How long are court case records kept?
Court case records are preserved or retained according to record retention schedules submitted by court management associations and approved by the State Local Records Committee. There are schedules for various local and state agencies.
To view the existing retention instructions for specific court levels, see the General Retention Schedules - Records and Information Management Publications for State and Local Government Agencies page of the Secretary of State's Archives Web site. This page includes a list of retention schedules, including schedules for:
- County & Superior Court Clerks.
- District and Municipal Court Clerks.
In general, every document filed in a superior court case by a party or by order of the court is retained in perpetuity.
In district and municipal court criminal cases, since 1997, the record of the judgment and sentence is retained in perpetuity. All other records are retained in accordance with the retention schedules published for the district and municipal courts.
RN id: 1777