Use the right Utah record system before you search
Utah criminal information is split across several government systems. Xchange is the main statewide public search for district and justice court cases. MyCase gives many parties free access to their own court case. The Utah Bureau of Criminal Identification (BCI) handles a person’s own Utah criminal-history record, statewide warrants and qualified background-check programs. County sheriffs maintain local jail and many arrest records, while the Utah Department of Corrections covers people currently under state supervision.
One name can appear in several different Utah record systems
A court docket, arrest report, Utah criminal-history record, jail booking and Department of Corrections record answer different questions. Searching only one database can therefore produce an incomplete picture.
Court case
Filed charges, court events, hearings, judges, attorneys, documents, judgments and the outcome of completed public cases.
Utah criminal history
State criminal-history information maintained in Utah’s computerized criminal-history system. Ordinary Right of Access is for the person whose record it is.
Arrest or incident record
Initial contact, arrest, incident and investigative records are generally maintained by the agency that created them and can involve GRAMA rules.
Current local custody
Pretrial detainees and many people serving local jail sentences are found through the relevant county sheriff or jail—not Utah DOC.
Prison / probation / parole
UDC’s search covers people currently incarcerated by or supervised by the Utah Department of Corrections.
Appealed criminal case
Utah Supreme Court and Court of Appeals cases use a separate appellate docket search rather than ordinary Xchange case searching.
Utah district courts and justice courts do not handle the same criminal cases
Utah’s court structure is especially useful when narrowing an Xchange search.
Felonies and Class A misdemeanors
Utah district courts are general-jurisdiction courts. All felony cases and Class A misdemeanor cases are filed in district court.
Most Class B / C misdemeanors and infractions
Justice courts generally handle most Class B and Class C misdemeanors, local ordinance violations, infractions and many traffic matters.
Xchange is Utah’s main public district and justice court case search
Utah Courts Xchange is the public case-information repository for district and justice courts. It displays public information entered by court staff into Utah’s court case-management system.
Xchange can show information such as:
- party and defendant names
- case number and court location
- criminal charges
- defendant date of birth when available
- assigned judge
- attorneys of record
- law-enforcement agency
- prosecuting agency
- citation number
- filing and violation dates
- chronological proceedings
- judgments and case outcomes
Open official Xchange Xchange search instructions
How to search Utah court cases without wasting paid searches
Xchange charges when a search is submitted, so it helps to use the strongest identifiers you already have before pressing the search button.
Choose District Court, Justice Court or both
Use the offense level or court documents you already have to narrow the jurisdiction.
Enter a case number when known
A case number is usually more precise than a name. Utah warns that case numbers are not unique statewide, so multiple matches can still appear.
Otherwise search by name
Enter last name and first name. Xchange supports an asterisk wildcard to return name variations and situations where a middle initial may have been entered.
Add birth date if you know it
Birth dates are particularly useful in criminal defendant searches and can reduce false matches involving common names.
Narrow by county, court or case type
Xchange can search statewide or within a county or specific court. Narrowing the scope reduces irrelevant results.
Use filing or disposition dates when needed
The date-range panel can limit cases by filing date, disposition date, judgment date or judgment disposition.
How to read a Utah Xchange criminal-case result
A criminal case can contain several charges, several hearings and different outcomes for individual counts. The extended history is more useful than simply seeing that a person’s name appears.
| Xchange field | What it tells you | What to verify |
|---|---|---|
| County / Court Location | Where the case is filed. | Make sure you have the correct Utah court. |
| Case Type | Criminal, DUI, other misdemeanor, traffic or another category. | Use the case-type code to understand the proceeding. |
| Case Number | Identifier assigned to the court matter. | Save it for later records and copy requests. |
| Defendant Information | Name and available criminal-case identifiers. | Compare DOB and other details before assuming a match. |
| Charge | Offense alleged in the case. | A charge alone is not proof of conviction. |
| Proceedings | Chronological court events. | Look for plea, dismissal, sentencing and final disposition. |
| Case History / Documents | Summary history and available public filings. | Some documents can be purchased electronically. |
| Account Summary | Court financial accounts, fines, fees and balances. | Do not confuse an unpaid balance with the final criminal disposition. |
Current Utah Xchange costs
Utah charges for remote public Xchange access, but there are free in-person options discussed in the next section.
| Access option | Current fee | What is included |
|---|---|---|
| One-time / guest access | $10 transaction fee | Current court rule allows up to 10 searches during the session. |
| Xchange document | $1 per document | When a public electronic document is available for purchase. |
| Monthly subscription setup | $25 | One-time setup charge for a subscription account. |
| Monthly subscription | $40/month | Includes up to 500 searches during each monthly billing cycle. |
| Searches after 500 | $0.35 each | Applies to additional subscription searches in the same billing cycle. |
Fees are governed by Utah court rules and can change. Confirm the current amount on the official Xchange fee page before purchasing access.
