| Statewide case search | MassCourts (eAccess Public Portal) |
|---|---|
| Criminal history check | iCORI (DCJIS Criminal Offender Record Information) |
| Appellate opinions | Massachusetts Appellate Courts Public Case Search |
| Federal cases | PACER (1 district) |
| Plain copy fee | $0.05 per page for an unattested copy or printout of court documents, records, or other papers held by the clerk, register, or recorder |
| Certified copy fee | $2.50 per page for an attested (certified) copy of a document or docket sheet; $20.00 for a certificate of orders, decrees, rulings, or judgments |
| Who keeps trial records | Clerk of the Supreme Judicial Court for the Commonwealth; Clerk of the Appeals Court |
Massachusetts does not have a county-based trial court system the way many states do. Instead, the unified Trial Court of Massachusetts runs seven statewide departments — Superior Court, District Court, Boston Municipal Court, Probate and Family Court, Housing Court, Land Court, and Juvenile Court — each divided into local divisions. A case file stays with the clerk (or, in Probate and Family Court, the Register of Probate) of the specific division that heard it, not with a single county office. In practice that usually means the county's Superior Court Clerk's Office for felonies and larger civil suits, a District Court (or, in Suffolk County, the Boston Municipal Court) division for misdemeanors and smaller claims, and the county's Probate and Family Court registry for wills, estates, divorce, and custody.
For docket information, masscourts.org (also called eAccess) is the Trial Court's free public portal and covers Superior Court, District Court, Boston Municipal Court, Housing Court, Probate and Family Court, and Land Court dockets statewide with no registration required. It shows what has been entered into the electronic case-management system; older paper files and documents that have not been scanned still require a request to the clerk or register. A separate system, iCORI, run by the Department of Criminal Justice Information Systems (DCJIS), is the name-based search for a person's Massachusetts criminal conviction history. Appeals are not on masscourts.org at all — the Supreme Judicial Court and Appeals Court share their own docket search at ma-appellatecourts.org.
The most common mistake is assuming one office holds "the county's" records. A Middlesex County resident with a felony case, a misdemeanor case, and a probate case in the same year will find those three files in three different offices — the Superior Court Clerk, a District Court division, and the Register of Probate — even though all three are in the same courthouse or town.
How Massachusetts courts are organized
Which court heard a case decides who keeps the file. Use this table to pick the right clerk before you search, and see the guides to criminal, civil, family, and probate records for what each court's file contains.
| Court | Handles | Who holds the records |
|---|---|---|
| Supreme Judicial Court |
| Clerk of the Supreme Judicial Court for the Commonwealth Massachusetts' court of last resort; most appeals reach it only after the Appeals Court. |
| Appeals Court |
| Clerk of the Appeals Court The intermediate appellate court; searchable with the Supreme Judicial Court at ma-appellatecourts.org. |
| Superior Court |
| Superior Court Clerk's Office (Clerk of Courts) for the county One clerk's office per county handles both civil and criminal sessions, except Suffolk County, which has separate Civil and Criminal Clerk's Offices. |
| District Court |
| Clerk-Magistrate of the District Court division 62 divisions statewide, each covering a group of cities and towns; Boston and a few surrounding communities use the Boston Municipal Court instead. |
| Boston Municipal Court |
| Clerk-Magistrate of the Boston Municipal Court division Eight divisions covering Boston and Winthrop, functioning as Suffolk County's equivalent of the District Court. |
| Probate and Family Court |
| Register of Probate for the county One elected Register of Probate per county keeps both the family-law and the probate/estate records. |
| Housing Court |
| Clerk-Magistrate of the Housing Court division Five regional divisions; not every county has its own, and some areas are still served only by District Court for housing matters. |
| Land Court |
| Recorder of the Land Court A single statewide court sitting in Boston with its own public access terminal system, separate from masscourts.org. |
| Juvenile Court |
| Clerk-Magistrate of the Juvenile Court division Juvenile records are confidential and are not part of any public search. |
Search Massachusetts court records online
Statewide case search
MassCourts (eAccess Public Portal)
- Cost
- Free
- Coverage
- Docket entries and case information for Superior Court, District Court, Boston Municipal Court, Housing Court, Probate and Family Court, and Land Court sessions entered into the Trial Court's electronic case-management system
- Records
- Civil, Criminal, Family, Probate
No account needed for the public search; name search works for civil-type cases, and criminal cases are searched by case number, defendant name in open cases, or party depending on the case type. Coverage depends on when a case was entered electronically. A separate attorney portal offers deeper access tied to Board of Bar Overseers registration.
