Keyword Search of the Supreme Court Case File Database
[Series 6]

This search queries keywords in the Supreme Court case file database. Supreme Court cases in the department holdings date from 1870 through the latest cases transferred to the Archives. Some High Court of Errors and Appeals cases from the late 1860s were continued into the modern Supreme Court. Search the Court Case Files (Not County) link if you can't locate a case here. Case file records from territorial courts, district courts (superior chancery courts), high courts (original Supreme Court and High Court of Errors and Appeals), and Supreme Court death penalty cases are searchable here.

As of 09/14/2018, cases from 1870 through the 2007 mandated cases are searchable by case number. Cases are searchable by phrase or year from 1870 through 2001. Scattered cases are not yet in our collection. Please see the Central Reference Desk for assistance if a case cannot be located by the below described search procedure. Cases dating through 2006 are still being transferred from the Supreme Court Clerk's office as they are mandated plus five (5) years (although the transfer of these cases is currently on hiatus). Cases dating through 2006 that are not yet mandated and cases dating from 2007 to the present are still held by the Supreme Court Clerk's office. Beginning in 1998, criminal cases (case types "KA" and "KP") are not being transferred to the Archives until they are mandated plus ten (10) years. Currently we have many of the criminal cases dating into 2006 (although the transfer of these criminal cases is also currently on hiatus).

When searching by "phrase," the search term may be a name of plaintiff or defendant, a place, or a company name. Remember that variations of spelling (particularly applicable to 19th century documents) will affect the number of hits. Also, be aware that some standard abbreviations have been used (such as "Co." for "Company" and "Inc." for "Incorporated") and should be used in querying.

When searching by "case number," enter the case number only as indicated below. Using any other method will not find the case.

For cases dated 1870 through 1988, enter the case number without any prefix or suffix. Leading zeroes are not necessary. Examples:   47    8323   21224   etc.

For cases dated from 1989, enter the case number using the 4-digit year, the 2-character case type (not case sensitive), and a 4-digit number (using leading zeroes as necessary), without spaces, dashes or prefix/suffix. Examples:    1989CA0007    1992KP0439   1996TS1408  etc.

Note: If the case number only has a single alphabetic character, such as H (for Hearing) or M (for Miscellaneous), then use a double letter (HH or MM) when the case number is entered. Example: 1996MM0212 for case number 96-M-212