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National Average - Court Fees for Name Searches - BRB Publishes

October 17, 2013 posted by Steve Brownstein

National Average - Court Fees for Name Searches   
 
BRB Publications recently completed a statistical analysis to determine the national average of fees charged by court personnel for performing a name search of either the criminal or civil docket. The study included 4,731 criminal courts and 4,815 civil courts at the county level.  Per the stats below, quite a few courts (over 20%) refuse to perform a name search for the public. They will refer a requester to an online system or a state repository. Of course, if a case number is given the court will pull the file.

Guidelines Used on the Analysis:

If the court charged by the year, seven years was used as the baseline.
If the court's fee is based on an hourly rate, an average of 12 minutes per search was used as the baseline.
Since the search fee in some courts is sometimes based on the number of case files to pull (hits), the study included 3 different fee levels: if the name search resulted in no hits, with one hit, and with 3 hits. 
Criminal Court Results

Total number of courts surveyed:                 4,731

Courts willing to do a name search:               3,566 (75.4%)

National average fee if no hits:                     $8.17

Average fee if one hit:                                $8.35

Average fee if three hits:                             $8.66

Courts that perform name search for free:      1,091 (23%)

Cost to do national search:                          $29,105.10

 
Civil Court Results

Total number of courts surveyed:                  4,815

Courts willing to do a name search:                3,716 (77%)

National average fee if no hits:                     $6.85

Average fee if one hit:                                $6.98

Average fee if three hits:                            $7.23

Courts that perform name search for free:      1,098 (22.8%)

Cost to do national search:                          $25,451.25

 
Counties and Courts with Highest Fees in U.S.

The county with the highest fee for a name search for either a civil or criminal record is Cook County IL. The fee is $9.00 per year searched or $63 for a 7 year search. The Superior Court in Cochise County AZ charges $27 per 5 years searched, so a 7-year search costs $54. Also, 44 counties in IL charge $6.00 per name per year making the fee for a 7-year search at $42.00.

When the court tacks on additional fees to pull case files - such as the 3 hit fee reviewed above - the courts with the highest fees are 13 (or more) Justice Courts located in these Arizona counties: Cochise, Coconino, Greenlee, La Paz, Navajo, Pinal, and Yavapai. The search fee is $25.00 per name plus $25.00 for each case file that needs to be viewed. (The case file fee is charged even if the case number is already known.) Thus a single request for a name search that necessitates the need to pull 3 case files will cost $100 - or nearly 12 times the national average. The practice of charging this fee seems to fluctuate at times though, depending on which clerk doing the search or if the judge is asked "what is the fee?" The statute is somewhat unclear thus the fee is often left for local interpretation.

The information for this study was taken from the Public Record Research System (PRRS).