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Arkansas Court Case Search — Find Your Lawsuit

Dena Standley | August 01, 2023

Dena Standley

Dena Standley is a seasoned paralegal with more than 20 years of experience in legal research and writing, having received a certification as a Legal Assistant/Paralegal from Southern Technical College.

Edited by Hannah Locklear

Hannah Locklear
Editor at SoloSuit
Hannah Locklear, BA

Hannah Locklear is SoloSuit’s Marketing and Impact Manager. With an educational background in Linguistics, Spanish, and International Development from Brigham Young University, Hannah has also worked as a legal support specialist for several years.

Summary: If you are being sued for a debt in Arkansas, you can access your records online or by visiting the courthouse where the lawsuit was filed. Reduce worry and stress by using SoloSuit to draft and file an Answer to the lawsuit and increase your chances of winning by 7x.

Receiving a debt collection lawsuit can worsen a bad financial situation if you do not know how the courts work or if you feel overwhelmed and fail to respond to the lawsuit. Arkansas residents do not need to remain in the dark regarding their case information. You can access your case files online or in-person by visiting the courthouse where the lawsuit was filed.

Arkansas has simplified accessing your case records through the CourtConnect public access portal. This tool provides access to basic debt case information such as parties, filings, and events. Other courts also provide access to more detailed court documents. In this article, we will show you how the Arkansas courts work and what you need to access your records.

Sued for debt in Arkansas? Use SoloSettle to resolve your debt for good.

The civil court structure in Arkansas

The Arkansas court system has four distinct levels of courts. The court assigned to a case depends on the dispute type and the magnitude of the offense. The breakdown is as follows:

  • District Courts: Arkansas has 16 State District Courts and 77 Local District Courts. State District Court's jurisdiction may be city or county-wide (can extend to cover two or more counties), while Local District Courts are limited to cities or counties. Your debt collection case will be heard in the Local District Court if it doesn't exceed $5,000.

  • Circuit Courts: These courts have general jurisdiction over all issues. They hear cases such as contract issues and tort from $100, domestic relation issues, and civil and criminal appeals from district courts. There are 28 active circuit courts in Arkansas.

  • Courts of Appeals: Also referred to as the Intermediate Appellate Court, the Courts of Appeals were created to lessen the Supreme Court's burden. Parties dissatisfied with the lower court's rulings may seek a review in these courts.

  • Supreme Court: This court is the last resort in Arkansas. They listen to appeals after they agree to schedule it. They also make and implement rules to regulate the execution of laws in the state.

If you’ve been sued for debt, your lawsuit is considered a civil case. The graphic below further illustrates the Tennessee civil court structure:

Arkansas Civil Court Structure

How to find your case number

Every case filed in Arkansas is assigned a case number. This number helps the court locate documents easily and keep its filing system organized. Once a creditor or debt collector has filed a case against you, it is assigned a case number with digits, letters, or characters. A example of an Arkansas case number is CV-22-100, meaning the 100th civil case filed in a court in 2022. If you do not have it, you can find your case number by following these steps.

  • Go to the Arkansas CourtConnect portal
  • Click on the first icon (search by party name, business name, or case type)
  • Accept the terms of use
  • Fill in the details you know and submit

If you know the date the case was filed and the docket number, you can use the other options; cases filed by date search and dockets filing by date search.

How to access your case records

Arkansas offers you two options for accessing your case records, in-person or online. Notably, not all district and circuit courts have the case information on the CourtConnect portal. In some counties, you may need to go physically to the courthouse to get your records.

Access your case records in-person

First, you must find out which court the creditor used to file the case against you. Next, visit the court and make an oral or written request to the clerk of courthouses. Find the court location, phone, and fax number in these links:

Click on the above link and search for your City, and you’ll find the physical address. If it doesn't have a location, call the number provided, and the clerk will give you the address.

The fee for receiving a copy or inspecting the records may vary depending on the county and the number of pages. Arkansas laws allow waiving fees for documents that are non-commercial and for the benefit of the public. Let's look at an example.

Example: Casey had ignored Access Credit Management's (ACM) attempt to collect a debt. Four weeks later, he received a lawsuit from them and realized he could not escape handling the matter. Casey immediately looked for his financial records to help him respond to the suit accurately. He used SoloSuit’s Answer to respond, and they filed the Answer with the court on his behalf. He noticed that the debt ACM had quoted was exaggerated and needed to follow up on the case to avoid missing a court date and to have the records to help him prepare for his next move. He went online to find the exact court address. He searched for the District Court in Baxter County and the one in his city Briarcliff indicated in the suit. He visited the courthouse, and the clerk availed his case records. He paid $2 for the copies.


Access your case records online

Most case records for all levels of court from May 2013 are available online. Visit the CourtConnect portal and use the following options to access your records:

  • Search by name
  • Search by judgment
  • Search by date
  • Search by case number

Notably, some counties do not have exhaustive information on the online platform. The following counties provide partial case information: Arkansas, Ashley, Bradley, Chicot, Clay, Crittenden, Desha, Drew, Green, Independence, Jackson, Lafayette, Lawrence, Perry, Randolph, Sebastian, Stone.

If you reside in these counties, visit the courthouses to get the complete records of your debt collection lawsuit. Using the real-life example above, if Casey prefers the case to continue in court, he can view the additional case records online instead of visiting the courthouse. Since he already has the case number, he will access the records within seconds.

SoloSuit Can Help

SoloSuit can help you file an Answer after receiving a lawsuit. Our reliable Answer document abides by the law in your state and is acceptable in any Arkansas court. Afterward, you can use our other documents and SoloSettle to request the collection agency to settle out of court.

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What is Solo?

Solo makes it easy to resolve debt with debt collectors.

You can use SoloSuit to respond to a debt lawsuit, to send letters to collectors, and even to settle a debt. SoloSuit's Answer service is a step-by-step web-app that asks you all the necessary questions to complete your Answer. Upon completion, we'll have an attorney review your document and we'll file it for you.

SoloSettle can help you contact your debt collector or creditor and negotiate the debt to settle for less, all online. It simplifies and streamlines the process to settling your debt.

No matter where you find yourself in the debt collection process, Solo is here to help you resolve your debt.

Use the document calculator below to determine which type of response is most appropriate for your specific case and situation.

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>>Read the FastCompany article: Debt Lawsuits Are Complicated: This Website Makes Them Simpler To Navigate

>>Read the NPR story on SoloSuit. (We can help you in all 50 states.)

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