To look up court cases in Kansas, use one of four routes depending on the court: CaseSearch for district court cases, the Kansas Appellate Court Public Access Portal for Supreme Court and Court of Appeals cases, PACER for federal cases handled in the District of Kansas, and the clerk of the district court where the case was filed for anything not available online. Basic searches on the state portals are free.
What to Have Ready Before You Search
The case number is the cleanest way in. Kansas case numbers use a two-letter county code, the four-digit year, a case type abbreviation, and a six-digit sequential number. A criminal case filed in Riley County would look like RL-2019-CR-000001.1Kansas Judicial Branch. How to Use CaseSearch Cases filed before a county moved to the current system may drop the county prefix and start with the year.
Without a case number, you can search by the name of a person or business. Spelling has to be exact. A search for “Jon Smith” won’t return “John Smith,” and you’ll assume the case doesn’t exist. For a business, use the full registered name rather than a trade name. Knowing the county helps too, since cases are generally filed where the incident happened or where the defendant lives.
Searching District Court Cases on CaseSearch
Kansas district court records live on CaseSearch at casesearch.kscourts.gov.2Kansas Case Search. Search – Kansas Case Search You can search by case number, party name, business name, or citation. No account is needed for basic searches. The results list shows matching cases with filing dates and case status.
Open a case and you’ll see its docket: motions filed, hearings scheduled, orders entered by the judge, in chronological order. That timeline tells you where the case stands without a trip to the courthouse. Watch the status field. “Disposed” means finished; “pending” means still active.
Guest users see basic case details. Elevated access, which reveals additional restricted information, requires an approved account verified through ID.me and is limited to people with a specific legal role in the case, such as an attorney of record.2Kansas Case Search. Search – Kansas Case Search Most searchers get what they need from the guest view.
CaseSearch provides general reference information, and the site itself notes that additional details may be viewed at a courthouse terminal.2Kansas Case Search. Search – Kansas Case Search If you need the full text of a filed document rather than just the docket entry, you’ll likely have to request it from the clerk.
Searching Supreme Court and Court of Appeals Cases
Appellate cases are tracked separately through the Kansas Appellate Court Public Access Portal at portal-kansas.tylertech.cloud.3Kansas Judicial Branch. Search Appellate Court Records The portal covers both the Kansas Supreme Court and the Kansas Court of Appeals and lets you search by case number, case type, party name, attorney name, and hearing date.
One limitation matters here: only records and documents filed on or after March 13, 2025, are available through this portal.3Kansas Judicial Branch. Search Appellate Court Records For older appellate documents, contact the Clerk of the Appellate Courts. Juvenile offender cases, disciplinary proceedings, and original actions are temporarily unavailable on the portal.
The Kansas Judicial Branch also maintains an older Appellate Case Inquiry System containing the register of actions for cases brought before the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals, searchable by name, appellate case number, or the county where the case originated.4Kansas Judicial Branch. Cases Published opinions from both appellate courts are available for free through the Kansas Judicial Branch website.
Federal Cases: Using PACER
State portals only cover Kansas state courts. Bankruptcy filings, federal criminal prosecutions, and civil lawsuits filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas sit in a different system.5United States District Court. District of Kansas
That system is PACER, the Public Access to Court Electronic Records service. It covers more than one billion documents across all federal courts, including district, bankruptcy, and appellate courts.6PACER. Public Access to Court Electronic Records You can search within the court where the case was filed or use the PACER Case Locator to search a nationwide index. A free PACER account is required.
PACER charges $0.10 per page for documents, search results, and reports, capped at $3.00 per individual document. Audio recordings run $2.40 per file. If your charges total $30 or less in a calendar quarter, they’re waived entirely.7PACER. PACER Pricing – How Fees Work That’s enough for a fair number of documents on a single case at no cost.
One thing that catches people off guard: PACER charges for search results even when the search returns no matches. The fee is based on pages returned, so refine your search terms before running it rather than firing off broad queries.
When a Case Doesn’t Show Up
If a search returns nothing, the case may be sealed rather than nonexistent. Not everything in a Kansas court file is public. The Kansas Open Records Act at K.S.A. 45-215 through 45-223 presumes government records are open, but K.S.A. 45-221 carves out significant exceptions.8Kansas Office of Revisor of Statutes. Kansas Code 45-215 – Title of Act Additional records can be restricted by judicial rule, court order, or case law.
The Kansas Judicial Branch identifies these commonly requested records as unavailable to the public:9Kansas Judicial Branch. Request Court Records
- Adoption records, sealed to protect the privacy of all parties involved
- Certain criminal investigation records, if disclosure would interfere with an active investigation or endanger someone’s safety
- Expunged criminal records, treated as though the case never existed once a court grants expungement
- Many juvenile and child-in-need-of-care records, restricted to protect minors
- Grand jury proceedings, kept secret by design
- Personal information about public employees
Individual judges can also seal specific documents or entire cases when privacy or safety concerns justify it.
Getting Copies From the Clerk
When you need physical copies, certified documents, or records that aren’t online, go to the Clerk of the District Court in the county where the case was filed. You can submit a written request by mail or visit in person. The Kansas Judicial Branch website has a directory with contact information and office hours for every district court.
Under K.S.A. 45-218, the clerk must act on your request as soon as possible, and no later than the end of the third business day after receiving it.10Justia Law. Kansas Code 45-218 – Inspection of Records; Request; Response; Refusal, When; Fees That doesn’t guarantee the records in hand within three days. If the clerk can’t provide immediate access, they must explain the delay and give the earliest date the records will be available. If your request is denied, you can ask for a written explanation citing the specific legal basis.
Fees are set by the judicial administrator and apply statewide, though individual district courts may adjust them:9Kansas Judicial Branch. Request Court Records
- Copies: $0.25 per page
- Certified documents: $10 per document
- Mailing: $0.50 for the first five pages, then $0.25 for each additional five pages
- Faxing: $0.50 per page, limited to 15 pages
- Clerical staff time: $20 per hour, billed in quarter-hour increments
- Professional staff time: $60 per hour, billed in quarter-hour increments
You may have to pay the estimated cost upfront. Certified copies carry the clerk’s official seal and are accepted as authentic court records in legal proceedings. If you need a Kansas court document recognized in another state, ask specifically for a certified or exemplified copy, since some jurisdictions require additional authentication.