Public Access to Indiana State Court Records

Search online public court records from Indiana state courts for free. UniCourt allows you to lookup civil, family law, probate, small claims, labour, personal injury and other cases from Indiana Superior Courts, Justice Courts, Circuit Courts, & more. With UniCourt, you can look up Indiana State Court cases, find latest docket information, view case summary, check case status, download court documents, as well as track cases and get alerts on new filings.

At UniCourt, you can look up Indiana State Court records by case name, case number, party, attorney, judge, case type, docket entry & more. You can filter search results further by date of filing, jurisdiction, case type, party type, party representation, and more.

About the Indiana State Court System

The State of Indiana is home to over 6.8 million people and has an area of 36,420 square miles. The state capital is Indianapolis, which is also the single most populated city in the state. The Indianapolis-Carmel-Anderson Metropolitan Statistical Area, is the most populous region in Indiana, containing over 2 million residents.

On average, the Indiana Court System has over 1.8 million cases filed, heard, and processed each year. Indiana’s court system consists of both appellate and trial courts.

1M⁺

Indiana Cases

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Court Documents

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Docket Entries

Indiana Appellate Courts

Indiana has three different appellate courts: the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeals, and the Indiana Tax Court.

The Supreme Court

The Supreme Court of Indiana is the state's highest appellate court and is the court of last resort on the interpretation of Indiana’s laws, its constitution, and the safeguards expressed in the state’s bill of rights. The Indiana Supreme Court has original jurisdiction over: the practice of law; the discipline and disbarment of attorneys; the unauthorized practice of law; the discipline, removal, and retirement of justices and judges; and the supervision of the exercise of jurisdiction by other courts and issuance of writs necessary in aid of its jurisdiction.

The Court can also directly review appeals involving judgments imposing a death sentence or life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, from the denial of post-conviction relief in which the sentence is death, waiver of parental consent to abortion, unconstitutional state or federal statutes, and orders issued by lower courts mandating funds. The Supreme Court may also review decisions of the Indiana Court of Appeals or the Indiana Tax Court.

The Court is made up of five justices, including one Chief Justice. In an effort to foster input from citizens, justices are chosen via “merit selection” to serve initial terms of two years. After that initial term, the new justice is subject to a statewide retention vote. If a majority votes to retain the justice, they start a ten year term subject to a statewide retention vote every ten years.

When a vacancy occurs on the Court, the seven member Judicial Nominating Commission recommends three qualified candidates to the Governor. The Governor then selects one as the new justice. To be eligible to be a Supreme Court Justice, a person must have practiced law in Indiana at least ten years or have served at least five years as a trial court judge. Justices must retire at 75 years old.

The number of matters brought before the Indiana Supreme Court each year averages around 600. The Indiana Supreme Court has been involved with many important cases in U.S. jurisprudence, including Hess v. Indiana, Bonner v. Daniels, and Timbs v. Indiana.

The Court of Appeals

The Court of Appeals of Indiana is the state’s second highest appellate court. The Court of Appeals hears appeals from the state’s trial courts and some state agencies. The Court does not preside over trials and must accept all appeals sent to it, except cases in which the death penalty or life-without-parole is rendered, which are appealed directly to the Indiana Supreme Court; cases involving statutes are declared unconstitutional by a trial court, which are automatically appealed to the Supreme Court; attorney disciplinary cases, which go to the Supreme Court; and cases involving taxation, which go to the Indiana Tax Court.

The Indiana Court of Appeals is composed of 15 judges, who hear cases on three judge panels. The Court of Appeals is divided across five districts, with three judges representing each district. Judges on the Court have no deadline for deciding a case, but typically issue decisions within four months of receiving the appeal. This process allows the Indiana Court of Appeals to decide over 2,000 cases each year.

Judges on the Court of Appeals are appointed by the Governor after the Indiana Judicial Nominating Commission selects three candidates. Judges serve an initial term of two years, then must stand for retention. If they are elected, they will serve a ten year term. To be eligible to serve on the Indiana Court of Appeals, a person must be a U.S. citizen; an Indiana resident; admitted to practice law in the state for at least 10 years or have served as a trial court judge for at least five years; and under the age of 75, since retirement at 75 is mandatory.

