How to search Texas court records

Texas's statewide portal reaches most, but not all, courts. A few jurisdictions run their own separate systems — see the additional lookups below. Searching itself is free, but the portal requires creating a free account before you can view results.

partial free · account criminal data

Open the official Texas portal →

What's actually there

re:SearchTX is the statewide trial-court search: free registration, all district and county courts integrated by Nov 1 2025, documents $1 for 1-10 pages then $0.10/page. Criminal cases are optional per county. Appellate cases are in the separate free TAMES search (search.txcourts.gov).

Other official lookups for Texas

How Texas's courts are organized

Texas has two high courts: the Supreme Court of Texas for civil and juvenile appeals and the Court of Criminal Appeals for criminal appeals. Below them sit the Courts of Appeals, now numbered 1st through 15th.

The district courts are the general trial courts, and every county is served by at least one. The Office of Court Administration's October 2026 chart counts 519 district courts. Each of the 254 counties also has one constitutional county court, and larger counties have statutory county courts at law and probate courts; the chart counts 541 county-level courts in all.

At the local level are 797 justice courts, organized by county precinct, which hear Class C misdemeanors, small claims and minor civil cases, and 954 municipal courts in incorporated cities, which hear city ordinance violations and fine-only misdemeanors. Most of these are not courts of record, so appeals from them are retried in a county-level court.

Searching Texas court records online

Texas has two official statewide tools. The appellate case search (TAMES) is free with no account and covers the Supreme Court, the Court of Criminal Appeals and the Courts of Appeals. You can search by case number, party names, attorney or bar number, or the trial court's case number. It holds no trial court cases.

For trial courts, the state runs re:SearchTX. Registration is free, and you sign in with an eFileTexas account or create a re:SearchTX one. The Texas Supreme Court required all district and county courts to be integrated by November 1, 2025. Civil case types must be included; criminal case types are optional for each county, so criminal coverage varies.

Public users see public cases and documents filed from November 1, 2018 on, though some courts have loaded older records. Documents cost $1.00 for anything 1 to 10 pages, plus $0.10 for each page after that. Parties and attorneys of record do not pay for documents in their own cases.

Not shown to public users: cases or documents the clerk has secured, and filings marked as containing sensitive information
Justice and municipal court cases are generally searched through the county or city that runs the court
Paid add-ons in re:SearchTX, such as full-text document search and case alerts, are optional

Getting copies and certified copies

Each county keeps its own trial records, and re:SearchTX says everything public on it comes from the county where the case started. Ask the clerk of the court that heard the case: the district court's clerk for district cases, the county clerk's office for county-level courts, and the justice or municipal court itself for those cases. Contact the clerk in the county where the case was filed for certified copies, since a document bought on re:SearchTX is not a certified copy.

Appellate records are kept by the clerk of the appellate court that handled the case.

Records that are not public

Texas has two kinds of record clearing. Expunction, now in Chapter 55A of the Code of Criminal Procedure (in effect since January 1, 2025), destroys arrest records in set situations. For example, under Article 55A.052, if no charge was ever filed, a person can seek expunction 180 days after a Class C arrest, one year after a Class A or B misdemeanor arrest, or three years after a felony arrest. Acquittals and certain dismissals also qualify.

An order of nondisclosure under Chapter 411 of the Government Code does not erase a record but bars criminal justice agencies from releasing it to the public. Section 411.0725 covers people who completed deferred adjudication, with waiting periods such as five years for a felony. The Office of Court Administration posts model petitions and orders. For your own case, talk to a lawyer or a legal aid office.

Tip: start with the right clerk

District courts have original jurisdiction over all felony cases, plus divorces and land title suits, so a felony record will be in district court. Fine-only misdemeanors and city ordinance cases are in justice or municipal court, and those courts mostly do not keep a record of trial, so an appeal from them starts over in a county-level court. If re:SearchTX does not show a criminal case, the county may not share criminal records there, and the clerk is the next stop.

Sources

Checked against the official sources above in October 2026. Court rules and fees change; the court's own site is the final word. This is general information, not legal advice.

Federal cases filed in Texas

State portals don't cover federal court. If the case you're looking for might be a federal criminal prosecution, civil suit, or bankruptcy, use CourtRecordsFree's live federal search — it queries CourtListener/RECAP directly and isn't limited to any one state.

Largest counties in Texas

Harris County — Covers all 90+ district courts (civil, criminal, family).
Dallas County — Free, no registration required.

Search tips

Try both "Last, First" and "First Last" — courts index names inconsistently.
Middle initials and suffixes (Jr., III) often matter for common names.
A date of birth or case number is the only reliable way to confirm you found the right person.
An arrest or charge shown in a docket is not a conviction — read the disposition.

Frequently asked questions

Is it free to search Texas court records online?

Searching is free once you create an account on Texas's portal — there's no subscription fee.

Does this include criminal records?

Yes. Texas's portal includes criminal case records alongside civil cases, though sealed and expunged cases are not shown.

Does one search cover the whole state?

Mostly. Texas's statewide portal covers most courts, but a few jurisdictions maintain separate systems — worth checking the additional lookups above if your court isn't listed.

Links move. If the Texas portal link above is dead, tell us on the corrections page.