What are Judgement Records?

Judgment records contain detailed information about a court decision and how it was rendered. They also include transcripts of everything that has been said by all the parties in court, except those that has been ordered by the judge to be stricken off. While these records are readily available through the clerks of the different courts, they can also be conveniently obtained online.

Judgement records are essentially, documentation about a court case’s verdict and these are accessible through various means. A court proceeding would normally have its transcripts taken down by the court reporter (whether employed on a regular basis by the courts or acting on a freelance capacity). Recent technology, however, allows transcription to be documented based on audio or video recordings of the proceedings.

Court reporters (sometimes referred to as stenographers) who take down everything that is mentioned in court use steno machines to “record” the statements made. Any statements indicated by the judge to be “stricken off the record” are duly omitted from such transcription because these statements are deemed inadmissible (for a variety of possible reasons). Since the machines make use of phonetic representations of the statements, these still need to be translated into “real” words.

Now the judgement or verdict, in itself, has its own set of documentation. Whether or not it is a trial by jury or a decision passed down by the judge, the judgement record is, in effect, a statement that contains the decision (of the judge or jury) and the bases for such decision. Decisions are based on the admissible facts of the case presented in court.

Retrieving Judgement Records

Judgement records, just like court case transcripts, can be requested from the court clerk (also sometimes referred to as “clerk of the court”). It is part of this court employee’s function to act as the custodian of all such court-related records (and also incidentally, the court seal which is used to ensure the validity of a court document). This is in addition to other supporting roles like swearing in witnesses and members of the jury or being in charge of collecting fees paid to the court. In understaffed courts, the judge himself or herself may act as the court clerk.

Another way to retrieve such information is through the online service of U.S. courts called PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records). Inquiries about how to retrieve any type of court record are generally free but actual requests online require corresponding fees. Furthermore, PACER also allows for the free transmission of basic information, but only through the phone system.

Finally, judgement records are also available through other Internet Web sites that provide such services. Again, there are corresponding fees in order to avail of these services. There are usually various search parameters available for each of these sites. Records are usually categorized according to the state where they are lodged. To find these websites, you can simply enter the type of record you want to retrieve into any of the available search engines on the net (like yahoo, ask, msn, etc.)

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