To search Arkansas court records online, start with Search ARCourts, the free public portal run by the Administrative Office of the Courts, which covers state circuit courts and a growing number of district courts.1Arkansas Judiciary. Search ARCourts For federal cases filed in Arkansas, you need PACER instead. And for older files, certified copies, or anything that never made it into the electronic system, you go to the circuit clerk in the county where the case was filed.
Search ARCourts for State Cases
Search ARCourts replaced the older CourtConnect platform and pulls from courts that use the Contexte case management system. Every circuit court provides at least basic case statistics through the portal, and most offer expanded detail.1Arkansas Judiciary. Search ARCourts
You can search by a party’s name or by case number. A result page typically shows the parties, the assigned judge, a list of filings, charges and dispositions, upcoming court dates, and any judgments entered. Some courts also link directly to the filed documents so you can read the motions and orders themselves. Whether those document images appear depends on the specific court and record type.1Arkansas Judiciary. Search ARCourts
The portal is free. There’s no account required to run a search.
PACER for Federal Cases in Arkansas
Search ARCourts does not include federal cases. If the matter was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas (Little Rock) or the Western District of Arkansas (Fort Smith), you have to use PACER, the nationwide electronic access system for federal courts.2PACER. Arkansas Eastern District Court
PACER charges $0.10 per page of search results or documents, capped at the equivalent of 30 pages per document. You need to register for a free PACER account before you can search or download anything.3United States Courts. Electronic Public Access Fee Schedule If you’re not sure whether the case is state or federal, run Search ARCourts first because it’s free, then move to PACER if nothing turns up.
When to Go to the Circuit Clerk
Older records and files that were never digitized aren’t in Search ARCourts. Those live with the circuit clerk in the county where the case was filed. The circuit clerk is the official custodian of all circuit court proceedings, including criminal, civil, domestic relations, probate, and juvenile files.4Pulaski County Circuit Clerk. County Records You can visit the office in person during business hours or send a written request by mail.
Copies cost money. Fees are set by each local office under Arkansas administrative rules, and per-page rates vary by county. A certified copy, which bears the clerk’s seal, costs more than a standard photocopy. Certified copies are commonly required by other agencies like the Social Security Administration or other courts.4Pulaski County Circuit Clerk. County Records Older files stored offsite take longer to pull.
One thing to know before you spend time chasing an old case: Arkansas law sets minimum retention periods for district court records, and after those periods pass, files can be destroyed following an audit. Case indices, dockets, active warrants, expungement and sealed records, DWI convictions, and domestic battering files are kept permanently. Complete case files and written exhibits (with a few exceptions) are kept at least seven years. Financial and administrative records are kept at least three years.5Justia Law. Arkansas Code 16-10-211 – Record Retention Schedule If you’re hunting for a district court file more than seven years old, there’s a real chance it no longer exists. Circuit courts follow a separate schedule, but the pattern holds: the older the record, the less certain its survival.
How to Get Better Search Results
The single most useful piece of information you can bring is the case number. It pulls an exact match instantly.
Without a case number, search by the full legal name of a party using exact spelling. Misspellings and nicknames are the most common reason a search returns nothing. Adding a date range for when the case was filed or resolved helps a lot with common names. A search for “John Smith” in a large county with no date filter can return hundreds of hits.
Why a Case Might Not Show Up
If you know a case exists but can’t find it, the record may not be public. Administrative Order No. 19 sets the rules for court record access in Arkansas, and several categories of information are kept confidential.6Arkansas Judiciary. Administrative Order No. 19 Access to Court Records
Juvenile court records are confidential at the circuit court’s discretion, with the default being closed to protect the identity of minors. Adoption records are sealed unless a law specifically authorizes access or a court grants an order for good cause. Adoptions finalized before May 19, 1986, are confidential by statute and can only be disclosed under the procedures in the adoption statute.7Justia Law. Arkansas Code 9-9-217 – Confidentiality of Hearings and Records Other excluded records include grand jury minutes, undisclosed criminal investigations, unpublished drafts of judicial opinions, state income tax records, trade secrets, and working papers of judges and their staff. Some financial details in divorce or guardianship proceedings may also be restricted.6Arkansas Judiciary. Administrative Order No. 19 Access to Court Records
Expunged and sealed records are removed from public view entirely. For sealed records, the court may refuse to even confirm the case exists.6Arkansas Judiciary. Administrative Order No. 19 Access to Court Records Under Arkansas law, most misdemeanors can be expunged after the sentence is completed, and the court will generally grant the petition unless someone presents clear and convincing evidence against it. A handful of misdemeanor offenses carry a mandatory five-year waiting period after sentence completion, including third-degree battery, third-degree domestic battering, certain sexual offenses, DWI, and negligent homicide charged as a Class A misdemeanor. If you’re searching and coming up empty despite knowing a case was filed, expungement or sealing is one plausible reason.
Even in records that are publicly accessible, certain personal identifiers must be redacted before filing: Social Security numbers (only the last four digits may remain), financial account numbers, driver’s license and state ID numbers, dates of birth, names of minors, home street addresses (zip codes may remain), and telephone numbers.6Arkansas Judiciary. Administrative Order No. 19 Access to Court Records That’s why the version of a filing you pull online may look partially blanked out.
Challenging a Denial of Access
If a clerk refuses to release a record you believe should be public, Administrative Order No. 19 lays out a formal challenge process. You submit a written, notarized request explaining either why the public interest in disclosure outweighs the potential harm, or why the information should not have been excluded from public access in the first place.6Arkansas Judiciary. Administrative Order No. 19 Access to Court Records
Once filed, the parties in the case must be notified, and a hearing must be held within 30 days. You carry the burden of proof by a preponderance of the evidence, meaning you need to show it’s more likely than not that disclosure is appropriate. If the court grants access, it can place restrictions on how you use the information.6Arkansas Judiciary. Administrative Order No. 19 Access to Court Records The notarization requirement and the hearing structure are worth taking seriously; come prepared with a concrete public-interest reason rather than curiosity.