You can search public Utah court cases without paying Xchange online fees
Utah Courts provides free public Xchange access at most district courthouses. Some justice courts may also provide access; Utah recommends calling ahead to verify.
Free Xchange access is also available at the Utah State Law Library.
Utah State Law Library
450 South State StreetSalt Lake City, UT
Hours: Monday–Friday, 9:00 a.m.–4:30 p.m.,
except federal and state holidays.
Phone:
801-238-7990
District / justice courthouse
Find the court using Utah’s official directory and contact the clerk before traveling if you specifically need a public Xchange terminal.
Find a Utah courtIf the criminal case is yours, try MyCase before paying for Xchange
Utah Courts operates My Court Case (MyCase) for parties who want access to many of their own court cases.
Depending on the case, MyCase can let a party:
- view case history
- see papers filed in the case
- access eligible documents
- file certain documents
- review their own case without paying Xchange search charges
- see an automatically expunged case labeled as expunged in eligible circumstances
Account setup generally uses a valid email address, case information and identity verification.
How far back do Utah electronic court records go?
Xchange reflects information entered into Utah’s statewide case-management system, known as CORIS. Electronic coverage is not identical for every court.
Utah Courts says most district courts were using CORIS by the end of 1998. Justice courts joined at different times and made their own decisions about converting older cases. Converted legacy cases can contain less detail.
Utah also states that public district-court documents that are electronically available and were filed since July 1, 2010 are available through Xchange, subject to public-access restrictions.
Historical records more than roughly 50 years old
Utah Courts identifies the Utah State Archives as the repository for many historical Supreme Court, district, municipal and justice court records.
Getting paper, certified or exemplified Utah court records
When an online Xchange document is not enough, request the record from the court that maintains it. Utah provides a statewide Request for Court Record process.
Utah Courts says it usually responds to a court-record request within 10 business days, although complex or restricted requests can take longer.
| Record/service | Current fee | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Paper court-record copy | $0.25 per sheet | General copy fee under current judicial records rule. |
| Certified copy | $4 per document + $0.50/page | Use when official certification is required. |
| Exemplified copy | $6 per document + $0.50/page | Higher authentication level for specialized uses. |
| Email / fax up to 10 pages | $5 | Additional pages are currently $0.50 each. |
| Xchange electronic document | $1 per document | Applies only when the document is available through Xchange. |
Need what was actually said in court? Request audio or a transcript
A case history lists events; it is not a word-for-word record of what happened during a hearing. Utah district, juvenile and appellate courts are courts of record, and proceedings are recorded electronically or by court reporters.
Online audio
Current court rule lists $10 per recording for qualifying FTR Cloud access.
Audio/video record
Current rule lists $15 for each one-half day of testimony or portion thereof.
Initial certified transcript
Utah’s current transcript-fee page lists $6 per page for initial preparation and certified copy to the requester.
A criminal appeal uses Utah’s separate appellate record system
Xchange is primarily the district/justice court search. If a criminal judgment was appealed, Utah provides a separate Appellate Docket Search for the Utah Court of Appeals and Utah Supreme Court.
Utah’s appellate search can be used by case number. Appellate opinions published since the late 1990s are also available through the court website.
Utah appellate cases & opinions Appellate record guidance
BCI is the place to obtain your own Utah criminal-history record
The Utah Bureau of Criminal Identification maintains Utah’s computerized criminal-history information.
BCI’s ordinary Right of Access process is for a person obtaining their own Utah criminal history. It is not a general public search service for looking up another person’s complete BCI record.
| Method | Current fee | Key requirement |
|---|---|---|
| In person at BCI | $20 | Valid government-issued photo identification. |
| By mail | $20 | Complete the official Criminal History Record Application and follow the form instructions. |
| Right of Access agency | Varies by agency | Approved agencies can provide a person a copy of their own Utah history. |
BCI Right of Access instructions BCI forms
Employment and volunteer background checks follow different BCI rules
Utah BCI operates statutory background-check programs for qualifying employers, licensing agencies and organizations working with children, vulnerable adults and other covered populations.
