New Jersey criminal court records are not all exposed through one public internet database. Superior Court indictable cases are maintained in the Judiciary’s PROMIS/Gavel and eCourts systems, municipal matters use separate municipal court systems, criminal judgments have their own public search, and broader records can require a courthouse records-room request. This guide shows where to start, what each official system actually contains, and what to do when an online search does not provide the complete court file.
New Jersey Criminal Records Are Split Across Several Court and Government Systems
Before searching a person’s name, determine what kind of record you actually need. A Superior Court indictment, municipal complaint, state criminal-history report, arrest report and prison record can all exist in different systems.
Indictable criminal cases
Superior Court Criminal Division handles indictable offenses and maintains records through PROMIS/Gavel and eCourts.
Municipal cases
Traffic, ordinance, disorderly-persons and qualifying complaint matters use the municipal court case-management system.
Criminal-history record
The State Bureau of Identification maintains New Jersey computerized criminal-history information and fingerprint-supported personal-record requests.
Arrest and investigative records
Police reports, discovery, arrest information and investigative material may remain with law enforcement or prosecutors and can be subject to OPRA exemptions.
State correctional records
The New Jersey Department of Corrections provides a public offender search for people covered by its correctional records.
Criminal appeals
Appeals from Superior Court criminal cases go to the Appellate Division and potentially the New Jersey Supreme Court.
How to Search New Jersey Superior Court Criminal Cases
Indictable criminal cases are handled in the Criminal Division of New Jersey Superior Court. New Jersey’s internal statewide criminal case-management system is known as PROMIS/Gavel.
Unlike some states, New Jersey does not expose the entire PROMIS/Gavel case system to unrestricted internet users. The Judiciary provides limited public internet services, while broader inquiry-only PROMIS/Gavel access is available through public-access terminals located in Superior Courthouses.
What Is PROMIS/Gavel?
PROMIS/Gavel is the New Jersey Judiciary’s criminal case-management system used for Superior Court Criminal Division matters. It contains defendant and case information, case events, dispositions and other data used to manage criminal matters.
New Jersey Judiciary guidance states that the public can use an inquiry-only PROMIS/Gavel system at public-access terminals located in each Superior Courthouse.
Broader case inquiry
Courthouse public terminals can show qualifying PROMIS/Gavel information that is designated for public access.
Not everything appears
Confidential information and data not considered relevant for general public access are withheld.
Actual documents
The Criminal Division Records Room is the better route when you need the actual court file, not just a case-management entry.
Search New Jersey Criminal Judgments Online
New Jersey Judiciary provides public internet access to certain finalized criminal judgments. The Judiciary’s criminal judgment initiative includes:
- Judgments of Conviction
- Judgments of Dismissal
- Judgments of Acquittal
- qualifying judgments finalized on or after June 30, 2017
New Jersey Municipal Court Criminal and Complaint Records
Not every criminal-type matter reaches Superior Court. New Jersey municipal courts handle many disorderly-persons offenses, petty disorderly-persons offenses, traffic matters, local ordinance violations and related complaints.
The Judiciary provides a separate Municipal Court Case Search.
Use the municipal portal for municipal matters
Do not assume a disorderly-persons case will appear like an indictable Superior Court case.
Use the complaint or ticket information when available
A complaint number, ticket number, court code or other known identifier can be more reliable than a broad name search.
Contact the municipal court for the file
Online case information is not always the same thing as the complete public case jacket.
How to Read a New Jersey Criminal Court Record
| Item | What it generally means | What to verify |
|---|---|---|
| Complaint | The formal charging document that begins a criminal matter. | Check the exact statute and whether the charge changed later. |
| Indictment | A grand jury formally charged an indictable offense. | Do not treat indictment itself as conviction. |
| Accusation | A charging document used in qualifying criminal proceedings without an indictment. | Review subsequent plea or disposition. |
| Disposition | How the charge or case ended. | Conviction, dismissal, acquittal, diversion or another outcome. |
| JOC | Judgment of Conviction. | Review conviction counts and sentence carefully. |
| Judgment of Dismissal | The court formally dismissed the qualifying matter. | Do not label it as a conviction. |
| Judgment of Acquittal | The defendant was acquitted. | Again, this is not a conviction. |
| Sentence | The penalty or conditions ordered following the qualifying disposition. | Check incarceration, probation, fines and restitution separately. |
Understanding New Jersey Criminal Case Numbers
New Jersey criminal cases can carry multiple identifiers depending on how the matter entered the court system. You might encounter:
Criminal case number
Used within Superior Court’s statewide criminal case-management system.
