Court records can be difficult to use for those who are not legal scholars. Determining a court's jurisdiction and the type of cases it heard can take quite some time, especially considering the vast amount of court records housed at the Hall of Records. It is hoped that this finding aid will make these important and voluminous records more accessible to all users. The way to find a case is to narrow down the number of records in which the case may possibly be found. In law, there are basically two types of cases, civil and criminal.
Civil cases involve law suits, that is, one party or parties suing another party or parties.
Criminal cases, of course, involve an individual or individuals charged with a crime. The first step is to decide which one of these two categories your case will fall into. The next step is to have a time period in mind to help narrow down the search even more. Then, check each court having the proper jurisdiction for the time period it covers. Those records not in the desired time period can now be eliminated.