Texas Court Records: How to Search, What's Public, and How to Seal Them (2026)

Texas is home to 254 counties, and its court records reflect that. There is no single site that searches every case in the state. The Texas State Law Library, the official research arm of the Texas Judicial Branch, says it plainly: Texas courts each keep their own records, and finding a case usually means going to the right county's system rather than a single statewide portal.

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

Texas Has No Statewide Court Records Database

The Texas State Law Library's own guide is direct about this structural reality: "Texas doesn't have a single database where you can search all court records for the state. Each court is responsible for keeping their own records." That single sentence explains most of the friction people run into when they try to look someone up in Texas. There is no equivalent of a one-stop statewide portal the way some other states operate.

re:SearchTX: A Partial Statewide Search

re:SearchTX, hosted by the Texas judiciary at research.txcourts.gov, comes closest to a statewide tool. Per the Texas State Law Library's guide, "Re:SearchTX offers a free subscription plan that lets you search records from multiple counties and courts," and it focuses primarily on civil cases. But the same guide cautions that it "may not have all records from all counties in Texas," so a blank result there does not mean a record does not exist elsewhere. Document access through re:SearchTX involves per-page or per-document fees set by each participating court; because those specific fee tiers could not be independently confirmed on the court's own site for this article, do not rely on a specific figure without checking directly with re:SearchTX at the time you use it.

County Clerk Systems: Harris County as an Example

Harris County runs one of the more built-out county-level systems in the state. The Harris County District Clerk's office requires free registration before you can search: "In order to better protect court documents, we now require you to have a registered login with our site." Once registered, "All public case information is still available to everyone, once they login, and can be viewed FREE of charge." The system covers civil, family, and criminal cases, plus background checks for Harris County specifically, and historical records dating back to 1837.

That coverage has real limits. Family court documents are not available through the standard Party Inquiry search. That restriction comes from court rules and clerk policy rather than from a general Family Code limit on online access: Texas Government Code § 552.0035(a) provides that "access to information collected, assembled, or maintained by or for the judiciary is governed by rules adopted by the Supreme Court of Texas or by other applicable laws and rules." The Family Code itself seals only specific categories, such as adoption files under § 162.021 and termination files under § 161.210. It does add one Harris-relevant rule: § 102.0086 applies in counties with a population of 3.4 million or more, which includes Harris, and makes pleadings in a suit affecting the parent-child relationship confidential until service of citation or the 31st day after filing, whichever comes first. Historical search results exclude federal cases, other counties' cases, Justice of the Peace courts, and Class C misdemeanors, and a $5.00 fee applies to historical searches when the standard search criteria are not available. Harris County's own disclaimer is worth keeping in mind for any Texas county system: "Data returned relies on the information obtained and entered. Inaccurate data obtained or entered will result in erroneous data returned."

Dallas County: A Split System

Dallas County splits its records between the District Clerk and County Clerk portals, with civil case files mostly available from 2008 forward and criminal records reaching back to 1975. Dallas County's own terms are blunt about the limits of the data: it is provided "as is," "subject to changes and updates at any time," and "with no warranties, express or implied, as to quality, content, accuracy, validity, reliability, timeliness, or completeness." The county also prohibits commercial use of the information and notes that "the sites information is extracted from multiple sources and is not subject to independent verification."

Every Other County

Outside Harris, Dallas, and the counties covered by re:SearchTX, expect to contact the district clerk or county clerk directly, by phone, in writing, or in person, for the county where the case was filed. Coverage, fees, and whether an online portal exists at all vary widely across Texas's 254 counties, and there is no substitute for confirming with the specific clerk's office.

Sealing Records: Expunction vs. Nondisclosure

Texas uses two legal terms that are easy to confuse, and getting them right matters. The Texas State Law Library's guide distinguishes them clearly: a person may "have their criminal record expunged (i.e., cleared), or they may petition for their record (including juvenile records) to be sealed through a nondisclosure order." Expunction, governed by Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Chapter 55A, destroys the record. An order of nondisclosure, governed by Texas Government Code Chapter 411, Subchapter E-1, seals the record from public view but does not destroy it, meaning certain government agencies can still see it. These are not interchangeable, and using the wrong term matters when you are researching which process actually applies to a given record. For a full walkthrough of eligibility for each, see the Texas expungement laws guide.

Certified Copies and Courthouse Access

Certified copy fees are set by each county's clerk rather than by a single statewide schedule, so confirm the current fee with the clerk of the court where the case was filed before requesting one. The same is true for in-person or courthouse-terminal access, which varies by county.

Using Texas Court Records the Right Way

These tools are built for checking your own case or a matter you are personally involved in, not for compiling a background file on someone else. If a Texas court record is being used to screen a job applicant or tenant, that use is governed separately by the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act rather than by any county portal's terms of use. Under 15 U.S.C. § 1681c, records of criminal convictions are exempt from the federal seven-year reporting limit. Texas law is narrower on its face: Texas Business and Commerce Code § 20.05(a)(4) bars a consumer reporting agency from furnishing a consumer report containing a record of arrest, indictment, or conviction of a crime in which the date of disposition, release, or parole predates the report by more than seven years. Section 20.05(b) carves out reports furnished in connection with a credit transaction of $150,000 or more, life insurance with a face amount of $150,000 or more, or employment at an annual salary of $75,000 or more. How the federal and Texas rules fit together is not settled, because 15 U.S.C. § 1681t(b)(1)(E) preempts state law on the subject matter of § 1681c "except that this subparagraph shall not apply to any State law in effect on September 30, 1996." Do not assume that either the federal indefinite-reporting rule or the Texas seven-year cutoff controls a given report without checking with the reporting agency or a Texas attorney. Because Texas's records are so fragmented by county, treat a blank result with real caution. It may only mean you searched the wrong county's system.

Related Resources

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

Disclaimer

This article provides general information about how Texas's court record systems are organized. It is not legal advice. County systems, fees, and statutes change; verify current details with the relevant clerk's office or a Texas 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.