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Nebraska Court Case Search — Find Your Lawsuit

Dena Standley | June 27, 2023

Dena Standley
Legal Expert, Paralegal
Dena Standley, BA

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.

Searching for your court case status online is like ^^

Summary: Are you trying to look up your court case status in Nebraska? Below is SoloSuit's guide on the types of Nebraska cases you can search online, the state's civil court structure, and how to get online access to Nebraska court records.

Since 1867, Nebraska has kept public records, covering all 93 counties. Digitization of public records has become the industry standard over the last 30 years, allowing more government and third-party websites to make these records available online with greater reliability and transparency.

Anyone in any state can request these records. They can be found by conducting a Nebraska court records search and including information on Nebraska criminal records, civil cases, traffic violations, etc.

What information can be found in Nebraska public court records?

Nebraska has a public record search system that allows the public to view court records for:

  • Criminal cases: Domestic violence (assault and battery), parole violations, probation violations, sexual assault, robbery, manslaughter, murder, drug offenses, and other criminal matters are handled by criminal courts.
  • Traffic court cases: Speeding tickets, reckless driving, criminal driving violations, traffic citations, driving without a license, license suspensions, accidents, and more are all examples of traffic violations.
  • Civil cases: Bankruptcies, legal judgments, lawsuits, tax and property liens, contract disputes, probates, family law, small claims, and evictions are handled in Nebraska's civil courts.

In this article, we will focus on how to search for and find records for civil cases. But first, let's break down Nebraska's civil court system.

Understand Nebraska's civil court structure

Knowing how the civil court structure works in Nebraska will help you locate your case easier. Civil cases are between private parties and usually involve one party suing the other. This is different from criminal cases, which involve the violation of a crime, or probate cases, which deal with wills. Civil cases are also different from family law, which deals with divorce and child custody matters. Below, we will primarily focus on Nebraska's civil court structure.

It's important to understand which court has jurisdiction over your case. This will help you know who to contact and where to search online for your case status.

Nebraska's civil cases usually fall under one of these four court's jurisdictions:

  1. Supreme Court
  2. Court of Appeals
  3. District Courts
  4. County Courts

The Supreme Court is responsible for administering all state courts in this capacity. Nebraska's Supreme Court is sometimes referred to as the "court of last resort." It's the highest rung on the state's legal ladder. The Supreme Court hears appeals from lawsuits that have not been settled satisfactorily in lower courts.

When a person appeals a lower court's decision, the case is sent to an appellate or appeals court. Nebraska's Court of Appeals considers the case to see if the lower court's decision should be modified or reversed.

Next, we have the District Court, which deals with civil cases that have been appealed from the County Courts or that have no monetary limit.

Finally, the County Courts handle civil cases involving up to $57,000 and small claims cases that involve up to $3,600.

When you understand this civil court structure, it will be easier for you to know where your case resides. The graphic below further illustrates how the civil court structure works in Nebraska:

Nebraska court structure

Get online access to Nebraska court records

Nebraska's Judicial Branch has a case search tool called JUSTICE One-Time Court Case Search that you can use to find your court records. With government-citizen transparency, citizens can look up details like plea and sentencing information and other court records.

A small amount of data, including case numbers, will be returned if you use the JUSTICE database to search by name. This service costs $15 per search, and payments are still required for unsuccessful searches.

Interested parties can search this portal for a case number using the court type, case type, and a few other filters to narrow search results. You can then use the search results to retrieve their case numbers. If you intend to locate a case number at a courthouse, be sure to gather as much information as possible before you begin the search.

In order to complete a search, you will need some or all the following information:

  • Party name
  • Court type
  • Case type/subtype
  • County
  • Year
  • Judge
  • Attorney

For example:

A case number includes the county as well as the case number.
Party Name: CARZ DEALERZ ( PLF )
Case No. C 02 CI 09 0016975
Caption: Cars, LLC v. Rob Roberts
Judge: Smith, Bob,
Attorney: Unknown or None Assigned

What if I can't find my Nebraska court case online?

In some cases, you may need to contact the court directly to obtain records. Use this Nebraska court directory to find the phone number and address of your court. Just hover over which type of court your case is in on the side menu, then select “Court Contacts.” This should take you to a list of contacts for courts throughout the state of Nebraska.

Records of Nebraska court rulings

When a court of competent jurisdiction renders a decision in a civil case, the court clerk enters the decision into the court docket, creating a Nebraska judgment record.

Decisions made in court on civil lawsuits are known as judgments. Unless a litigant seeks an appeal or retrial, a judgment often brings a normal case to a close. In Nebraska, judgment records are kept by the clerk of courts. The Nebraska Public Records Law also mandates that a court official make the related papers available to anybody who requests them.

Nebraska judgment records are available to interested parties from the court clerk's office that decided the matter in question. The requester may submit the request using a standard case record request form available from most courts, which must include the case number and names of the parties engaged in the case.

Before executing the request, the administrative staff will further demand payment of a service fee, which may include per-page copying charges. These fees are usually accepted in cash, certified checks, money orders, or credit cards.

There are parallels even though Nebraska judgment documents include information specific to the case type. A typical judgment record consists of the names of the parties involved, the judge, their particular claims, and the decision itself.

How can I find my court case number in Nebraska?

Through digital or manual methods, judges are randomly assigned cases. The judge whose case has the lowest docket and page number is allocated and by whom the consolidated case will be heard will hear a motion to consolidate cases for the purpose of discovery or trial.

A court case can be explicitly identified by its case number. It is given at the time of lawsuit filing to set it apart from earlier or upcoming case files in the court. Anyone interested in doing so can look up their court case number online or go to the courthouses where such matters are being heard.

Anyone in the State of Nebraska can locate their case numbers using the JUSTICE one-time court case search system.

Respond to a debt lawsuit in Nebraska

The first step to winning a debt collection lawsuit is to respond with an Answer. In your Answer, you should respond to each claim that is listed against you in the Complaint document (also known as a Petition in some states). You should also state your affirmative defenses in your Answer, which will help you build a strong case for yourself. When you're finished drafting your Answer, file it with the court and send a copy to the party that is suing you.

Finally, it will be super helpful to know how to check the status of your case once you have filed your Answer. This will help you stay informed about future hearings or trials you may have to attend, as well as any responses to your Answer. Follow the steps listed throughout this article to stay updated with your case by checking it online.

SoloSuit can help you draft an Answer to a debt lawsuit in just 15 minutes.

To learn more about how to respond to a debt lawsuit, check out this video:

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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