Minnesota Court Cases: Search MCRO, Courthouse, and Federal Records

A Minnesota court records search usually starts online at Minnesota Court Records Online (MCRO), the state judicial branch’s free public portal for district court cases. MCRO gives you docket entries, hearing dates, party names, and many downloadable documents filed after July 2015, from any computer or phone.¹ For records that aren’t available remotely, every district courthouse has public terminals with fuller access, and the Minnesota State Law Library in St. Paul offers the same terminals.² Some records are confidential by law and won’t appear either way.

How to Search MCRO

MCRO lets you search district court cases four ways:

Person or business name: first and last name for an individual, or the business entity name
Case number: the court file number assigned when the case was opened
Attorney name or bar number: useful when you know who represented a party but not the case itself
Citation number: the number on a traffic or petty misdemeanor citation

A separate Judgment Search tab pulls docketed money judgments by debtor name and shows whether a judgment has been satisfied.¹

Name searches work best with exact spelling. If nothing comes up, try spelling variations or switch to the case number search. You need at least a party name or case number to pull anything up.³ The Minnesota Judicial Branch publishes a name-search tips handout on the MCRO page that’s worth reading before you start.

What You Can See and Download

Every MCRO case shows a Register of Actions — the chronological log of filings, scheduled hearings, and the case outcome — along with the case title, parties, and court location.¹

Which underlying documents you can download depends on the case type and filing date:

Criminal and civil cases: all public documents filed on or after July 1, 2015
Probate, guardianship, conservatorship, and trust cases: all public documents filed on or after July 1, 2015
Family cases (divorce, custody, paternity): only court orders, appellate opinions, and court-prepared notices, not party filings like motions or affidavits
Older documents from July 1, 2005 through June 30, 2015: judgments, orders, appellate opinions, and court-generated notices only, and only in case types that were publicly accessible at the time of filing

Documents filed before July 2005 are generally not available through MCRO.¹ Full trial exhibits and hearing transcripts are also generally unavailable online, regardless of case type.

Case Types MCRO Won’t Show Online

Several categories of public records are blocked from internet display even though they are technically public and viewable at a courthouse. MCRO does not provide online access to any documents in:

Domestic abuse cases (Orders for Protection)
Harassment restraining orders
Civil commitment cases
Juvenile delinquency cases involving felony charges where the juvenile was 16 or older
Child in Need of Protection or Services (CHIPS) cases

These limits exist mainly to protect vulnerable individuals. For domestic abuse and harassment cases, the federal Violence Against Women Act limits online publication of protection order information that could reveal a protected person’s identity or location.¹ To view public records in these case types, you need to visit a courthouse terminal in person.

Searching at a Courthouse

Every Minnesota district courthouse has public access terminals, and these offer the most complete electronic access to court records statewide.² The terminals show everything MCRO shows, plus documents and case types that are restricted from internet viewing. The Minnesota State Law Library in St. Paul has the same terminals and is open to the public.³

You don’t need to go to the courthouse in the county where the case was filed. Because the terminals connect to the statewide system, you can search any county’s records from any courthouse. Paper files, though, are stored locally, and older or uncommon files may be in off-site storage. Court administration staff can retrieve them, but it may take time. Bring the case number or the full names of the parties before you go.

Appellate Cases: Court of Appeals and Supreme Court

Minnesota Court of Appeals and Supreme Court records live in a separate system called P-MACS (Public Minnesota Appellate Courts Case Management System). P-MACS gives remote access to appellate dockets, orders, and opinions.⁴ Some documents are marked “Courthouse View” and can only be opened from a courthouse or State Law Library terminal, similar to how MCRO handles restricted district court items.

