Kentucky Court Records: How to Search, What's Public, and How to Seal Them

Kentucky runs one free, statewide docket search covering all 120 counties, and a separate paid system built for attorneys and businesses that need faster, more detailed access. Knowing which tool actually answers your question, and which one is just a disclaimed index of case activity, saves a wasted trip to the wrong website.

This page covers how to search Kentucky court records online, what the state's free tool does and does not show, how the paid CourtNet 2.0 system differs, what stays confidential, and how Kentucky's expungement process works in broad strokes.

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

How to Search Kentucky Court Records

Kentucky splits public court-record access into two very different products: a free, bare-bones docket lookup meant for anyone, and a paid subscription system built for professionals who search records regularly.

The Kentucky Court of Justice Docket Search, hosted at kcoj.kycourts.net/dockets, is free and requires no account. It searches across Circuit and District court divisions in every one of Kentucky's 120 counties, returning case numbers, party names, and docket activity. The tool carries a blunt disclaimer directly on the page: it is 'NOT AN OFFICIAL DOCKET' and may not, at any particular moment, reflect the true status of a case 'due to ordinary limitations, delay, or error.' Users are told to cross-reference anything they find with the official record at the courthouse. The Kentucky Court of Justice also states the tool cannot be used for employment, licensing, or government-program eligibility decisions, and that the court system retains sole responsibility for those determinations.

CourtNet 2.0, accessed through the KYeCourts login shell, is a different product entirely. It is a paid subscription used by an estimated 10,000 attorneys across the state for near real-time access to civil and criminal case information, with visual flags for warrants, summonses, and failures to appear. Service plans start around $5 a month, with a flat $0.35 fee to view or download each document image on every plan, roughly $10 a month for each additional subaccount user, and overage charges once a plan's monthly case-view limit is exceeded. The service-plans page does not advertise a free tier, so treat CourtNet 2.0 as the paid, professional-grade option and the free docket tool as the everyday public option.

Neither tool functions as a certified record. If you need a document that will hold up for a legal purpose, an employer, a licensing board, or a court, you still need to go through the clerk of the court where the case was filed.

What's Public and What's Restricted in Kentucky

Kentucky's open-courts principle traces to Section 14 of the Kentucky Constitution and common law, with the Kentucky Supreme Court's Rules of Administrative Procedure setting the standard courts apply when someone asks to close a proceeding or seal a record. According to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, a party seeking closure has to identify a fundamental right that outweighs public access, show that closure is the only way to serve justice, demonstrate that less restrictive alternatives will not work, and get the court to issue specific written findings before a record can be shut off from public view.

One statutory point is worth knowing before you send any request. Kentucky's Open Records Act does not govern court records. KRS 26A.200 provides that all records made by, generated for, or received by any agency of the Court of Justice, or by any other court, "shall be the property of the Court of Justice and are subject to the control of the Supreme Court," and KRS 26A.220 subjects every officer or agency holding court records to the Supreme Court's direction.

The Kentucky Supreme Court settled the point in Ex parte Farley, 570 S.W.2d 617 (Ky. 1978). It acknowledged that the Open Records Act, KRS 61.870 to 61.884, "on its face" appears to apply, but held that "the custody and control of the records generated by the courts in the course of their work are inseparable from the judicial function itself, and are not subject to statutory regulation." The court specifically declined to follow the Act's machinery for court records, naming the rule-posting requirement of KRS 61.876, the response and appeal procedure of KRS 61.880, and the exception list of KRS 61.878.

What that means in practice is worth spelling out. A letter to a Circuit or District Court clerk styled as an open-records request is not an Open Records Act request, and the clerk is not answering under that Act's response deadlines or its appeal route to the Attorney General. Ask the clerk for the case file or a certified copy directly, and if access is denied, the remedy is a motion in the court that holds the record rather than an open-records appeal.

Several categories of records are presumptively closed regardless of that balancing test. Juvenile delinquency and dependency records are presumptively closed under KRS 610.070 and KRS 610.340, though a court can allow disclosure for good cause. Adoption records are confidential under KRS 199.570, which closes the court's files during adoption proceedings to everyone but the parties, their attorneys, and cabinet representatives, and directs the clerk to seal the file once the final order is entered. Paternity is handled separately: KRS 406.035 requires written orders of paternity to be kept apart from the general record and closed to public inspection, subject to a short list of authorized inspectors. Files in voluntary termination of parental rights cases are sealed under KRS 625.045. Child custody proceedings may be closed if a public hearing would be detrimental to the child's best interests under KRS 403.310, though the underlying divorce case itself stays presumptively open. Guardianship and disability proceedings are partially sealed under KRS 387.770, meaning the court's determinations and orders are public while other supporting records are not. Grand jury proceedings and records are generally kept secret.

