Los Angeles County Criminal Court Records Search: Cases & Dockets

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Los Angeles County official court-record guide

Start with the Superior Court case, then follow the record to the correct agency

Los Angeles County criminal information is spread across several official systems. The Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles maintains criminal court cases; the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department maintains many booking, custody and Sheriff’s records; California DOJ maintains statewide fingerprint-based criminal-history summaries; and CDCR maintains state-prison information. Knowing which record you actually need prevents wasted searches and reduces the risk of confusing an arrest with a conviction.

Jurisdiction: Los Angeles County, California Information checked: October 2026 Primary sources: Court and government agencies
Fastest route: if you already know the criminal case number, use the Los Angeles Superior Court Criminal Case Summary. If you only know the person’s name, use the Court’s Search for Case Number by Defendant Name. For a current county-jail inmate, use LASD inmate information. For your own statewide California criminal-history summary, use California DOJ Record Review.
Search a criminal case Use a known case number to see publicly available case information.
Case Summary →
Search by defendant name Find a Los Angeles criminal case number when you only know the name.
Name Search →
Find an inmate Booking, bail, housing, court date and custody information.
LASD custody →
Get a court record Use the courthouse for certified criminal documents and case copies.
Copies →
Get your California record Fingerprint-based DOJ Record Review for your own state criminal history.
DOJ review →

Los Angeles County criminal records are not all stored in one database

A court docket, arrest record, jail booking and statewide criminal-history summary are separate records. The agency that created the information is usually the best place to begin.

Superior Court

Criminal court case

Filed charges, hearings, case status, pleas, dispositions and sentencing information.

LASD / Police

Arrest or police report

Records produced by the law-enforcement agency that investigated an incident or made the arrest.

LASD Custody

Jail / booking record

Booking, custody, bail, housing, court date and release information for qualifying county detainees.

California DOJ

State criminal-history summary

Fingerprint-based California criminal-history information. General third-party public access is restricted.

CDCR

State-prison information

Public information about people in California state-prison custody through CIRIS.

Federal Court

Federal criminal case

Federal prosecutions are not Los Angeles Superior Court cases and use PACER instead.

An arrest or criminal charge is not a conviction. A person may be arrested without charges being filed, a charge may be dismissed, or different counts in the same case may have different outcomes. Read the final court disposition.

Search a Los Angeles criminal case when you know the case number

The Superior Court’s Criminal Case Summary is the most direct online path when you already know the criminal case number.

The Court states that the online information is not an official court record. Important information should be checked against the actual court file when accuracy matters.

Open Criminal Case Summary
Current access detail: the Court may require reCAPTCHA verification during higher-traffic daytime hours to preserve access for individual court users.

Enter the complete criminal case number

Case-number searching avoids the ambiguity and public-access fee associated with defendant-name searching.

Confirm the defendant

Check the defendant name and case filing details before treating the case as belonging to the person you intended to research.

Review charges and case events

Look at the listed criminal counts, hearings, case status and disposition information rather than relying on a single summary field.

Check the final disposition

Determine whether each count ended in conviction, dismissal, acquittal or another disposition.

Contact the court for official documents

Criminal document images are not generally available for public online download through the same document-image system used for certain civil matters.

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