Criminal history (convictions)
iCORI (DCJIS Criminal Offender Record Information)
- Cost
- Free for a subject to request their own CORI online; fees apply for certain organizational requester tiers
- Coverage
- Massachusetts criminal court appearances (arrests, arraignments, convictions, and certain dismissals) maintained by the Department of Criminal Justice Information Systems; does not include out-of-state or federal records
- Records
- Criminal
Access is tiered by requester type. Individuals with a Massachusetts driver's license or ID can register and view their own record online for free; those without one must request by mail. Organizational "Standard" and "Decision-Maker" accounts see different amounts of detail (for example, Decision-Maker accounts used for employment or housing decisions can see more than the informational Standard tier). The DCJIS portal returned a redirect loop during automated verification; the link is kept because multiple official mass.gov pages point to it as the current address.
Appellate courts
Massachusetts Appellate Courts Public Case Search
- Cost
- Free
- Coverage
- Docket search, party search, and calendars for the Supreme Judicial Court and the Appeals Court
- Records
- Appeals
The site blocked automated verification with a 403 response; kept because Mass.gov's own docket-search page and search results from the ma-appellatecourts.org domain confirm it as the current public case search.
Federal court records in Massachusetts
Federal cases (bankruptcy, federal crimes, lawsuits under federal law) are not in state portals. They live in PACER, organized by district. Massachusetts has 1 federal judicial district.
| District | Main courthouse | Court website |
|---|---|---|
| District of Massachusetts | Boston | www.mad.uscourts.gov |
Read our PACER guide for registration, the per-page fee, and the quarterly fee waiver.
Massachusetts county court records
Trial-court records are kept by the clerk in the county where the case was filed. These are the largest counties in Massachusetts; each guide covers the superior court clerk and other court offices, their addresses, and what is searchable online.
- Middlesex County court records County seat: Cambridge / Lowell Online search Free
- Worcester County court records County seat: Worcester Online search Free
- Suffolk County court records County seat: Boston Online search Free
- Essex County court records County seat: Salem Online search Free
- Norfolk County court records County seat: Dedham Online search Free
- Bristol County court records County seat: Taunton Online search Free
- Plymouth County court records County seat: Plymouth Online search Free
- Hampden County court records County seat: Springfield Online search Free
- Barnstable County court records County seat: Barnstable Online search Free
- Hampshire County court records County seat: Northampton Online search Free
Request records in person or by mail
In person. Go to the clerk's office (or Register of Probate) for the division that heard the case. For Superior Court, that is the county's Superior Court Clerk's Office; for a misdemeanor or small civil claim, the District Court division (or, in Suffolk County, the Boston Municipal Court division) that covers the city or town; for a will, estate, divorce, or custody matter, the county's Register of Probate. Bring the case number if you have it, or the party names and approximate filing year. Most clerk's offices are open weekdays 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
By mail. Write to the specific clerk's office or registry with:
- the case number, or the full names of the parties and the year the case was filed;
- exactly which documents you need (for example, "the divorce judgment" or "the criminal docket");
- whether you need a plain or an attested (certified) copy; and
- payment, or a request for a fee quote, plus a self-addressed stamped envelope.
Online. MassCourts (masscourts.org) is free and does not require an account for a basic docket search of Superior Court, District Court, Boston Municipal Court, Probate and Family Court, Housing Court, and Land Court cases. It shows docket entries, not always full document images. Appeals are searched separately at ma-appellatecourts.org, and a person's own statewide criminal history is requested through iCORI.
Records not yet online. Older paper case files, and documents in electronic cases that have not been scanned, are not on masscourts.org. Contact the clerk's office or registry that holds the physical file; some older records have been transferred to the Massachusetts Archives.
Fees
| Item | Typical cost |
|---|---|
| Plain copy | $0.05 per page for an unattested copy or printout of court documents, records, or other papers held by the clerk, register, or recorder |
| Certified copy | $2.50 per page for an attested (certified) copy of a document or docket sheet; $20.00 for a certificate of orders, decrees, rulings, or judgments |
Fees are set in the Trial Court's Uniform Schedule of Fees under General Laws Chapter 262, Section 4B, and apply in every Trial Court department; the schedule was last amended effective November 1, 2016. Other listed items include $50.00 for a transcript of judgment, $5.00 for a PDF or other electronic copy of a document (plus $4.00 if a CD is mailed), and $10.00 per case per day for electronic access to an audio recording of a hearing. Confirm accepted payment methods with the specific clerk's office or registry before mailing a request. Figures confirmed on the Mass.gov Uniform Schedule of Fees page on 2026-09-13.
Need a copy an agency will accept? See how to get certified copies of court records.
