Alaska Court Records: How to Search CourtView, What's Excluded, and Set Aside vs Seal

Alaska runs a free, statewide court records search called CourtView, and its own coverage page is unusually direct about the tool's limits. Cases from before 1990 generally are not there, results cap at 500 per search, and eight entire categories of case are excluded outright rather than merely restricted.

Alaska's own courts and Department of Public Safety use set aside, seal, and expungement for three different things, and mixing them up is the easiest way to get an Alaska record wrong.

Information last verified on 2026-08-10. This article has not yet been reviewed by a licensed lawyer.

This guide is part of a broader look at court records by state. For the general mechanics of federal versus state versus county searches, see how to look up court records and are court records public.

CourtView: Alaska's Free Statewide Search

CourtView, accessible through the Alaska Court System's Search Cases page, lets a user search for cases, tickets and citations, and pay fines online. It covers Appellate Court cases (the Alaska Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals) alongside Trial Court cases from the superior and district courts, spanning civil, criminal, probate, small claims, domestic relations, and other case types. There is no fee to search and no registration requirement.

Search options include case number, party name, hearing date, and citation number. Results are capped at 500 cases per search, and the court system's own guidance is direct about the historical gap: there is no comprehensive case information available for any trial court location before 1990.

What CourtView Does Not Show

Alaska's own coverage page lists the excluded case categories verbatim: Delinquency, CINA (Child in Need of Aid), Adoption, Mental Commitment, Alcohol Commitment, Emancipation, Medical Emergency, and Minor Settlement. These are not merely restricted from remote viewing, they do not appear on CourtView at all. On top of that categorical exclusion, CourtView automatically removes cases sealed by court order, certain dismissed criminal cases, and specific alcohol or marijuana possession offenses that meet statutory criteria for removal.

The removal of acquitted and dismissed criminal cases runs on one specific statute, AS 22.35.030, and its two built-in limits are what trip readers up. The statute says the Alaska Court System may not publish a court record of a criminal case on a publicly available website if 60 days have elapsed from the date of acquittal or dismissal and one of four things is true: the defendant was acquitted of all charges filed in the case; all charges against the defendant were dismissed and were not dismissed as part of a plea agreement in another criminal case under Rule 11 of the Alaska Rules of Criminal Procedure; the defendant was acquitted of some charges and the remaining charges were dismissed; or all charges were dismissed after a suspended entry of judgment under AS 12.55.078.

Two practical consequences follow. First, nothing comes down during the 60 days after the acquittal or dismissal, so a case can still be sitting on CourtView while the person assumes it has already dropped off. Second, a dismissal that was traded away as part of a Rule 11 plea agreement in a different criminal case is carved out of the statute entirely, so those dismissed charges stay visible on CourtView indefinitely. A dismissal that follows a suspended entry of judgment under AS 12.55.078 is the opposite case and does qualify for removal.

Alaska's court system also posts a direct accuracy warning: a search of court case records on this website is not a criminal history records check of a person, and a user should not assume that a person listed in the database is the person they are looking for without at least confirming that the date of birth matches. For an official, complete criminal history report, the court system points to the Alaska Department of Public Safety, which maintains the state's criminal records repository separately from CourtView.

Set Aside, Seal, and Expungement: Three Different Things

Alaska's court system addresses this directly in its own guidance on suspended impositions of sentence: setting aside a conviction does not mean it disappears or that court records are shredded. Citing the Alaska Supreme Court's decision in State v. Platt, the court system states that both the conviction and the judgment setting it aside remain in the public record. Alaska's Department of Public Safety confirms the same point for its own records: a set-aside conviction is treated as past conviction information and stays on a person's criminal history even after it is set aside.

Sealing is a separate, narrower remedy. Alaska's Department of Public Safety states that under AS 12.62.180, a criminal justice agency may seal only the information it maintains, and only on a written request showing that the information, beyond a reasonable doubt, resulted from mistaken identity or false accusation. That is a narrow fact pattern, not a general privacy option for someone who was validly convicted and has since been rehabilitated.

Alaska's Department of Public Safety also states plainly that the state does not have a law to expunge a criminal history record. This guide does not describe record destruction as a routine outcome available in Alaska, since the state's own agency says no such general law exists. Alaska also does not run a broad Clean Slate-style automatic sealing program for adult convictions; relief is narrow, and the exact standards depend on which of the categories above a case falls into. For the eligibility rules and process, see Alaska expungement laws, which this guide does not duplicate.

Certified Copies

Requests for a certified copy go to the records department or clerk of the court where the case was filed, generally by mail, email, fax, or in person. This guide does not publish a specific statewide fee figure, since the amount could not be confirmed directly from a primary source in this session; confirm current pricing with the specific court.

Using Alaska Court Records the Right Way

CourtView is built for checking a specific case, whether it is your own or one you have a legitimate reason to look into, not for compiling a background file on someone else. If an Alaska court record is used to screen a job applicant or a tenant, that use is governed separately by the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act. Under 15 U.S.C. § 1681c, a criminal conviction is exempt from the standard seven-year reporting window that applies to most arrests and civil judgments, meaning it can be reported indefinitely unless the underlying record has been sealed or purged under Alaska law. The FTC's 2023 settlement with TruthFinder and Instant Checkmate, over marketing public-records reports for tenant and employee screening without following federal background-check law, is a reminder that a free case-lookup tool like CourtView is not itself an FCRA-compliant screening product.

Related Resources

Court Records by State covers the full 50-state picture. See also How to Look Up Court Records, Are Court Records Public?, Alaska Expungement Laws, Alaska Background Check Laws, Alaska Warrant Search, and Alaska Public Records Laws.

Disclaimer

This article provides general information about Alaska's CourtView system and record-relief terminology. It is not legal advice. Coverage, exclusions, and statutes change; verify current details with the Alaska Court System or a licensed Alaska attorney before relying on anything here for a specific situation.

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Last updated: 2026-08-10. Portal facts and fees reflect their published status as of August 2026.