Indictment number
Often includes county, year and sequence information.
Accusation number
Identifies qualifying cases proceeding by accusation rather than indictment.
CDR complaint number
Complaint identifiers can help link municipal, pre-indictment and Superior Court records.
When requesting records, provide every identifier you know. A full case number is much more useful to records staff than asking for “all criminal records” associated with a common name.
New Jersey Criminal Division Records Rooms: Where the Actual Court File Lives
Every county has a Criminal Division Records Room for Superior Court criminal matters. These offices are especially important when internet searches do not provide enough detail, when you need older records, or when you need a copy of an actual filed document.
Newark
Essex County Veterans Courthouse50 West Market Street
Room 1012
Newark, NJ 07102
Phone: 973-776-9300 ext. 55965
Hackensack
Bergen County Justice Center10 Main Street
2nd Floor
Hackensack, NJ 07601
Phone: 201-527-2700 ext. 2173
Jersey City
Hudson County Administration Building595 Newark Avenue
Room 104
Jersey City, NJ 07306
Phone: 201-217-5216
New Brunswick
Middlesex County CourthouseP.O. Box 964
New Brunswick, NJ 08903-0964
Phone: 732-645-4300 ext. 88155
Toms River
Ocean County Justice Complex120 Hooper Avenue
Toms River, NJ 08753
Phone: 732-929-4780
Official statewide directory
Use the Judiciary’s current Criminal Division Records Rooms directory for all 21 counties.
Find Your County Records RoomHow to Request Copies of New Jersey Criminal Court Records
New Jersey Criminal Division files are generally open to public inspection and copying unless a specific rule, statute or court order makes part of the file confidential.
Find the county and case number
Use a public search tool, judgment result, municipal case result or other known document to identify the court and case.
Contact the correct Criminal Division Records Room
Superior Court criminal records are maintained through the county Criminal Division.
Describe the specific document
Ask for the judgment, indictment, accusation, order, docket entry or other public record you actually need.
Ask whether certification is required
A regular copy may be enough for research. A certified copy may be required for a court, licensing agency, immigration matter or another formal purpose.
Closed records can also be transferred to the Superior Court Records Center. The Superior Court Clerk’s Office manages statewide record storage and retrieval functions for qualifying closed court files.
Which New Jersey Criminal Court Records Are Not Public?
New Jersey court files are generally public, but important exceptions apply. Judiciary Criminal Division guidance identifies categories that should not be disclosed to the public.
| Record type | General access status | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Search warrants | Restricted/confidential under applicable rules | Do not expect unrestricted public docket access to search-warrant materials. |
| Active police investigative reports | Restricted | Active investigative material is not treated like an ordinary court filing. |
| Grand jury proceedings | Confidential | Grand jury secrecy rules apply. |
| Sealed indictments | Confidential while sealed | A sealed indictment is intentionally withheld from ordinary access. |
| Pretrial intervention reports | Restricted | Not an ordinary public docket document. |
| Presentence reports | Restricted | Contain sensitive information used for sentencing. |
| Expunged records | Not publicly disclosed | Judiciary staff are instructed not to provide record information about an expunged case. |
| Records sealed by court order | Not publicly available as ordered | A specific judicial sealing order controls access. |
Can You Search New Jersey Search Warrants Online?
Search warrants should not be confused with arrest warrants. New Jersey Judiciary Criminal Division guidance specifically identifies search warrants as records that are not disclosed through ordinary public Criminal Division file access under the applicable court rules.
New Jersey State Police Criminal History vs. Court Records
A court-record search is not the same thing as a fingerprint-supported criminal-history record. The New Jersey State Police State Bureau of Identification (SBI) is the central repository responsible for computerized criminal-history record information.
SBI receives and maintains information connected with arrests, court dispositions and corrections. The Criminal Records Integrity Unit reviews and updates computerized criminal-history records and interfaces with both municipal-court systems and Superior Court PROMIS/Gavel data.
Judiciary court records
Best for learning what happened in a particular court case: charges, docket activity, judgments and public court documents.
NJSP criminal history
Best when the person needs an official fingerprint-supported New Jersey criminal-history review rather than a courthouse docket search.
Personal Record Request
New Jersey State Police provides a fingerprint-based Personal Record Request / Individual Review or Challenge process. The official fingerprint paperwork uses the personal-record-request category and the NJPRR0000 originating agency number.
