You may personally appear and do an index search, or you may send a written request and include the name of the person or persons you are requesting a records search for as well as the approximate year the case may have been filed.

NAPA SUPERIOR COURT - RECORD AND FILES SEARCH POLICY

Pursuant to the new laws effective January 1, 2006, the court will charge a fee for searching records, files or estate documents.

The new code sections authorizing the court to collect a search fee are as follows:

GC 70627(c) for searches of court records and files: The fee for a search of records or files conducted by a court employee that requires more than 10 minutes is fifteen dollars ($15) for each search.

GC 70661 for searches of estate documents: The fee for searching a document transferred to the clerk of the superior court under Section 732 of the Probate Code is the same fee under subdivision (c) of Section 70627 for searching records or files.

In general, searches are performed in the computer, case files, microfiche, microfilm or indexes. If it takes more than ten minutes to identify the cases associated with a name search or to locate documents in a file, the fee is $15. Most searches will probably not take more than 10 minutes. A search is defined as identifying cases associated with a name or identifying documents associated with a name.

Searches will be limited to a maximum of ten names or ten case records per day.

Search fees are assessed when:

• There is a request for information from a case file(s) and only the name of the defendant or plaintiff is provided. In this instance, the search commences when the clerk begins searching the computer, case file, microfiche, microfilm or other resource to identify the associated case file number.
• There is a request for a document within a case file. If the case file number is known, the time spent searching for the document commences once you begin looking through the file. Otherwise, the time spent searching begins when the case file number must be identified in order to locate the document.

Once the case file numbers are identified as the result of a name search or the requested documents within a case are located, the search activity concludes. If these activities take longer than 10 minutes, a $15 fee is assessed.

Making copies of documents from the case files should not be included as time involved in the search since a copy fee will be assessed at the rate of $.50 per page pursuant to GC 70627(a). If certified copies are requested a $25.00 fee is assessed pursuant to Section GC 70626(a)(4).

All requests received in the mail must be accompanied by a Visa or MasterCard account number, including the expiration date.

Court staff will continue to accommodate telephone requests from the defendant or his/her attorney for calendar or case information. All other requests for record searches must be submitted in writing to Clerk’s office or in person.

Record searches will be performed based on the information provided by the requestor. An AKA constitutes an additional or separate name search request.

Only when there is proper authority may information be given to attorneys in juvenile cases, sealed cases or any cases where statute prohibits disclosure.

Record and File Search Request Form