Alaska Court Records Search: Detailed Overview

About 150 million cases are filed each year in U.S. courts. Like many other states, Alaska, with its 800k population, also resolves hundreds of thousands of them annually.
 

Like most people everywhere, Alaska residents tend to have a particular interest in searching for Alaska court records. This comes in handy when people either hire a potential new employee or have a suspicious neighbor moving into the house next door. Alaska's courts fall under the state court system and have one federal district court and 79 Native American tribal courts.

If you ever need to run an Alaska court record search, continue reading this article as it will cover all aspects related to Alaska court information search.

What are Alaska civil court records?

Before examining how to run the Alaska court records search, one needs to understand what is considered Alaska civil court records. A lawsuit represents a written claim from a plaintiff against a defendant, and once filed, it is stored in one of the local courts. Most of the court cases represent traffic violations, small claims disputes, and other minor cases, which fall under the civil court legislation.

Typical Alaska civil court records contain a brief description of the claim and the contact details of each of the parties involved. Standard personal information mentioned within Alaska civil court records includes:

• First and last names of the parties involved

• Date of birth of the parties involved

• Information about a particular case

Types of Alaska civil court records

Generally, all the Alaska civil court records can be split into two categories: public and confidential. Public Alaska court information can be easily accessible to the public. 

In contrast, personal Alaska court records can only be accessed upon request if the judge decides you are eligible to do so. As a rule, most of the Alaska court records are public. However, there are cases where some of these records could be made confidential upon a special request of either of the parties involved.

To name a few examples: confidential cases include "juvenile dependency" and "juvenile delinquency." Alaska civil court records on "juvenile dependency" contain records of cases where the child is removed from their parents, whereas the "juvenile delinquency" court cases showcase the accusations that a child has committed a crime. In any of the cases mentioned above, Alaska court records are hidden from the public eye.

Nonetheless, some Alaska court records contain both public and confidential information. In other words, public case records would have a few documents hidden from the public eye. This happens if the information contained in those Alaska court records is considered "sensitive" for either of the parties and may negatively impact their lives.

Where to look for Alaska court records?

There are two ways Alaska court records are stored: paper and electronic court databases. Most Alaska courts keep the Alaska civil court records physically on paper. 

Some courts have electronic databases with all the Alaska court information, accessible directly at the courthouse or remotely. In case an electronic database exists, all you need to have is an electronic device like a laptop, smartphone, or tablet with Internet access. Once you identify which possibilities the court offers, you can run an Alaska court search by any of the following possibilities:

• Coming to the courthouse and requesting access to the physical Alaska civil court records.

• Asking to run the Alaska court information search on any of the databases in the courthouse.

• Running the Alaska court records search remotely if your court offers such a possibility.

How to conduct an Alaska court search?

Using the official Alaska Court system website (www.courts.alaska.gov) offers access to thousands of court records remotely. We recommend running the Alaska court search to identify where the particular case was held first. 

This will noticeably speed up the Alaska civil court records search, as it will narrow down the number of cases you search from.

Who can run the Alaska court records search?

There are a few cases where you can request full remote access to the Alaska court information in case of the particular Alaska court where your case is held offers such a possibility:

• If you are a party in the case

Being a party in the case offers access to all the Alaska court records considered "confidential" or "sensitive"

• If you gained permission from the court itself by being one of the parties below:

• Person Authorized by a Party

If the party in the case needs some external help, they may assign another person to help them. In this case, a person authorized by a party can run an Alaska court records search. However, this does not apply to electronic records of criminal, juvenile justice, child welfare cases, or confidential electronic records.

• Court-appointed People

In some cases, a court might appoint people to access the Alaska court information.

• Legal Aid and Government Staff can remotely access public Alaska civil court records.

This article has covered all aspects and specifics of the Alaska civil court records search.