Maine Court Records Search
In order to search for the Maine court records you are looking for it helps if you understand how the court system is structured in Maine. In 1961, Legislature brought about the District Court. This court hosts 38 judges with courts held in eight judicial regions all over Maine. In the District Court all family matters, civil and criminal hearings take place. A Main court record search can allow you to search criminal records, vital records, civil records, traffic records and more.
Inside District Court, there is one family division which holds jurisdiction over all family issues in the court. 8 magistrates work in this division. This court also handles cases on criminal cases where the defendant insists on their right to jury trial. On top of this, the district court overseas juvenile matters as well as cases of traffic infraction.
Many District Court decisions might be appealed to Maine Supreme Judicial Court, but not the detainer, forcible entry, and small claims cases. Maine has a small claims court which holds special sessions on specific days as scheduled by Chief Judge. The procedure here is super simplified, all hearings are formal, and parties can appear at hearings without an attorney.
For years, Justices of the Superior Court along with the Judges of the District Court are authorized to conduct proceedings of trials.
Requesting Maine Court Records
On July 1 2014, a pilot program was introduced that would centrally process all Maine court records searches, which were before this done manually by clerks. This procedure has now spread through all of the Superior and District Courts. Here is how this procedure affects your court record search.
It is important that you submit all requests for Maine court records search with a form specified particularly for this. You can look it up online as provided by the official judicial site of Maine. Requests sent any other way will be returned to the sender.
All request forms should be mailed to the Maine Service Center of the Judicial Branch. It’s address, also listed on the form is Judicial Branch Service Center, PO Box 266, Lewiston, ME 04243.
You can also walk in to the Service Center and hand in your request if you like. All you need to do is take the form to the public window of 85 Park St. Lewiston ME between 9 in the morning to 3 in the afternoon. If you continue to request a record search on yourself you can carry on and query the courts where the records are located and exempt yourself from the research fee too, especially if you are party to this case.
