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Searching for your court case online is like ^^

Summary: Trying to find your court case online in Kentukcy? Keep reading for SoloSuit's guide on Kentucky court case search tools, the state's civil court structure, and how to search for your case online.

Under both the constitution and common law, Kentucky provides its 4.5 million residents with the right to access court records. This southeastern state has a long history of providing open access to its court sessions and documents.

You can get most Kentucky court cases by calling the court clerk on file. Public access to court records and information is also available through the Kentucky courts' website.

Are Kentucky civil court records accessible to the public?

Enacted in 1976 and updated in 1994, the Kentucky Open Records Act ensures that the public has access to records kept by state government agencies. Court documents are public records, and the public can request access to them.

Although court records are open to the public, records made confidential by state statute or ordered sealed by a judge are only available to the parties and their allowed representatives. Juvenile, medical, and confidential records are not open to the public without prior authorization.

Understand the Kentucky civil court structure

In order to find your case online, it's important to understand which court's jurisdiction your case falls under. The Kentucky judicial system is divided into four levels:

The Supreme Court and Court of Appeals are considered appellate courts. This means that most civil cases do not start in these courts, but if they are appealed from a lower level court, they might make their way into the appellate court's jurisdiction.

Most civil cases are initiated in the Circuit or District Court. In fact, civil cases involving $5,000 or more will usually be filed in the Circuit Court, while any cases involving less than this amount will begin in the District Court.

This court graphic illustrates how the court structure works for civil cases in Kentucky:

Kentucky court structure

How do I locate Kentucky court records?

When trying to access court records in Kentucky, the easiest way to find a case is through Kentucky's statewide court case search tool called KYeCourts. There are several ways to search for court records, including:

Search by party

Use this search method when looking for a specific party in a case. Search by party gives a set of parameters to assist you in finding the case you're looking for and narrowing down the results. Plaintiff and defendant are both considered "primary" parties. You can conduct a search using only your first and last name.

Other identifiers, such as a person's birth date, social security number, or driver's license number, will ‌aid in the retrieval of more qualifying and matching records. The more details you provide to clarify your search, the more likely your results will fulfill your expectations. In addition, Search by Party allows you to conduct statewide searches, filter for active cases, and limit results based on a scheduled event date range.

You must provide at least one of the following combinations when searching:

Last name, first name, and date of birth
Both your last name and your first name
DLN
SSN (not available to all users)
Event Range and county

Case-based search

You can search by case if you know the case number and the county of origin. To search, you'll need both pieces of information. Please remember case search does not allow for statewide searches.

Citation-based search

If you have the right information, you can search by citation. You'll need the year the citation was written and the control number and type to locate it. To see where the required information is situated, click view example citation.

Search by industry/business

When searching for a business, you'll need the company's name and the county. Because the business name and the party name are not tracked separately, Search by Business is not an exact search. "Starts with" is used in this search logic to find matches. (For example, if you type the Bank into the search box, you'll get results from the Bank of Lexington, Bank of America, etc.).

What happens if I can't find my case information online?

If you can't find court records online, you can go to the courthouse and ask a court clerk to help you locate your case, where the matter will be heard. The Supreme Court, Court of Appeals, Circuit Courts, and District Courts make up the Kentucky Courts of Justice. On its website, you will find lists of the addresses of each court. For example, interested parties can go to the Clerk of the Supreme Court's office to request court records from the Supreme Court.

Typically, the Court Clerk replies to court record requests and instructs you on how to fill out the ‌paperwork. Throughout the Commonwealth of Kentucky, Public Court Records givegives free access to public case information. To get information about each Clerk of the Courts, visit the Office of Circuit Court Clerk's website and pick the county in question.

You have the right to search case record files

The Judicial Branch made civil case e-Filing available statewide in 2015. Further, attorneys will be required to file foreclosure and credit card debt collection in Kentucky cases electronically beginning July 1—the Kentucky Supreme Court issued Administrative Order 2022-22 mandating eFiling in these cases.

Respond to a debt lawsuit in Kentucky

If you are being sued for a debt in Kentucky, the first step to winning your case is to respond. In order to respond to a debt lawsuit, you need to file a written Answer with the court and serve whoever is suing you with a copy. In Kentucky, you have 20 days to respond before you lose by default.

SoloSuit can help you draft an Answer in just 15 minutes.

Check out this video to learn more about how to draft an Answer to a debt lawsuit in Kentucky:

What is SoloSuit?

SoloSuit makes it easy to fight 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.

Respond with SoloSuit

"First time getting sued by a debt collector and I was searching all over YouTube and ran across SoloSuit, so I decided to buy their services with their attorney reviewed documentation which cost extra but it was well worth it! SoloSuit sent the documentation to the parties and to the court which saved me time from having to go to court and in a few weeks the case got dismissed!" – James

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