Information You Need to Locate a Court Case
You can locate a case if you know:
- The name of a party associated with the case, or
- The case number, or
- The District Attorney (DA) case number (criminal cases)
Please note: Civil Limited and Misdemeanor Records may be available only for 10 years for some court locations. Juvenile cases, Traffic/Minor Offense cases, and cases from before 1974 are not included in the Court Index. Additional information on older cases may be found on microfilm. Microfilm research is not performed by court staff; however, microfilm is available at each court location for your use.
Online Case Search – Court Index
Find a case number and location for Civil, Criminal, Family Court, Mental Health and Probate case records.
Information You Receive from the Online Case Search
If the case is filed with the San Diego Superior Court, the results will provide you with:
- Case title
- Case number (this is the number you will use to view the file)
- Case location (this is the court facility which houses the file)
- Case type
- Date filed
- Parties involved in the court case
Criminal case documents are only available to be viewed in-person at the courthouse where the matter was heard or by requesting copies to be mailed to you. Some documents in Civil, Small Claims, and Probate cases initiated on or after January 1, 2008, may be available for purchase from the online Register of Actions. For imaged Family cases filed on or after August 24, 2015, some documents can be purchased online and mailed to you. Please refer to the corresponding Register of Actions link on the Accessing Court Records page.