The opinion archive is deep. Supreme Court opinions and orders go back to May 1996, and Court of Appeals published and unpublished opinions cover the same span. New Court of Appeals opinions are released on Mondays; Supreme Court opinions come out on Wednesdays. An appellate briefs database is also available for cases that produced an opinion, with coverage starting around 2005.⁴

Federal Cases Filed in Minnesota

MCRO and courthouse terminals only cover Minnesota state courts. Federal civil lawsuits, federal criminal cases, and bankruptcy proceedings in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota run through PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records).⁵ A PACER account is free to register, though there are per-page charges for document access. The federal courthouse in Minneapolis also has free public terminals in the Clerk’s Office where you can view federal case records without charge.

Confidential and Sealed Records

Not every court record is public. The Minnesota Rules of Public Access to Records of the Judicial Branch spell out what is off-limits, and Rule 4 lists the categories that are automatically restricted:⁶

Domestic abuse and harassment records, until the court order is served on the respondent
Court services records, including materials gathered for sentencing recommendations, custody evaluations, and psychological assessments
Most juvenile delinquency, child protection, and juvenile appeal proceedings, except delinquency cases involving felony charges where the juvenile was 16 or older
All records in adoption proceedings
Medical records in civil commitment cases, and all records in commitment proceedings for a minor
Judicial work product, meaning judges’ notes, memoranda, and drafts

Beyond these automatic restrictions, a judge can order any case record sealed or expunged on a case-by-case basis. If you are a party to a sealed or confidential case, you may be able to get access by filing a formal request with the court.⁷

Getting Copies and What They Cost

Once you find what you need, you can request copies through the court administrator’s office. Minnesota eliminated fees for uncertified (plain) copies as of July 1, 2023, so a basic photocopy or downloaded court document costs nothing.⁸ Documents downloaded directly through MCRO are free as well.⁹

Certified and exemplified copies still carry fees:

Certified copy: $14 per document. These bear a court seal and are used for official purposes, such as updating a driver’s license after a legal name change.
Exemplified copy: $14 per document. These carry signatures from both the judicial officer and the court administrator verifying the document’s validity.
Certified and exemplified copy: $28 per document if you need both.

You can request copies in person at the court administration counter, by mail using a copy request form, or electronically. Payment is typically by check or money order payable to the District Court Administrator.¹⁰

Fee Waivers If You Can’t Pay

If you can’t afford court fees, you can apply for a fee waiver, also called in forma pauperis or IFP status. You may qualify if your income is at or below 125% of the federal poverty level, if you receive public assistance, or if you can show you lack the money to pay. Fill out an affidavit and bring it to the courthouse with proof of financial need, such as a pay stub, tax return, or documentation of public assistance.¹¹

A judicial officer reviews the request and can waive all or part of the fees. The waiver only covers costs specifically named in the order, so it won’t automatically cover every expense you might run into during a case.¹¹

When a Record Can’t Be Found

If you’re searching for a record that should exist and nothing comes up, it may have been expunged. Minnesota’s expungement framework under Chapter 609A allows certain criminal records to be sealed from public view through several routes:

Automatic expungement of qualifying records without any petition, including some controlled substance offenses and certain cannabis-related offenses
Petition-based expungement, filed with the court under specific eligibility grounds
Expungement by prosecutor agreement, in some situations, without a full petition
Expungement triggered by a pardon extraordinary from the governor

Expunged records don’t appear in MCRO or on courthouse terminals.¹² If you think you’re eligible to expunge your own record, the petition starts at the district court in the county where the case was originally filed.

1
Minnesota Judicial Branch. Minnesota Court Records Online (MCRO)
2
Minnesota Judicial Branch. Access Case Records
3
Minnesota State Law Library. Court Records
4
Minnesota State Law Library. Opinions and Access to Records – Appeals
5
U.S. District Court, District of Minnesota. Public Access to Court Records (PACER)
6
Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Rules of Public Access to Records of the Judicial Branch
7
Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Rule 4 – Accessibility to Case Records
8
Minnesota Judicial Branch. $8 Fee for Uncertified Copies of Court Documents Eliminated
9
Minnesota Judicial Branch. District Court Fees
10
Minnesota Judicial Branch. Copy Requests
11
Minnesota Judicial Branch. Fee Waiver (IFP)
12
Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Statutes Chapter 609A – Expungement