Court Records - Home

PUBLIC NOTICE: To serve a copy of a notice of appeal on the trial court administrator and the transcript coordinator for this court, under Oregon Rules of Appellate Procedure 1.35(2)(e), use the following email address: MUL.transcript.coordinator@ojd.state.or.us

File Review Requests

We cannot take copy requests over the phone.
Requests for copies of documents from court files are made in Room 131 (File Room).

The costs are as follows:

$0.25 per page;
$5.00 for a certified copy + per page copy charge; and
$10.00 for an exemplified copy + per page copy charge.

We are able to accept the following forms of payment: Credit or Debit card (Visa/ MasterCard only), Personal check, Cashier check, Money Order, or Cash. Please do not send cash in the mail!

Document Copies from Court Files - Requests via Mail

Records Request Form (pdf 43 KB)
The following information is required to process your request for copies via mail:

Case name and Circuit Court case number;
List of document(s) you want copied and whether certification and/or exemplification is requested and for which documents;
Self-addressed, stamped envelope large enough to return the copies to you;
Check to cover the cost of copies, payable to the State of Oregon. If you do not know how many pages of copies there will be, you may leave the amount blank and indicate a “not to exceed” amount in the memo field. A suggestion is “Not to exceed $10” for simpler requests, or “Not to exceed $25” for more complex jobs.

Failure to include all the necessary information or payment may result in your request being returned to you. For mailing address details see Contact Information page. Please allow at least four weeks for copies to be mailed to you.

Audio Recordings

Multnomah County Circuit Court records proceedings digitally, and can provide copies of the recordings on compact disk (CD) media. Requests for non-confidential recordings may be made via phone, mail, or in person in Room 131 (File Room).

The costs are as follows:

$10 per CD for a regular recording;
$15 for a certified recording; and
an additional $1 if you would like the CD mailed to you.

Please allow about one week for the CD to be prepared.
If you need a written transcript, you can take your recording to a certified transcriber. You should be able to find a list of transcribers or court reporters in the yellow pages of the phone book or by searching online.

Helpful Links

Police Reports are not maintained by the court. Please contact the responding or arresting law enforcement agency, such as:

Vital Records (Marriage, Birth, or Death Records) are not maintained by the court. Please contact the Oregon Center for Health Statistics to obtain this type of information.

Land Deeds are not maintained by the court. You will need to contact the Multnomah County Recorder’s Office for the records of deeds.

How do I request a copy of a document(s)?

For all document requests you need to have the case number, name of the document(s) you are requesting a copy of, and the filing date of the document(s). If you do not have this information you can use the Online Record Search to find the case number and file date. Also please let us know if you need a regular copy, certified, or exemplified copy of the document(s).

You can contact the court with any of the following methods:

Mail: Please give all the information listed above in your Records Request Form. Also please state how you would like to make payment, via phone or mail. A records staff person will contact you with any questions and/or your payment options after we receive your mail request.
In Person: Counter requests can be made in Room 131, during regular business hours.

Some documents requested can be returned via email if you are requesting a regular copy. Certified or Exemplified copies will either need to be picked up from our Records department or mailed to you.

Failure to include all the necessary information or payment may result in your request being returned to you. For mailing address details see the Contact & Location Information. We are able to accept the following forms of payment: Credit or Debit card (Visa/Discover/MasterCard), Personal check, Cashier check, Money Order, or Cash. Please do not send cash or credit card info in the mail.

State law allows us to charge fees to recover our actual costs for locating and providing public records. For photocopies that we make of letter-size or legal-size pages, including normal and reasonable staff time to locate, separate, photocopy, and return documents to files and to prepare copies for mailing, we charge:

$0.25 per page (a double-sided copy is two pages);
$3.00 to email any electronic document(s);
$5.00 for a certified copy + per page copy charge;
$10.00 for an exemplified copy + per page copy charge.

Normal and reasonable staff time is 10 minutes or less per request. We may charge additional amounts for staff time and other actual costs when responding to requests that require additional services or more than the normal and reasonable time for routine requests, including:

Time we spend to locate, compile, and sort requested records, even if we find no records that respond to your request or the records we do find are exempt from disclosure
Time we spend to review requested records and redact any exempt material
Time we spend to copy requested records
Time we spend returning documents to files
Time we spend to supervise inspection by the requestor
Necessary research time
Time we spend preparing correspondence related to your request
Special copy services and mailing services for documents that are not of standard size or for voluminous requests

How do I request an audio of a hearing?

