Legal Research

Minnesota recently unveiled the state's new Trial Court Public Access (MPA) at http://pa.courts.state.mn.us/default.aspx. Search statewide or by county. Records available include criminal, civil, family, and probate. Searches can be performed using a case number or name.

But there are a number of caveats; foremost, certain publicly-accessible case records cannot be viewed online. For example, electronic copies of public documents filed by parties also cannot be viewed online at this time. Also, name searches for criminal case records will not return information on cases without dispositions.  Two counties (Ramsey and Dakota) are not yet online. The federal Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) also prevents the state from displaying harassment and domestic abuse case records online.

Interestingly, the public access terminals found at the courthouses do not use this system. For example, party street address and name searches on criminal pre-conviction case records are publicly accessible and available at the courthouse, but not online. The harassment and domestice abuse case records are available at the courthouse. Comment fields for all case types are not available online but are available at the courthouse. Online users are not notified when such public data is restricted from online viewing.

This online system is supplemental at best. In fact, the web page states MPA REMOTE SHOULD NOT BE USED FOR BACKGROUND CHECKS. The bottom line is the public access terminals found at courthouses are still the most accurate searching locations. In Judicial Districts (arranged by number and often covering several counties) many court's public access terminals contain court records for that entire district.