Search records at the courthouse
Public court records are available at each courthouse. Each court has a computer
reserved for public searches of court case information and court records in that
court.
Sealed cases and sealed records are not public, and some cases are exempt from
disclosure under the Kansas Open Records Act (K.S.A. 45-221). Other records may be
exempt by judicial rule, order, or case law.
Records that are NOT available include:
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adoption records;
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certain criminal investigation records;
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expunged criminal records;
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many child in need of care and juvenile records; and
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grand jury proceedings.
Search using eCourt public access portal
As Kansas courts move to a new centralized case management system following the Kansas eCourt Statewide Rollout Plan, their public records will become available through an online portal.
Cases and records that will not be accessible through the portal are identified in the Supreme Court's Kansas eCourt Rules (20-25).
If a record is public but not available through the public access portal, it will be
available at the courthouse. Each court has a computer reserved for public searches
of court cases and court records in that court.
Sealed cases and sealed records are not public, and they can't be accessed through
the courthouse terminal. Other records may not be available by state statute,
judicial rule, order, or case law.
Case information versus court records
Case information includes details about a case. This would be the case number, the
type of case, who’s involved, names of attorneys, judge assigned, and hearing
dates.
Court records include the documents filed in the case.
You will be able to search case information through the public access portal, but
only records (documents) after a court begins operating on the Kansas eCourt case
management system will be available.
As described earlier, information in some cases is not public because it’s sealed or
is exempt from disclosure by state statute, judicial rule, order, or case law.
Information in some cases is not available through the Kansas District Court Public
Access Portal but is available through a computer terminal at the courthouse.
Courts on public access portal
Kansas eCourt Courts
lists which courts are operating on the Kansas eCourt case management system. These
are the courts with cases that can be searched using the Kansas District Court
Public Access Portal.
On the Kansas eCourt Courts page, courts are listed by the date they began operating
on the Kansas eCourt case management system. This is the date court records—not case
information—would begin to be available. This assumes access is not restricted by
state statute, judicial rule, order, or case law.
Public records are always available at the courthouse.
Districts with online case information
Three judicial districts allow online access to case information through their websites:
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3rd Judicial District: The 3rd Judicial District public access system provides a register of actions at no charge.
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10th Judicial District: Johnson County Kansas District Court Public Records provides a register of actions at no charge.
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18th Judicial District: The Sedgwick County Subscriber Access Network provides access to selected information for a fee.
Fee-based district court case search
The fee-based case search operated by Kansas.gov allows online searches of case information from district courts in Kansas. It allows access to a register of actions (information). It does not provide access to court records (documents).
Kansas District Court Records
Search
Requesting district court records
The Kansas Open Records Act allows you to inspect and obtain copies of public records maintained by Kansas courts, as long as those records are not exempt from disclosure.
Requests for court records must be made in writing. You may use the Request Form for Court Records to
make your request.
About requesting court records
District court contacts
Criminal history search
The Kansas Bureau of Investigation offers a Kansas Criminal History Record Check for searching a person’s criminal history.