The Tax Court

The Indiana Tax Court has exclusive jurisdiction over any case arising under the Indiana tax laws and that is an initial appeal of a final determination made by the Indiana Department of State Revenue or the Indiana Board of Tax Review. The Tax Court also has jurisdiction over certain appeals from the Department of Local Government Finance and appeals of inheritance tax determinations from the courts of probate jurisdiction.

Indiana Trial Courts

Indiana has three different types of trial courts: Circuit Courts, Superior Courts, and Local City or Town Courts.

Circuit Courts

The Indiana Circuit Courts are one the state’s trial courts of general jurisdiction. The Circuit Courts have unlimited jurisdiction over trial cases unless a different court has exclusive or concurrent jurisdiction.

Each of Indiana’s 92 counties has a Circuit Court, except Ohio and Dearborn Counties, which share one Circuit Court. Judges for the Circuit Courts are elected in partisan elections to six year terms, after which they must run for re-election to serve additional terms. To be eligible to be a Circuit Court judge, a person must be a resident of the Circuit Court district and admitted to practice law in Indiana.

Superior Courts

The Indiana Superior Courts are also general jurisdiction trial courts that handle all trial cases and can establish small claims cases and minor offense divisions. Almost every county in Indiana has a Superior Court in addition to their Circuit Courts.

Judges are elected to serve on the Superior Courts by a partisan election. Currently, there are 318 judges spread across the Superior and Circuit Courts. To be eligible to be a Superior Court judge, a person must be a resident of the Superior Court district and admitted to practice law in Indiana.

Local City and Town Courts

Municipalities may establish City or Town Courts which have limited jurisdiction over violations of city ordinances, misdemeanors, infractions, and traffic matters.

Currently, there are 16 Town Court judges and 38 City Court judges. These judges are elected in partisan elections to four year terms, after which they must run for re-election if they wish to serve more terms. City and Town Court judges must be a resident of the municipality and licensed to practice law in Indiana.

Indiana Commission on Judicial Qualifications

Created by the Indiana Constitution in 1970, the Indiana Commission on Judicial Qualifications is a forum for complaints alleging judicial ethical misconduct. The Commission aims “to assist the judiciary in maintaining the appropriate balance independence and accountability.”

The Commission on Judicial Qualifications has the authority to investigate complaints concerning Indiana judges and to determine whether a particular complaint has merit. If the case is serious, the Commission may decide to file misconduct charges with the Indiana Supreme Court after investigation. Only the Indiana Supreme Court has jurisdiction to impose formal judicial discipline, such as removal, suspension, or formal discipline.

Indiana Court Statistics

The Indiana Supreme Court sees more criminal appeals than any other appeal type.
In 2021, there were 12,563 cases in Indiana that used court interpreter services.
43,447 marriage licenses were issued in Indiana in 2021.
In 2021, over 8 million cases were e-filed in the state.

Why use UniCourt to search for Indiana Court Cases?

UniCourt is your single source for state and federal court records, offering comprehensive court coverage and the most complete and accurate dataset available.

Each day, UniCourt collects all of the newly filed civil and criminal cases in the Indiana Courts we cover and lets you search through those new case filings in our CrowdSourced Library™. You can also use UniCourt to track state court litigation and get real-time case alerts sent directly to your inbox. Additionally, UniCourt empowers you to download court documents on-demand without ever having to login to a government court database, and gives you unlimited access to download millions of free state and federal court documents in our CrowdSourced Library™.

UniCourt provides you with access to several Indiana State Courts, including many of the largest counties across the state, such as the Marion County Circuit Court, the Lake County Circuit Court, the Allen County Circuit Court, the Hamilton County Circuit Court, and the St. Joseph County Circuit Court.

UniCourt also gives you access to court records for all of the federal courts across the state of Indiana.

UniCourt’s industry-leading Legal Data APIs provide Enterprise users with on-demand, bulk access to structured data from Indiana state and federal courts. Our Legal Data as a Service (LDaaS) collects, organizes, standardizes, and normalizes court data from Indiana state courts and all federal courts, and makes it readily available via our UniCourt Enterprise API for business development, competitive intelligence, litigation strategy, and docket management.

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Public Access to Indiana State Court Records

About the Indiana State Court System

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Indiana Court Statistics

Why use UniCourt to search for Indiana Court Cases?

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