These are not interchangeable with casually searching Xchange and are not the same as requesting your own $20 Right of Access criminal history.
BCI employment / volunteer checks
What to do when your Utah BCI record is inaccurate
BCI assists individuals who want to review or challenge their own Utah criminal history. Utah currently lists a $20 Record Challenge Request fee.
Utah arrest reports and police records usually come from the originating agency
Xchange tells you what happened in court. It does not replace an arrest report, police incident report, body-camera record or other law-enforcement file.
For those records, identify the Utah police department, sheriff’s office, highway patrol or other agency that created the record and use that agency’s public-record process.
Identify the originating agency
Use the Xchange case history, citation, booking record or paperwork to identify which law-enforcement agency handled the incident.
Locate that agency’s GRAMA/public-record page
Utah agencies commonly accept Government Records Access and Management Act requests through an online portal, form, email or records office.
Describe the record specifically
Include the report/case number when known, event date, location, names involved and the type of record requested.
Expect redactions when required
Public portions can be released while private, protected or otherwise restricted information is withheld or redacted.
GRAMA applies differently to police records and court records
Utah’s Government Records Access and Management Act—usually called GRAMA—governs access to many state and local government records. Utah law generally provides a right to inspect public government records, subject to statutory restrictions and applicable fees.
For police, sheriff, corrections and other executive/local-agency records, GRAMA is often the practical records-request framework.
Utah GRAMA recognizes categories including public, private, controlled and protected records. A record can also be restricted because another statute, federal law or court rule limits access.
BCI itself provides a separate BCI GRAMA request portal for records maintained by BCI other than the ordinary personal criminal-history process.
County jail inmates may not appear in the Utah Department of Corrections search
Utah does not use the UDC offender locator as a universal county-jail roster. A person who has been arrested, is awaiting trial or has not yet been sentenced and is housed in a county jail will generally not appear in the UDC search.
Search the county jail
Identify the county where the person was booked and use the official sheriff/jail search.
Search Xchange
Follow the court case separately for charges, hearings and disposition.
Search UDC
Use Utah Corrections once the person is under UDC incarceration, probation or parole supervision.
Utah provides a free statewide warrant search
The Utah Bureau of Criminal Identification links directly to the Utah Statewide Warrant Search. The Statewide Warrants file is designed to provide information about individuals wanted in Utah.
Check Utah statewide warrants BCI warrant guidance
Search Utah prison, probation and parole records through UDC
The Utah Department of Corrections Offender Search covers people currently under UDC supervision.
The official search can be used for people who are currently:
- incarcerated by Utah Corrections
- on Utah probation under UDC supervision
- on Utah parole under UDC supervision
- searchable by UDC ID number
- searchable by first and last name
Utah offender registries are separate from ordinary criminal-record searches
Utah BCI also provides access to the state’s Sex, Kidnap and Child Abuse Offender Registry. Registry status is a separate legal classification and should not be confused with simply having any criminal conviction.
Expunged Utah cases can disappear from public Xchange results
Utah defines expungement as sealing or otherwise restricting access to qualifying criminal records. An expunged case does not appear to the public in Xchange.
Utah’s automatic-expungement process changed on January 1, 2026. Utah Courts says a person no longer needs to file the former request form merely to have the court identify cases that qualify for automatic expungement; the courts now identify qualifying cases through the automatic process.
Petition-based expungement
Cases that do not clear automatically may require the petition process. For many petition-based cases, the first step is applying to BCI for a Certificate of Eligibility.
| BCI expungement item | Current fee | Important note |
|---|---|---|
| Certificate eligibility application | $65 | Paid when starting the petition-based eligibility process. |
| Eligible conviction / plea-in-abeyance / special certificate | $65 per certificate | Additional certificate charge when applicable. |
| Dismissal / acquittal / declined case certificate | No per-certificate fee in qualifying cases | BCI’s current FAQ identifies these as exceptions to the per-certificate charge. |
Utah Courts expungement guide BCI expungement information
Federal criminal records are separate from Utah state court records
Xchange searches Utah district and justice court records. It does not replace the federal judiciary’s PACER system.
If the prosecution was filed in the United States District Court rather than a Utah state court, search the federal system.
Search federal cases through PACER FBI Identity History Summary
Utah BCI office for in-person criminal-history requests
Bureau of Criminal Identification
4315 South 2700 WestSuite 1300
Taylorsville, UT 84129
Phone:
801-965-4445
Hours: Monday–Friday, 8:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.,
excluding state holidays.
