Search Craven County Court Records Online
The main online access point for Craven County court records is the North Carolina eCourts Portal. The state system includes Smart Search for case summaries, Search Hearings for court dates, NC Judgment Search for indexed judgments, Make Payments for eligible obligations, and other public tools. Craven County does not have a separate county-only case search database in the official sources reviewed, so the statewide portal is the first online stop for most public case information.
Use the portal with care because statewide results can include people or businesses from other counties. Open advanced filters and choose Craven County as the location when possible. If a file is not complete online, the Craven County Courthouse and Clerk of Superior Court remain the access points for paper files, certified copies, older materials, and public terminals.
- Open Smart Search in the NC eCourts Portal and enter a case number, party name, attorney, citation, or other available search term.
- Use Advanced Filtering Options to set the location to Craven County and narrow by case type, case status, or filing date range.
- Use the official wildcard rules when a name is uncertain, such as at least three letters plus an asterisk for a last name.
- Open the case summary to review parties, court location, case events, hearings, financial entries, and public documents when available.
- Use Search Hearings for court dates and NC Judgment Search when a judgment index search is the main goal.
- Contact the Clerk of Superior Court when the needed paper file, certified copy, or restricted-access question is not resolved online.
The Judicial Branch court records help topic is the source page for the screenshot used here.
The state help topic reinforces the split between online case data, clerk terminals, and county clerk copy requests.
Craven County Court Records Search Fields
Smart Search and Search Hearings use broad search fields because a Craven County court record may be indexed by a case number, party, attorney, citation, or hearing detail. A case number in Enterprise Justice may use a two-digit year, case-type letters, a six-digit sequence, and a three-digit county identifier. Name searches may be easier when a date range and location filter are added.
| Field Label | Type | Required | Notes / Format |
|---|---|---|---|
| Smart Search | Text | No | Search by party, attorney, citation, case number, docket number, and more. |
| Case Number | Text | No | Enterprise Justice examples use a year, case type, sequence, and county identifier. |
| Party Name | Text | No | Wildcard name searching is supported under the portal guidance. |
| Attorney Name or Bar Number | Text | No | Useful for Search Hearings and cases tied to counsel of record. |
| Citation | Text | No | Useful for traffic, infraction, and payment-eligible matters. |
| Location | Dropdown | No | Select Craven County to reduce statewide false matches. |
| Case Type and Status | Dropdown | No | Can narrow civil, criminal, estates, special proceedings, and other public categories. |
| Filing Date Range | Date range | No | Limits results to a known filing period. |
| Judicial Officer or Courtroom | Text or filter | No | Used in Search Hearings for docket and calendar research. |
Types of Craven County Court Records
Craven County court records come from the Superior Court Division, District Court Division, magistrate functions within District Court, and the Clerk of Superior Court's estate and special proceeding responsibilities. Superior Court handles felony criminal matters, serious civil cases, some appeals from District Court, and caveats when a will is challenged. District Court handles many misdemeanors, infractions, traffic cases, family matters, juvenile matters, domestic violence protective orders, small claims appeals, landlord-tenant matters, and other lower trial court work.
Not every county record is a court record. Marriage licenses, certified marriage records, birth and death certificates, deeds, DD-214 military discharges, real estate instruments, and assumed business records are handled by the Craven County Register of Deeds. Jail bookings, detention-center custody, and sheriff incident records are handled by Sheriff Chip Hughes's office and the detention center, not by the court clerk.
- Criminal court records show charges, case events, pleas, dispositions, sentencing, bond, costs, restitution, probation, and appeal entries.
- Civil records include complaints, summonses, answers, motions, orders, judgments, liens, garnishments, evictions, and small claims judgments.
- Family records include divorce, custody, child support, equitable distribution, and domestic violence protective order matters, subject to redaction rules.
- Estate and probate records include wills filed after death, letters, inventories, accountings, claims, guardianships, and special proceedings.
- Traffic and infraction records include citations, pleas, dispositions, fines, costs, failures to appear, and related court dates.
- Judgment records can appear through NC Judgment Search and may include civil, family, small claims, criminal, and miscellaneous entries.
eFileNC File & Serve is the source page for the next Craven County court records image.
Electronic filing is part of the court access system, but filed documents and copies still follow public-access and confidentiality rules.