Kentucky does not appear to run a formal, statewide remote-versus-courthouse access split the way California does for certain case types. In practice, the gap shows up differently here: the free docket tool gives you limited, searchable case information online, but comprehensive case records, including full document images in most instances, still require a visit to the clerk's office in the county where the case was filed.

Sealing and Expungement in Kentucky

Kentucky calls its record-clearing remedy expungement, not sealing. It is a petition-based process handled through two main statutes: KRS 431.073, which covers certain Class D felony convictions, and KRS 431.076, which covers charges that were dismissed or resulted in an acquittal. Note the shelf life on the first of those: the text of KRS 431.073 published by the Kentucky General Assembly is labeled effective only until April 30, 2027, so if you are reading this on or after that date, confirm the current version before relying on the eligibility rules described anywhere online.

Kentucky does not currently have an automatic expungement law. Senate Bill 290 of the 2026 regular session, titled "AN ACT relating to criminal history," would have created an automatic expungement process. It was introduced on February 27, 2026, reported favorably by the Senate Judiciary Committee on March 19, and sent to the Rules Committee after a second reading on March 20. The legislative record shows no action after that, so it never became law and every Kentucky expungement still requires filing a petition and a court granting it.

This page does not walk through Kentucky's specific eligibility rules, waiting periods, or filing fees. For that detail, see our Kentucky expungement guide, which covers the process petitioners actually go through.

Certified Copies and Practical Search Tips

To get a certified copy of a Kentucky court document, contact the Circuit or District Court clerk in the county where the case was filed. That clerk is the official custodian of the record, and it is the only source that can issue a certified copy for legal purposes.

When searching by name on the free docket tool, remember that common names produce false positives. Two people can share the same name and birth year, and a docket entry alone will not always distinguish them. Where you have it, a case number is far more reliable than a name search. If a search turns up nothing, that is not proof a record does not exist; Kentucky's free tool is a limited index, not a comprehensive archive, and some records simply are not represented there. For more on name-versus-case-number searching across different states, see our how to look up court records guide.

If you are searching Kentucky court records to check your own history before a job application, a lease, or a licensing process, treat the free docket tool as a starting point, not a substitute for the fingerprint-based or agency-run background check that an employer or licensing board will actually rely on.

Using Court Records Responsibly: The FCRA Rule

Looking up your own case, or a specific case you have a legitimate personal reason to check, is fine. Using Kentucky's court-record tools, or any commercial people-search site built on the same underlying data, to screen a tenant or job applicant is a different legal question entirely, governed by the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), not by Kentucky's court-access rules.

Under 15 U.S.C. § 1681c, most negative information on a consumer report ages off after seven years, but criminal convictions are specifically exempted from that window under § 1681c(a)(5) and can be reported indefinitely unless a state expungement removes them. In 2023, the Federal Trade Commission fined two background-check companies, TruthFinder and Instant Checkmate, $5.8 million for marketing public-records-based reports for tenant and employment screening without complying with the FCRA. The FTC put it plainly: companies that market their reports to be used to screen tenants or employees are consumer reporting agencies and must follow the requirements of the FCRA. The safest approach is to treat Kentucky's free docket tool and CourtNet 2.0 as personal-use research, and to run any actual tenant or employment screening through a properly FCRA-compliant background-check process instead.

Related Kentucky Records Searches

This page is part of our broader Court Records by State guide, which explains how to navigate the federal, state, and county layers of court records nationwide. If you are not sure whether you are looking for a court case or a warrant, see how to check if you have a warrant in Kentucky. If you're checking your own history before a job application, our Kentucky background check laws guide covers the employer side of that process. For records held by executive-branch agencies rather than the courts, see Kentucky public records laws. And for the general concept of what counts as a public court record versus a sealed one, see are court records public?

Disclaimer

This article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Court portals, fees, and coverage change without notice, and the Kentucky Judiciary is the only authoritative source for its own records. If you need a certified copy or have a legal question about a specific case, contact the clerk of court where the case was filed, or consult a licensed Kentucky attorney.

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