The State Police currently uses an authorized fingerprint vendor for many noncriminal fingerprint submissions. Appointment and fingerprint procedures can change, so verify the current instructions directly with the State Police before scheduling.
New Jersey State Police Criminal Records InformationHow to Correct an Incorrect New Jersey Criminal-History Record
If the problem is in the State Police computerized criminal-history record rather than merely a public court page, the New Jersey State Police Criminal Records Integrity Unit is responsible for creating, updating, modifying and reviewing computerized criminal-history records.
New Jersey’s background-check rules also provide procedures for individuals to challenge incomplete or inaccurate criminal-history information.
New Jersey Arrest Reports and Police Records Are a Separate Search
If your goal is to obtain a police incident report, arrest report or investigative record, the court is not always the agency that holds it.
For New Jersey State Police-created records, the Criminal Justice Records Bureau handles discovery and other records produced by the State Police. Local police and county agencies maintain their own records.
How New Jersey OPRA Requests Work for Criminal-Justice Records
New Jersey’s Open Public Records Act (OPRA) governs access to many state and local government records. The key practical rule is that the request must go to the custodian of the agency that actually holds the record.
Open New Jersey OPRA CentralIdentify the record holder
A Jersey City police report should not be requested from the Department of Corrections, and a State Police record should not be sent to a county court clerk.
Use the correct agency form or portal
New Jersey OPRA Central provides state-agency indexes and an online state records request form.
Describe existing records, not questions
Identify the report, date range, incident, subject and agency as specifically as possible.
Understand criminal-investigation exemptions
OPRA excludes certain criminal investigatory records from the ordinary definition of a public government record, although some specific law-enforcement information can still be subject to disclosure.
New Jersey Department of Corrections Offender Search
The New Jersey Department of Corrections provides an official Offender Search Engine for correctional information.
Use the DOC search when your question is about state correctional custody rather than simply whether a criminal case existed.
New Jersey Parole Information
The New Jersey State Parole Board directs the public to the Department of Corrections Offender Search for offender information. Information specifically concerning a person on parole can also be requested from the Parole Board’s public-information office.
The Parole Board separately accepts OPRA requests for records maintained by that agency.
New Jersey Parole Offender InformationHow to Search New Jersey Criminal Appeals
A Superior Court criminal case can be appealed to the Appellate Division of the Superior Court. The New Jersey Supreme Court is the state’s highest court.
The Judiciary publishes both published and unpublished appellate opinions online. Criminal opinions typically identify the appellate docket number and the underlying county criminal case or indictment.
New Jersey Appellate DivisionAppellate Division Clerk’s Office
Richard J. Hughes Justice ComplexP.O. Box 006
Trenton, NJ 08625-0970
Phone: 609-815-2950
New Jersey Criminal Record Expungement
An expungement removes qualifying arrests, proceedings and related criminal-history information from ordinary public access under New Jersey’s expungement law.
New Jersey Judiciary provides an electronic expungement system that can retrieve qualifying criminal, municipal and other case information while a petition is being prepared.
Once a record has been expunged, Judiciary Criminal Division guidance instructs staff not to disclose the existence of the expunged record in response to ordinary public inquiries.
New Jersey Clean Slate Expungement
New Jersey also provides a Clean Slate expungement pathway for qualifying people with older criminal records.
Under New Jersey’s current Clean Slate framework, a person can apply to expunge qualifying combinations of crimes and disorderly-persons or petty disorderly-persons offenses after satisfying applicable statutory requirements.
The Judiciary’s computerized expungement system accepts Clean Slate applications, and qualifying applicants generally submit the petition to the county where the most recent eligible conviction was entered.
Federal Criminal Court Records in New Jersey
A federal prosecution in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey is not a New Jersey Superior Court criminal case.
Use PACER for federal court dockets and documents. PACER’s nationwide Case Locator can help when you know the defendant name but not the specific federal court.
If your goal is your own nationwide fingerprint-supported FBI record rather than a federal court case, use the FBI Identity History Summary process.
New Jersey Judiciary Statewide Records and Appellate Location
Richard J. Hughes Justice Complex
25 Market StreetTrenton, NJ 08625
The complex houses statewide Judiciary offices and appellate functions. County Superior Court criminal files, however, should generally be requested from the county Criminal Division Records Room that maintains the case.