What Craven County Court Records Show
A Craven County court record is usually a case summary plus a timeline of docket events, hearings, parties, and documents. The exact fields depend on the case type and access level. Public portal users may see less than clerk staff or approved elevated-access users, especially when dates of birth, juvenile information, mental health information, protected addresses, or sealed material is involved.
| Field | What It Shows |
|---|---|
| Case Number | The official file number, often coded by year, case type, sequence, and county identifier. |
| Court Location | Craven County and the Superior Court or District Court division handling the case. |
| Case Type | Criminal, civil, family, estate, special proceeding, small claims, traffic, or another public category. |
| Parties | Names and roles such as plaintiff, defendant, petitioner, respondent, decedent, creditor, or representative. |
| Attorneys | Counsel names, bar data, and active party relationship when public. |
| Docket Events | Filings, motions, hearings, continuances, orders, judgments, dispositions, and payment events. |
| Hearings | Date, time, location, courtroom, judicial officer, and hearing type where available. |
| Financial Information | Costs, fees, restitution, fines, criminal attorney fees, balances, and payment eligibility when applicable. |
| Restrictions | Redactions or hidden entries for confidential, sealed, juvenile, adoption, or mental-health material. |
Craven County Court Records Access Law
North Carolina law gives two important access frames for Craven County court records. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 132-1 defines public records broadly for state and local government records made or received in public business. Court records have their own clerk-specific rule. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 7A-109 says records kept by clerks are open for public inspection during regular office hours unless the law provides otherwise.
The result is practical, not absolute. Many Craven County court records are public, but the public version may exclude restricted details. Juvenile court records, adoption files, mental health proceedings, sealed files, expunged matters, protected addresses, Social Security numbers, financial account numbers, and victim-sensitive details can be hidden, redacted, or unavailable to public users.
Note: Public access to a case summary does not mean every document in the paper file is open online.
The North Carolina public records statute is the source page for this Craven County court records reference image.
The statute gives broad public-records context, while court-file inspection still runs through the clerk and court-specific confidentiality rules.
Restricted Craven County Court Records
Restricted Craven County court records require more care than ordinary case searches. Juvenile delinquency hearings may have public components, but juvenile records are confidential and generally limited to authorized people such as the juvenile, parent or guardian, attorney, prosecutor, juvenile court counselor, and certain probation or law-enforcement personnel. Adoption and mental health records are also not ordinary public court records.
Expunction is different from sealing. An expunction removes qualifying records from ordinary public access after a court grants the petition under a specific statute. Sealing keeps a court record in custody but hides it from public inspection unless a judge or statute authorizes access. For certain nonviolent misdemeanor and felony convictions, N.C. Gen. Stat. § 15A-145.5 is one eligibility statute, but North Carolina has multiple expunction paths.
- Sealed record
- A court record kept by the court but hidden from routine public inspection.
- Expunction
- A court order removing qualifying criminal records from ordinary public view.
- Redaction
- The removal or masking of confidential details within an otherwise public record.
- Public terminal
- A self-service search station in a clerk's office for court-record information.
The clerk record inspection statute is the source page for this image.
The clerk statute is the key reason in-office inspection remains important when online court records are incomplete.
Craven County Court Records at the Clerk
The Clerk of Superior Court is the record custodian for Craven County Superior Court and District Court files. The official court-records help topic says criminal, civil, special proceeding, and estate information can be accessed on public self-service terminals. Paper case files are viewed in the county where the case is located, so Craven paper files are handled at the Craven County Courthouse. Copies are requested from clerk staff, and fees apply under Judicial Branch fee schedules.
Call before mailing a copy request. The Judicial Branch public records request page routes court-document copies to the clerk in the county where the case was filed, while non-case administrative record requests may use the statewide Judicial Branch process. The Craven County Clerk's office also has division contacts for cashier/bookkeeping, criminal Superior Court, estates, special proceedings, and jury questions.
Craven County Clerk of Superior Court
302 Broad St
New Bern, NC 28560
Mail: PO Box 1187, New Bern, NC 28563
252-639-3000
Monday-Friday, 8:00 AM-5:00 PM
Craven County Register of Deeds
226 Pollock Street
New Bern, NC 28560
252-636-6617
Use for marriage, vital, deed, and real-estate records.
North Carolina Guide & File is the source page for this court records image.
Guide & File can help prepare some court documents, but it does not replace the clerk as the court file custodian.
The Craven Register of Deeds online services portal is the source page for the final court records image.
The Register of Deeds portal is useful for recorded and vital-record indexes, but those records are not Clerk of Superior Court case files.