The office is in the Taylorsville State Office Building on the first floor.
In-person Right of Access
Bring valid government-issued photo identification and confirm the current fee and accepted payment method before visiting.
BCI criminal records pageThe map is lazy-loaded so it does not block the main article during initial page rendering.
Utah search tips that can save money and prevent false matches
Use MyCase if it is your case
You may be able to avoid Xchange charges completely.
Felony means district court
Narrow Xchange to district court if you know the matter is a felony.
Add DOB
Criminal defendant birth-date data can help separate people with similar names.
Use the wildcard carefully
An asterisk can find name variations, but a broader search can also generate more results.
Narrow before clicking Search
Xchange search submissions are billable under the current fee structure.
County jail ≠ UDC
A newly arrested person can be in local custody without appearing in Utah DOC search.
Check final proceedings
The existence of a charge does not tell you whether it was dismissed or resulted in conviction.
Old case? Contact the clerk
Justice-court conversion dates vary and older electronic files may contain less information.
Use the free warrant system
Do not pay a third-party site simply to access Utah’s official statewide warrant search.
What you should not expect to see in an ordinary public Utah search
Utah presumes many court records are public, but access is not unlimited. Depending on the record and applicable law, an ordinary public search may not show:
- expunged cases
- sealed court records
- protected or private documents
- juvenile delinquency cases in ordinary Xchange
- certain personal identifying information
- county-jail bookings through UDC
- another person’s complete BCI criminal-history file
- federal prosecutions through Xchange
Utah’s Judicial Council rules classify court records as public or non-public and allow particular records to be private, protected, sealed, safeguarded or otherwise restricted.
Questions people commonly have before searching Utah records
1. Is there a free statewide Utah criminal court search?
Remote Xchange access normally has a fee, but free public Xchange terminals are available at most Utah district courthouses and at the Utah State Law Library.
2. Can I use Utah BCI to search another person’s complete criminal history?
Not through the ordinary Right of Access process. That process is for obtaining your own Utah criminal history. Public court-case research for another person generally starts with Utah Courts Xchange, while qualifying employers and agencies use separate BCI programs.
3. How much does Utah Xchange cost?
Current Utah court rules list a $10 non-subscription transaction allowing up to 10 searches during a session, with electronic documents at $1 each. Monthly subscription access currently has a $25 setup fee and costs $40 per month for up to 500 searches.
4. What court handles Utah felony cases?
Utah district courts handle all felony cases and Class A misdemeanors. Justice courts generally handle most Class B and C misdemeanors, infractions, ordinance violations and many traffic matters.
5. How can I get my own Utah criminal-history record?
Apply through the Utah Bureau of Criminal Identification in person or by mail. The current Right of Access fee is $20.
6. Is the Utah statewide warrant search free?
Yes. Utah BCI links to the free Statewide Warrant Search at warrants.utah.gov.
7. Why is a county-jail inmate missing from the Utah DOC offender search?
The UDC search only covers people currently under Utah Department of Corrections supervision. People awaiting trial or not yet sentenced and housed in county jails are not included.
8. How far back does Utah Xchange go?
Most district courts were using the statewide CORIS case-management system by the end of 1998. Justice courts joined at different times, and older converted cases can contain less information. Historical records may require the local court or Utah State Archives.
9. Can an expunged Utah case still appear to the public in Xchange?
Expunged cases are not displayed to ordinary public Xchange users. A party may still be able to see their own expunged case through MyCase in circumstances allowed by Utah law and court rules.
10. Does Utah Xchange include federal criminal cases?
No. Federal criminal cases are maintained by the federal courts and are generally searched through PACER rather than Utah Courts Xchange.
Official resources used for this guide
- Utah Courts — Xchange Public Case Search
- Utah Courts — Xchange Instructions and Search Tips
- Utah Courts — Xchange Fees
- Utah Courts — Courthouse Xchange Access
- Utah Courts — My Court Case
- Utah Courts — Request a Court Record
- Utah Courts — Filing, Transcript and Record Fees
- Utah Courts — Appellate Court Records
- Utah Bureau of Criminal Identification — Criminal Records
- BCI — Obtain Your Own Utah Criminal History
- BCI — Utah Statewide Warrants
- BCI — GRAMA Requests
- Utah Department of Corrections — Offender Search
- Utah Courts — Expunging Adult Criminal Records
- BCI — Expungements