Sealed, expunged, and restricted records
Most Massachusetts trial-court case records are presumptively open, but several categories are removed from public view:
- Sealed criminal records. Under General Laws Chapter 276, Sections 100A–100C, the Commissioner of Probation seals eligible convictions after a waiting period (currently 3 years for most misdemeanors and 7 years for most felonies from the end of the case or supervision, with longer or shorter periods for specific offenses). A sealed record does not appear on iCORI's public-facing results and the subject may generally answer "no record" to most employers and landlords, but law enforcement and certain licensing agencies can still see it.
- Expunged records. Sections 100E–100U of Chapter 276 allow expungement — permanent destruction of the record, not just sealing — in narrower circumstances, mainly cases resulting from decriminalized conduct, offenses committed before age 21 that meet specific criteria, and records created as a result of certain errors or fraud.
- Juvenile Court and Care and Protection records. Confidential by statute, with access limited to the parties, their attorneys, and specified agencies.
- CORI access tiers. Even for records that are not sealed, Chapter 6, Sections 167–178 (the CORI law) restrict how much detail different types of requesters can see: an individual can see their own full record, while an employer or landlord using iCORI typically sees a more limited "Standard" tier.
- Impounded and protective-order records. Courts can impound sensitive filings (for example, in abuse-prevention or child-welfare matters) under the Uniform Rules on Impoundment Procedure.
Massachusetts' Public Records Law (General Laws Chapter 66) generally does not apply to the judiciary in the way it applies to executive-branch agencies; access to court records is governed by the common law right of access, court rules, and the specific statutes above, and a records request is made to the clerk or register, not through a public-records request to an agency.
To remove your own record from public view, read how to expunge or seal a criminal record.
Frequently asked questions
Is there one statewide website for Massachusetts court records?
MassCourts (masscourts.org) is the closest thing: it is free, needs no account, and covers docket information for Superior Court, District Court, Boston Municipal Court, Probate and Family Court, Housing Court, and Land Court. Appeals are searched separately at ma-appellatecourts.org, and it does not include every older or paper record.
Which office has my Massachusetts criminal case?
Felonies and more serious charges are heard in the county's Superior Court and kept by the Superior Court Clerk's Office (Criminal). Misdemeanors and lower-level felonies go to a District Court division, or the Boston Municipal Court if the case is in Boston or Winthrop, and are kept by that division's clerk-magistrate.
How do I check someone's Massachusetts criminal record?
Use iCORI, the Department of Criminal Justice Information Systems' online Criminal Offender Record Information system. Individuals can register to see their own full record for free; employers and other organizations register for a Standard or Decision-Maker account, which shows a more limited view depending on the purpose of the request.
Who keeps Massachusetts probate and divorce records?
The Register of Probate for the county where the person lived (for a will or estate) or where the case was filed (for a divorce or custody matter). Each county's Probate and Family Court has its own elected Register who runs that registry independently of the Superior Court clerk.
Are sealed Massachusetts court records gone forever?
No. Sealing under General Laws Chapter 276, Sections 100A–100C, removes a record from public and most employer view but law enforcement and some licensing agencies can still see it. Only expungement, available in narrower circumstances under Sections 100E–100U, permanently destroys the record.
How do I get a certified copy of a Massachusetts court document?
Request it from the clerk's office or registry that holds the case, in person or by mail, and expect to pay the statutory attested-copy fee per page plus any certificate fee. MassCourts does not issue certified copies online.
Sources
- Mass.gov — Massachusetts law about state courts — https://www.mass.gov/info-details/massachusetts-law-about-state-courts
- Mass.gov — Search Court Dockets, Calendars and Case Information — https://www.mass.gov/search-court-dockets-calendars-and-case-information
- MassCourts / eAccess Public Portal — https://www.masscourts.org/eservices/home.page
- Massachusetts Appellate Courts Public Case Search — https://www.ma-appellatecourts.org/
- iCORI (DCJIS) — https://icori.chs.state.ma.us/
- Mass.gov — Request CORI as an individual — https://www.mass.gov/how-to/request-cori-as-an-individual
- General Laws, Chapter 6, Section 172 — Availability of criminal offender record information — https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleII/Chapter6/Section172
- General Laws, Chapter 276, Section 100A — Sealing of criminal records — https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartIV/TitleII/Chapter276/Section100A
- General Laws, Chapter 276, Section 100E — Expungement of criminal records — https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartIV/TitleII/Chapter276/Section100E
- General Laws, Chapter 262, Section 4B — Uniform Schedule of Fees — https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartIII/TitleVI/Chapter262/Section4B
- Mass.gov — Trial Court Uniform Schedule of Fees — https://www.mass.gov/info-details/uniform-schedule-of-fees
- United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts — https://www.mad.uscourts.gov/