How to Find North Dakota Court Records (2026)

In person. Go to the Clerk of District Court in the county where the case was filed. Every county courthouse has a public access terminal for searching the Odyssey case index at no charge. Copies are paid at the clerk's counter.

By mail. Write to the clerk of district court with:

• the case number, or the full names of the parties and the approximate year filed;
• exactly which document you need (for example, a judgment, divorce decree, or docket sheet);
• whether you need a plain or certified copy; and
• a check or money order for the fee, or a request for a fee quote first.

Call the clerk's office to confirm the current fee before sending payment, since fee schedules are set by the Legislature and change periodically.

Online. The North Dakota Courts Records Inquiry (NDCRI) lets you search case indexes and some document images for free from any county or statewide. It does not replace a certified copy, which must come from the clerk.

Criminal history. For a statewide name-based conviction and arrest history rather than a single case file, request a criminal history record check from BCI using the form on the Attorney General's website, by mail with a $15 fee (check or money order).

Federal cases. Cases filed in the District of North Dakota (bankruptcy or federal civil/criminal matters) are on PACER, not in the state Odyssey system, and are searched separately.

North Dakota's judicial records are presumed open under Supreme Court Administrative Rule 41 (Access to Court Records), which implements the state's constitutional open-records provision for the courts. Several categories are removed from public search or never appear in the index at all:

• Sealed criminal records. Under North Dakota Century Code Chapter 12-60.1, a person may petition to seal a criminal record after a waiting period (three years for most misdemeanors, five years for most felonies) following completion of the sentence, if no new charges have been filed. Sealing does not destroy the record, but it bars the prosecution and the court system from disclosing its existence, so it drops out of NDCRI and the BCI criminal history check. DUI convictions cannot be sealed under this chapter.
• Non-conviction records. Recent legislation (2025 House Bill 1166) requires certain non-conviction case records to be closed automatically after a waiting period once the case ends without a conviction.
• Juvenile records. Juvenile court records are confidential with narrow statutory exceptions.
• Certain family, adoption, and protective-order matters. These are restricted or have sensitive information redacted even where the case itself is public.

Requests for bulk or compiled data from the Odyssey system go to the State Court Administrator's office under Administrative Rule 41, not to an individual clerk. Expungement in the sense of complete destruction of a record is available only in narrow circumstances distinct from sealing; the Legal Self-Help Center's research guides explain which process applies to a given case type.