Searching court records and obtaining copies of documents

In general, documents filed in a proceeding may be inspected and copied on payment of the proper fee.  However, some documents may be confidential and require an Order of the Court or permission from the Prothonotary, Deputy Prothonotary or Registrar (where appropriate).

Documents filed in criminal proceedings are generally not available for inspection.

You may wish to contact the relevant Registry before making a request to inspect a file to determine whether the file and documents are available for inspection, and to obtain further information about how long your request might take.

Litigation searches

Litigation/party name searches may be conducted to determine whether a person or entity is a party to a civil Supreme Court proceeding. 

To conduct a litigation search, an Application to Search a Court file or Record form will need to be completed and submitted through RedCrest. Once your request has been approved, the results will be emailed to you.

A fee is payable for each litigation search. You will be required to authorise the relevant payment in PayPal after you have submitted your search request in RedCrest.

Searching Court files

To conduct a court file search for a proceeding in the Trial Division or Court of Appeal, an Application to Search a Court file or Record form will need to be completed and submitted in RedCrest. For probate searches, please see 'searching probate records'. 

All search requests are reviewed by a member of the Registry Services team. You will be advised by email when your request has been approved. If your request is not approved, an email will be sent to you explaining why.

Inspections:

If the proceeding number contains an ‘E’ (referring to ‘Electronic’), documents approved for search will be emailed to you. If the proceeding number does not contain an 'E', this means that the Supreme Court of Victoria maintains a paper file for this proceeding. The relevant Registry will advise you as to how documents may be inspected, which may include in-person attendance at the relevant Registry. Generally, in-person inspections will occur at the Principal Registry at 450 Little Bourke Street, Melbourne.

Parties and their legal representatives may also have electronic access in RedCrest to their file if it is maintained as an electronic proceeding. See ‘Access to Electronic court files by parties’, below.

Fees:

A fee is payable to search a court file. You will be required to authorise the relevant payment in PayPal after you have submitted your search request in RedCrest.

If you attend the Registry in-person to photocopy documents (if required as part of an in-person inspection), then further photocopying fees will apply. Photocopying fees do not apply if you bring a USB drive and scan documents.

Civil Trial Division files

To search a proceeding in the Common Law Division, Commercial Court or Costs Court, please submit an Application to Search a Court file or Record form in RedCrest.

For any enquiries, please contact the Principal Registry by cevapvcnyertvfgel@fhcpbheg.ivp.tbi.nhua.vog.civ.truocpus@yrtsigerlapicnirp or by calling 03 8600 2000.

Criminal Trial Division files

Documents within a criminal proceedings cannot be searched unless permission is obtained in accordance with rule 1.11(4) and rule 1A.03(6) of the Supreme Court (Criminal Procedure) Rules 2017.

To apply to search a criminal proceeding, please submit an Application to Search a Court file or Record form in RedCrest.

For any enquiries, please contact the Criminal Registry by pevzvanyqvivfvba@fhcpbheg.ivp.tbi.nhua.vog.civ.truocpus@noisividlanimirc or by calling 03 8600 2004.

Court of Appeal files

Documents within a criminal Court of Appeal proceeding cannot be searched unless permission is obtained in accordance with rule 1.11(4) and 1A.03(7) of the Supreme Court (Criminal Procedure) Rules 2017.

To search a Court of Appeal proceeding, please submit an Application to Search a Court file or Record form in RedCrest.

For any enquiries, please contact the Court of Appeal Registry by pbnertvfgel@fhcpbheg.ivp.tbi.nhua.vog.civ.truocpus@yrtsigeraoc or by calling 03 8600 2001.

Probate files

Please see ‘searching probate records’.

Access to Electronic Court files by Parties

Parties to a proceeding may request enhanced case access to electronic court files, which are those proceedings that contain an ‘E’ (referring to ‘Electronic’). In these circumstances, a request to search may not be required.

Please ask the Case Manager to email erqperfg@fhcpbheg.ivp.tbi.nhua.vog.civ.truocpus@tsercder , informing the Court that they approve the granting of enhanced case access to you. The Case Manager is the person responsible for the proceeding whose details appear in the ‘tram tracks’ on the initiating or first responding document filed in the proceeding.

Requests from the media

News media organisations can request to search a court file or record by submitting an Application to Search a Court file or Record form in RedCrest.

For enquiries regarding litigation or court file searches, please contact the Principal Registry at zrqvnertvfgelfrnepu@fhcpbheg.ivp.tbi.nhua.vog.civ.truocpus@hcraesyrtsigeraidem . Please also see the media centre.