Superior Court Clerk’s Office
Richard J. Hughes Justice ComplexP.O. Box 971
Trenton, NJ 08625-0971
The Superior Court Clerk’s Office manages statewide record storage and retrieval functions, including qualifying closed court records.
This map is for orientation only. For a specific criminal file, use the Judiciary’s county Criminal Division Records Rooms directory before traveling.
Practical New Jersey Criminal Court Record Search Tips
Start with the court level
A municipal disorderly-persons matter and a Superior Court indictable crime use different systems.
Use judgment search for dispositions
Online criminal judgments are especially useful for convictions, dismissals and acquittals finalized on or after June 30, 2017.
Older judgment? Call the county
Pre-June 30, 2017 criminal judgments should be requested from the county Criminal Division.
PROMIS/Gavel is not fully public online
Broader limited criminal case inquiry is available through courthouse public terminals.
Keep every case identifier
Complaint, indictment, accusation and PROMIS/Gavel numbers can all make later record requests easier.
Check the disposition—not just the charge
A charge can end in dismissal or acquittal and should not automatically be described as a conviction.
Police report? Use the agency
Court clerks do not necessarily maintain the arrest or investigative report created by police.
Use NJSP for your actual criminal history
A court docket search is not a substitute for the State Police personal criminal-history process.
Federal cases are separate
Search PACER instead of New Jersey Judiciary tools for federal prosecutions.
Using New Jersey Criminal Court Information for Employment or Screening
Public court research should not automatically be treated as a legally compliant background check for employment, tenant screening, credit, insurance or another regulated eligibility decision.
Fingerprint-supported criminal-history checks for authorized employment and licensing purposes follow separate New Jersey State Police and agency procedures. Federal Fair Credit Reporting Act rules may also apply when a consumer-reporting company supplies background information.
New Jersey Criminal Court Records: Frequently Asked Questions
1. Can I search all New Jersey criminal court cases online by name?
Not through one unrestricted statewide public database. New Jersey provides several public tools, but broader limited Superior Court criminal case information is available through PROMIS/Gavel public terminals in Superior Courthouses. Municipal cases and criminal judgments use separate public search tools.
2. What is PROMIS/Gavel in New Jersey?
PROMIS/Gavel is the Judiciary’s Superior Court Criminal Division case-management system. Public inquiry-only access to qualifying information is available through courthouse public-access terminals, while confidential information is excluded.
3. Can I search New Jersey criminal convictions online?
Yes. The Judiciary provides online criminal judgment access for qualifying judgments of conviction, dismissal and acquittal finalized on or after June 30, 2017. Older judgments generally require contact with the county Criminal Division records staff.
4. Where do I search New Jersey municipal criminal cases?
Use the official Municipal Court Case Search for qualifying municipal matters, including many disorderly-persons, traffic and ordinance cases.
5. Where can I obtain the actual New Jersey criminal court file?
Contact the Criminal Division Records Room for the county where the Superior Court case was handled. The Judiciary maintains a current directory covering all 21 counties.
6. Are all documents in a New Jersey criminal case public?
No. Search warrants, active investigative reports, grand jury records, sealed indictments, presentence reports, expunged records and other protected documents can be confidential or restricted.
7. How do I obtain my own New Jersey criminal-history record?
Use the New Jersey State Police State Bureau of Identification personal-record request process. It is fingerprint supported and is different from searching a public court docket.
8. Where can I search for someone in a New Jersey state prison?
Use the New Jersey Department of Corrections Offender Search Engine. Recent county jail custody may require a separate search with the local county correctional facility.
9. What happens to a New Jersey record after expungement?
Qualifying expunged criminal records are removed from ordinary public disclosure under New Jersey law. Judiciary staff are instructed not to provide ordinary record information about an expunged matter.
10. Do New Jersey court searches include federal criminal cases?
No. Federal criminal cases are handled through the federal judiciary. Use PACER for federal dockets and court documents.
Official New Jersey Sources Used for This Guide
- New Jersey Courts — Criminal Division Records Rooms
- New Jersey Courts — Criminal Judgments Search
- New Jersey Courts — Municipal Court Case Search
- New Jersey Superior Court Clerk’s Office
- New Jersey Appellate Division
- New Jersey Courts — Expungement
- New Jersey State Police — Identification & Criminal History Records
- New Jersey State Police — Criminal Justice Records Bureau
- New Jersey OPRA Central
- New Jersey Government Records Council
- New Jersey Department of Corrections — Offender Search
- New Jersey State Parole Board — Offender Information
- PACER — Federal Court Records