Multnomah County Circuit Court audio records proceedings digitally, and can provide copies of the recordings on compact disk (CD) media or via a secure email. You may request copies of these audio recordings from the Records Department.

State law restricts who may receive audio copies of hearings and trials for some case types such as adoptions and juvenile cases. If you are requesting an audio copy from a restricted (confidential) case type, your request may be denied or you may be required to complete additional paperwork, show identification and pick up the copies in person.

Copies of audio recordings will be electronically transferred using digital technology through a secure website. The court uses a digital recording system called “For The Record” (FTR), which is a proprietary system. To play the recordings you will need the free FTR Player. Court staff cannot assist you if you encounter problems with downloading the FTR Player. If you encounter technical difficulties with the FTR Player, you will need to contact technical support at FTR.

Requests for non-confidential recordings may be made by:

Mail: Please give all the information listed above in your Audio Copy Request form. Also please state how you would like to make payment, via phone or mail. A records staff person will contact you with any questions and/or your payment options after we receive your mail request.
In Person: Counter requests can be made in Room 131, during regular business hours.
Phone: We may be able to complete the request by the end of the call.

The costs are as follows:

$10 per CD for a regular recording;
$15 for a certified recording; and
$9.00 for an emailed audio of the recording;
an additional $3.00 if you would like the CD mailed to you.

Please allow 5 business days for acknowledgement or completion, and up to another 10 business days after acknowledgement for the CD or email to be prepared.

How do I request a records search?

You can use the Online Record Search for free access to limited case information.
If you are going to request the court to do a search for you, then please include as much of the following information on the Records Request form in order to process your request as quickly as possible:

Please provide entire name to be searched; (if criminal case please provide date of birth and/or date of conviction)
Please provide entire name to be searched; (if criminal case please provide date of birth)
Searches prior to 1992 we will need the date of conviction or date of arrest to perform a records search. If you do not have that information you can contact the arresting agency to obtain this information.
For all other searches we need to know the approximate year of the filing of the case to be searched.
Cases prior to 1992 will most likely be on microfiche, microfilm, or paper ledgers. These requests will take longer to complete due to the media format having to be searched.

Adoption and Juvenile cases are confidential. Access to these cases is limited. For information about requesting copies from an Adoption case, please see the Guardianships & Adoption page. To request copies from a Juvenile case please contact the Juvenile Division of the Multnomah County Circuit Court directly.

State law allows us to charge fees to recover our actual costs for locating and providing public records. For photocopies that we make of letter-size or legal-size pages, including normal and reasonable staff time to locate, separate, photocopy, and return documents to files and to prepare copies for mailing, we charge:

$0.25 per page (a double-sided copy is two pages)

$5.00 for a certified copy + per page copy charge; and

$10.00 for an exemplified copy + per page copy charge

$3.00 per case for an emailed document (cannot be certified or exemplified)

Normal and reasonable staff time is 10 minutes or less per request.

We may charge additional amounts for staff time and other actual costs when responding to requests that require additional services or more than the normal and reasonable time for routine requests, including:

Time we spend to locate, compile, and sort requested records, even if we find no records that respond to your request or the records we do find are exempt from disclosure
Time we spend to review requested records and redact any exempt material
Time we spend to copy requested records
Time we spend returning documents to files
Time we spend to supervise inspection by the requestor
Necessary research time
Time we spend preparing correspondence related to your request
Special copy services and mailing services for documents that are not of standard size or for voluminous requests

What is a regular, certified, and exemplified copy?

Records staff cannot advise a customer what level of certification they may need for a document. Here is a general guideline of the differences in the level of certification.

Copies are electronic images (TIFF, PDF) or photocopies of any document in the file or an audio recording.
Certified Copies are photocopies of a filed document in its entirety (everything within a staple) that is sworn to be a true copy by a Court Clerk. The certified copy should not be taken apart. If the staple is removed the certification becomes invalid.
Exemplified Copy, also called a 3-Way Certificate, is a photocopy of a pleading in its entirety that’s authenticity is sworn to by the Court Clerk. The signature of the Court Clerk is sworn to by the Presiding Judge then the Court Clerk swears to the authenticity of the Judge’s signature. It takes a few extra additional days to process an exemplified copy request.