Minnesota Public Records: How to Perform a Minnesota Public Records Search

If you live in Minnesota, USA, you will not experience much difficulty in finding Minnesota public records. 

You can go through some of Minnesota's public agencies and other third-party websites on your way to finding these Minnesota public records. 

And while at it, you'll only have to pay certain fees and meet a few conditions, as you'll soon find out in this article.

Minnesota Public Records: Criminal Records

The data contained in criminal records cover several stages preceding the conviction of offenders, from the compilation of arrest data to the recording of charges, dispositions, sentences, etc. 

Law enforcement officials such as the Police and the Sheriff's Office are responsible for entering the information contained in these Minnesota public records and are thus also responsible for disseminating the records.

And while criminal record checks may be free to state residents, a bulk of the sensitive and confidential information may be excluded from them. 

To get copies of these criminal records, you can also mail the BCA (Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension) via the address:

Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension,
CHA Unit,
1430 Maryland Avenue,
St. Paul, MN 55106

Another option is to find On demand court records that contain information from a criminal case-related trial. 

You can achieve this by visiting the Court Case Search platform maintained by the Minnesota Judicial Branch.

Minnesota Public Records: Court Records

The primary step to finding your court record is to locate the court that has previously sat over your case. 

You are expected to provide the clerk with certain information required to facilitate the record search, such as the case number, or details of the parties to the case. 

Subsequently, you may also get to present a valid photo ID and make the necessary payments.

The charges are usually $14 and $8 per copy for certified and uncertified court records respectively, and $28 for copies that are both exemplary and certified. 

Other court records sources include the public access terminals that provide electronic access to a vast stock of court records from District Courts.

The Public Access Remote View Portal of the Minnesota Trial Courts also allows access to these Minnesota public records. 

On this portal, you can find cases by initiating a search against a case number, name of attorney, or party involved. 

Then there's the Minnesota Appellate Courts Case Management System which can prove useful for finding case records and related data from the Minnesota Supreme Court and Court of Appeals.

Minnesota Public Records: Marriage Records 

For a $9 fee, you can obtain a copy of a Minnesota marriage record from the county where the marriage license was granted. 

The state also operates an official marriage record online database that aggregates records from most of its counties and custodian agencies.

If you do not find the record of interest to you in this database, you may have to look elsewhere on third-party websites. 

This is because not all counties in Minnesota subscribe to this system of online record inspection. 

Minnesota Public Records: Divorce Records

Persons interested in obtaining Divorce records in Minnesota have a couple of options to choose from. 

They can reach out to the clerk of the county district court that presided over the divorce case. 

Alternatively, they can also use the central portal provided by the state's judiciary for use in viewing divorce records available online.

Using a known divorce case number as a search parameter, you can find information about divorces that were settled in the state. 

This is helped by the fact that Minnesota divorce records are largely publicly available online, except for cases where the sought-after record is sealed. 

Minnesota Public Records: Birth Records

The official record custodian for Minnesota birth records is the Minnesota State Office of Vital Records. 

To obtain certified copies of this record, you'll be charged $26 per copy requested. 

You'd also have to prove tangible interest in the record of interest. In contrast, non-certified copies cost $13 per copy obtained and an extra $6 for each additional copy requested.

You can either submit a birth record application form or a birth certificate application based on whatever purpose you aim to achieve. 

In both cases, the requesting party must mail or fax their application containing the form and all the relevant documents to:

Minnesota Department of Health,
Central Cashiering – Vital Records,
PO Box 64499,
St. Paul, MN 55164-0499,
Fax: (651) 201-5740

Minnesota Public Records: Death Records

Michigan Death Records are managed by separate tiers of government administration to the effect that they account for deaths recorded in the state over different timelines. 

On one hand, deaths that occurred before 1997 are covered in birth records available at the local vital records office situated in the particular county of death.

On the other hand, deaths that happened post-1997 are accounted for in death records available for collection in any county statewide. 

Other than that, the Minnesota Department of Health database offers death certificate search services to people who query it via mail. 

You can get certified copies of this public record for $13 per copy (and $6 for each additional one) once you can provide proof of tangible interest in the sought-after record.

This is in addition to the need for a notary public to witness your signing and dating of the application form. 

Non-certified copies cost the same but require that requesters submit a different application form.