Most New Jersey court records are open to the public, and you can search them free of charge at njcourts.gov or request copies from the Superior Court Clerk in the county where the case was filed. Copies run $0.05 per letter-size page, and certified copies cost $15 each. Family, juvenile, sealed, and expunged records are the main things you won’t find.
Searching Online at njcourts.gov
The judiciary’s website hosts the main public search tools. The Superior Court portal lets you look up civil and criminal cases by party name, case number, or attorney. Written opinions and attorney discipline matters are searchable from the same site.
Municipal court cases sit in a separate database. Traffic tickets and municipal complaints are searched through the Municipal Court Case Search at portal.njcourts.gov, which is not connected to the Superior Court system. If you’re looking for a speeding ticket or a local ordinance violation, use that portal specifically.
For heavier or repeat use, the judiciary runs a paid Electronic Access Program. Subscribers get remote access to filed documents beyond what the free tools show. It’s built for attorneys, title companies, and professional researchers rather than one-time lookups.
Not everything shows up online. Very recent filings may not have been entered yet, and anything restricted under Rule 1:38 is excluded from the public interface. Family court cases have especially limited online visibility.
Requesting Records In Person or by Mail
If a record isn’t online, or you need a certified copy, go to the Superior Court Clerk’s Office in the county where the case was filed. A case docket number will get you served faster, but the clerk can also search by party name. Standard files can usually be copied while you wait.
Mail and electronic requests work too. The judiciary asks you to fill out a Records Request Form and submit it through the Judiciary Electronic Document Submission system, choosing the Superior Court Clerk’s Office as the division. If you can’t file electronically, mail the completed form to the county clerk’s office with payment. Include the docket number and any other identifying details you have.
Call ahead before driving to a courthouse. Older files are sometimes stored off-site, and pulling them can take several business days.
What Copies Cost
Copy fees are set by statute and don’t vary by county:
- $0.05 per page for letter-size copies
- $0.07 per page for legal-size or larger pages
- $15.00 per certified copy, which carries the court seal verifying authenticity
The per-page rates come from N.J.S.A. 47:1A-5(b); the certification fee comes from N.J.S.A. 22A:2-19.
Surrogate’s court records — wills, letters of administration, and other probate documents — follow a different schedule. Certified probate copies are substantially more expensive, often $50 or more depending on page count. Call the county Surrogate’s Office for an exact quote before you go.
Cash, checks, and money orders are accepted everywhere. Some courthouses take credit cards and some don’t, so confirm before you show up. Electronic submissions generally require a credit card or electronic check.
Records You Can’t Access
New Jersey Court Rule 1:38 makes court records presumptively public but carves out specific categories that stay confidential. The list is longer than most people expect.
Family Cases
Family Part proceedings have the strongest confidentiality protections in the state system. Confidential Litigant Information Sheets, Family Case Information Statements, medical and psychiatric records, child custody evaluations, paternity records, adoption records, and juvenile delinquency records are all withheld. Domestic violence case records, including victim names and addresses, are protected as well. In practice, most family court filings are not searchable online and can’t be pulled by a member of the public at the clerk’s counter. Parties to the case get access through their attorneys.
Criminal Case Materials
Several categories of criminal case records are off-limits: grand jury records, sealed indictments, drug court and pretrial intervention records, victim impact statements, child victim records, and the names and addresses of domestic violence and sexual offense victims. Search warrant applications stay sealed until the warrant is executed and returned. Expunged records are excluded entirely.
Juvenile Records
Under N.J.S.A. 2A:4A-60, records of juveniles charged as delinquent must be “strictly safeguarded from public inspection.”1Justia. New Jersey Code 2A-4A-60 – Disclosure of Juvenile Information; Penalties for Disclosure Access is limited to courts and probation, the Attorney General and county prosecutors, the juvenile’s parents or guardians, and the juvenile’s attorney. Law enforcement can review juvenile records for narrow purposes such as firearms permit processing. Anyone else needs a court order and has to show a legitimate reason.
Sealed and Expunged Records
Sealed records are pulled from public view but still exist inside the court system. Expunged records go further: legally, they’re treated as though they never happened. Neither type appears in a public search or a standard background check. The expungement process itself runs through N.J.S.A. 2C:52-1 through 2C:52-32, with a petition filed in the Superior Court in the county of arrest or prosecution. Law enforcement, prosecutors, and courts retain limited access to expunged files for later criminal matters and firearms permit applications; for everyone else, the record is gone.
Federal Cases Filed in New Jersey
Cases in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey and the Third Circuit Court of Appeals are federal, not state, and they don’t appear on njcourts.gov. Look for them on PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records) at pacer.uscourts.gov instead. PACER charges $0.10 per page with a $3.00 cap per document, and if you spend $30 or less in a calendar quarter the fees are waived entirely, which makes occasional lookups effectively free.2PACER: Federal Court Records. PACER Pricing: How Fees Work
Federal filings are subject to privacy redaction rules under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 5.2, which require filers to redact Social Security numbers, taxpayer IDs, birth dates, minors’ names, and financial account numbers down to partial identifiers.3Legal Information Institute. Rule 5.2 – Privacy Protection for Filings Made with the Court Older federal cases that predate electronic filing may have been sent to the National Archives, which handles those requests separately and charges higher fees.