Maine Warrant Search: How to View Warrant Records in Maine

Do you have cause to suspect that the Police are planning your arrest or a raid of your property? 

Have you recently been involved in an infraction and are growing apprehensive of an unannounced visit by law enforcement officers as the days go by? 

If you're unsure as to the answers to these questions, it is necessary to find out for yourself.

The police may just be biding their time in a bid to get a warrant for your arrest, so you must make moves to avert this situation in due course. 

You can start by finding out if there are warrants issued against you, and this article will show you how to do just that.

What Is A Warrant In Maine

A warrant issued in Maine allows law enforcement officers to execute a specific order(as specified in the warrant) that is necessary for the maintenance of public order. 

The order may call for them to arrest a person or search their property. And while at it, their actions (the officers) will not be seen to be a violation of the person's fundamental rights under the Fourth Amendment.

Local law enforcement agencies such as the Police, Sheriff, or the FBI at the federal level mostly use these warrants whenever they need to effect an arrest of a person as part of a criminal investigation. 

The warrants are issued by a judge or magistrate after the requesting law enforcement officials provide them with sufficient evidence to support their request. 

This evidence is officially termed "probable cause," proving that the arrest or search is crucial to the investigation of a previous, active, or potential criminal activity.

Other than arrest and search warrants, tax complaint warrants, child support warrants, and bench warrants (among others) are the most popular warrant types executed in Maine. 

The warrants all bear the signature, title, and name of the issuing party, the subject's name, location, offense, and a validity period. Interested persons can find warrants issued in Maine by following the suggestions discussed below. 

Through Court Records

The easiest way to find warrants through the courts in Maine is to go through the District Clerk or Clerk's Office in whichever county you reside in. 

If you have an active warrant issued against you by virtue of a previous infraction, you can visit your county court to check the warrant's status.

You'd most likely be required to provide your names and age alongside other relevant personal information in addition to a case/docket number to find the warrants. 

But if you're not exactly sure of the specific court that issued the warrant, you can resort to the Maine eCourts public portal to check the general record database of a select group of courts in Maine.

At this portal, you should find the SMART SEARCH feature to be of help in finding warrants issued for misdemeanors such as traffic violations. 

By typing a name, traffic ticket number, or court case docket number in the designated search fields, you can find warrants issued against residents of Maine. However, this service is only available for courts that have adopted eFiling—a system of electronic court record keeping. 

The State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) 

Interested persons can carry out a criminal background check at the State Bureau of Investigation, Maine, and find warrants featured in their criminal records. 

This option can be taken by persons who have a history with the SBI, as well as those who have outstanding warrants. The Bureau works in conjunction with the Maine State Department to respond to online-based requests for access to its record database.

At its official search portal, the SBI provides an online name-based record search for $31. The alternative is to send emailed or mailed requests to the bureau. 

Whichever route you choose to take, you should find any active warrants issued against you, with further information on how to respond to them included as a bonus. 

At Law Enforcement Agencies

You can either stop by the Office of the Sheriff or the Police in your county and request to view your criminal history, or more generally, request a personal background check. 

The caveat in this option is that you may be arrested on the spot if you have an active arrest warrant.

It is therefore advised that you hire a criminal defense attorney to work around this problem. 

Using your personal information and identification details, they can find warrants issued against you and start arranging to challenge any available ones. 

Third-Party Websites

With a third-party website, you can run a background check on anyone whose public records are publicly available, and then find any warrants that have been issued against them.

Most of these websites work by providing name-based and location-based searches bordering on the warrants and the subject of the warrant.

This means that you'll mostly get to provide a name and location for the search to take effect. 

And while the results draw from the vast pool of public record information in their possession, the focus for people in search of warrants should lean towards arrest, criminal, and court records. 

A thorough search through these records should provide you with warrants.