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

Vermont runs its court records through a single online Public Portal, and it is genuinely free for basic lookups. The catch is not cost, it is reach: whole categories of case, criminal, family, and probate, are kept off the portal by statute, the portal is geographically restricted, and Vermont rewrote its sealing and expungement rules in a major 2025 overhaul that flipped which offenses qualify for which remedy. This guide covers all three.

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

Vermont's Public Portal: What Anonymous Users Can See

Vermont's Judiciary confirms directly that "anonymous public users may access limited types of case and hearing information. No registration is required for this level of access." The word limited is carrying a lot of weight there, and the Judiciary's Public Portal User Guide spells out exactly how much.

Anonymous users can view case summaries, meaning docket sheets, in Civil Division and Judicial Bureau cases. That is the whole of it. The User Guide is blunt about the rest: "Document images (filings, orders, hearing notices, etc.) are NOT available to anonymous public users." So you can confirm a civil case exists, see the parties and the docket entries, and read the hearing dates, but you cannot open the complaint, the motions, or the judge's order from home. Those require a registered account with approved elevated access.

The registered tiers are also not a single tier, and the difference matters. A case party, meaning a plaintiff, defendant, petitioner, or respondent, can request elevated access to their own case, but only if the email address they register with already matches an email on file for them in the court's case management system, which in practice means an address they wrote on a document they filed. A Vermont-licensed attorney registers for a different role entirely. Per the User Guide, the Attorney role "allows them to view case information for cases in which they are counsel of record along with all other public criminal, family, probate, civil and appellate cases." That broader access is what 12 V.S.A. § 5(b) requires the Court to give Vermont attorneys in good standing, and it does not depend on having an email on file in each case. Attorneys licensed only in other states get a narrower grant, "access only to public civil and traffic cases," unless they appear pro hac vice in a particular Vermont case.

A Geographic Restriction Worth Knowing

Vermont's Public Portal comes with a restriction that is easy to run into without warning. The court's own notice states: "Due to cybersecurity concerns, the Public Portal is only available to court users physically located in the United States (including U.S. territories) and Canada." If you are trying to search Vermont court records from outside North America, whether traveling or living abroad, the portal itself will not be reachable, and you will need to contact the relevant court directly instead.

Coverage: Which Courts Are Included

Vermont's Public Portal runs on the Odyssey case management platform, and the main limit on what a member of the public can find there is not a rollout schedule that will eventually catch up. It is a statute. Under 12 V.S.A. § 5(a), "The Court shall not permit public access via the internet to criminal, family, or probate case records." The Judiciary's own User Guide states the consequence without hedging: "Criminal, Family and Probate case information is not available remotely to anonymous public users based on statutory restrictions (12 V.S.A. Section 5)."

That means checking back later will not help. A Vermont criminal docket, a divorce or parentage file, or a probate estate is not going to surface on the portal for a member of the public, because the law forbids the Court from putting it there. What anonymous users do get is the Civil Division and the Judicial Bureau, the latter being where traffic tickets and municipal violations are handled.

If the case you need is criminal, family, or probate, the public route is in person. The User Guide is explicit: "You may view public Criminal, Family or Probate case records at courthouse Public Access Terminals." The other route is a written request to the court where the case was filed, covered in the next section. Neither is closed to you. The online one simply is not the one to use.

Sealing vs. Expungement: Vermont's Definitions

Getting these two terms right matters in Vermont, because the state's usage runs the opposite direction from what some readers might expect. Vermont's Judiciary defines expungement this way: "All the records related to the criminal charge will be removed from any accessible court database. If there was a paper file, it will be physically destroyed." Sealing is different: "Records related to the criminal charge are not viewable in any accessible court database. If there was a paper court file, it will be placed in a confidential file." In plain terms, expungement destroys the file in Vermont, while sealing hides it without destroying it.

A major revision, Act 60 of 2025, took effect July 1, 2025 and changed which offenses land in which category. Vermont's Judiciary confirms the overhaul "reduced the number of offenses eligible for expungement while expanding eligibility for sealing." That means a description of Vermont's rules written before mid-2025 is likely describing a system that no longer exists. Because the specific list of offenses that currently qualify for each track runs long and is best confirmed against the current statute, see the Vermont expungement laws guide for the eligibility detail rather than relying on an older summary.

Certified Copies and Search Methods

To request records, Vermont's Judiciary directs people to fill out a Request for Access to Court Records form and send it, by email, mail, or hand delivery, to the court where the case was filed. Paper copies cost 25 cents per page with a $1.00 minimum, and certified copies cost $5.00. Records that are no longer stored at the courthouse can carry an additional retrieval fee. Payment is by check or money order payable to the Vermont Superior Court, or by credit card over the phone by arrangement.

Public access terminals in most Vermont courthouses are not merely a convenience for people who live nearby. They are the free public route to the two things the portal withholds: criminal, family, and probate case records, and document images in any case type. At a terminal you can search by case number or party name at no charge, though printing anything you find carries a fee. The Judiciary gives the same answer to anyone whose portal role does not reach a record: "Certain case information is available at courthouses at the Public Access Terminals, or by requesting copies of records from the court."

Using Vermont Court Records the Right Way

These tools are built for checking your own case, verifying a matter you are personally involved in, or general public transparency, not for compiling background information on someone else. If a Vermont court record is being used to screen a job applicant or tenant, that use is governed separately by the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act. Under 15 U.S.C. § 1681c, records of criminal convictions are exempt from the standard seven-year reporting limit and can be reported indefinitely unless Vermont has sealed or expunged them under its current, post-2025 rules.

Related Resources

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

Disclaimer

This article provides general information about Vermont's public court record tools and its 2025 sealing and expungement overhaul. It is not legal advice. Portal coverage, fees, and statutes change; verify current details with the Vermont Judiciary or a Vermont 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.