a three-year term by the mayor of the municipality. Most Municipal Court judges serve only part-time.

Tax Courts

New Jersey’s Tax Court is also a limited jurisdiction court created to handle specific areas of interest regarding tax matters and decisions by the County Boards of Taxation. This court also hears appeals made of decisions by the Director of the Division of Taxation. The cases focus on homestead rebates, business taxes, income and sales tax issues along with assessments, and issues related to the state and local tax bar. Tax Court has 12 judges who are appointed by the Governor of the state, and they serve seven-year terms. After that, they can apply for tenure until they retire at age 70. Tax Court sees about 15,000 cases per year.