How to Find Court Records in Alberta

Alberta does not have one self-serve online search covering every court. The Court of King's Bench Civil and Criminal Search portals at eservices.alberta.ca let anyone submit and pay for a $25 search request online, but Alberta Court of Justice family, youth, and criminal files and every Court of Appeal file must be requested in person at a Registry counter, and certification of a document costs $20, not the $10 the government's own Access Guide states.

Information last verified on 2026-08-15. This article has not yet been reviewed by a licensed lawyer.

The Three Alberta Courts, Under Their Current Names

Alberta renamed its trial courts in 2023, and getting the current names right matters for anyone searching official sources: the old names still turn up in older material and even in a stray page title on the courts' own site.

The Alberta Court of Justice (formerly the Provincial Court of Alberta) is the entry-point court. It handles criminal matters involving summary and less serious offences, traffic and other provincial offences, family law and child protection matters, and civil claims up to a monetary limit the Court of Appeal's own jurisdiction page describes simply as "small claims court."

The Court of King's Bench of Alberta (formerly the Court of Queen's Bench of Alberta) is Alberta's superior trial court. In its own words, it "is a superior court of criminal jurisdiction, with the power to try any indictable offence under the Criminal Code of Canada," generally trying only the most serious criminal offences, including murder, manslaughter, and drug trafficking. It also hears civil proceedings, including commercial matters, personal injury, bankruptcy and insolvency, and estate litigation; hears appeals from Alberta Court of Justice civil cases under $100,000; has sole jurisdiction over divorce and division of property; and handles child and spousal support and custody matters.

The Court of Appeal of Alberta is the province's sole appellate court, hearing criminal appeals from the Court of Justice, criminal and civil (including family) appeals from King's Bench, appeals from administrative tribunals, and reference questions from the Lieutenant Governor in Council. Alberta Court of Justice civil (small claims) appeals stop at King's Bench Civil with no further right of appeal, and Family Law Act appeals from the Court of Justice go to King's Bench Civil, with any appeal beyond that needing leave.

Both courts publish the open-court principle as their guiding rule. The Court of Appeal states it plainly: court proceedings are open and public, subject only to restrictions from a publication ban or a sealing order, and access to court records is obtained by request through the Court of Appeal Registry.

Two Governing Access Documents

Alberta's access rules sit across two documents that work together. The Policy for Public Access to the Court Record, adopted by the Court of Appeal on May 2, 2022, applies specifically to that court and states a presumptive right of access to the entire court record unless a statute or court order prohibits it, with the burden on whoever wants to restrict access. The broader Court Information Access Guide for Alberta (Version 4.1, December 2025) covers civil, family, traffic, youth, and criminal proceedings across all three courts, is approved for public and media use, and defers to the Court of Appeal's own policy where the two differ. The Guide is explicit that internal case-management systems are not public by default; access runs through the search-request process described below.

Online Search: Request-Based, Not Instant Self-Serve

Alberta's online access is meaningfully different from a unified name-search database. It is split by court and case type across separate eServices portals, and each one is a paid request that gets processed and emailed back, not an instant lookup.

• Court of King's Bench Civil Search (eservices.alberta.ca) covers civil, family, divorce, bankruptcy, appeal, and surrogate/estate matters, including Surrogate - Represented Adult filings, in King's Bench, province-wide. A requester submits a web form, pays online, and receives results by email.
• Court of King's Bench Criminal Search (eservices.alberta.ca) covers accused-name searches of King's Bench criminal matters, province-wide. The portal itself warns plainly: "In criminal matters, this search of the Court's information is not a criminal record check. It can only show the records the Court has about an individual's interactions with the Courts of King's Bench of Alberta. Criminal record checks and vulnerable sector checks are available from police services."
• Court of Justice Civil Search (eservices.alberta.ca) covers only civil actions filed in the Alberta Court of Justice, and only at the Calgary and Edmonton locations. It explicitly does not cover Court of Justice family, youth, or criminal matters.
• There is no online portal for Court of Appeal searches, and no online portal for Court of Justice family, youth, or criminal matters. Those requests continue to go to the specific court location in person.
• Adult traffic tickets have their own separate lookup, the My Alberta eServices Fine Payments page, searchable by ticket number. For a youth ticket, contact-centre staff will give only the next hearing date and courthouse by phone; anything further requires an in-person counter request.

No account beyond signing in with an Alberta.ca Account, or an Alberta.ca Account for Organizations, is needed to place a paid search request through these portals.

Fees: $25 to Search, $20 to Certify (Not $10)

The official search and certification fees are set out in the Court of Justice Fees Regulation, Alta Reg 18/91, and mirrored in Schedule B of the Alberta Rules of Court, AR 124/2010 for the Court of Appeal:

Both live eServices portals, the King's Bench Civil Search and the King's Bench Criminal Search, charge the identical $25 search fee and $20 certification fee. The Court of Appeal's own fee schedule sets the same $25 search/inspection and $20 certification figures.

One discrepancy is worth stating directly because it circulates in Alberta's own materials: the government's Court Information Access Guide for Alberta, a December 2025 document, states the certification fee is $10.00 per document. That figure does not match reality. Four independent primary sources, checked separately, all show $20.00: the live King's Bench Civil Search portal, the live King's Bench Criminal Search portal, the Court of Justice Fees Regulation as currently consolidated, and the Alberta Rules of Court Schedule B. The regulation and the live payment portals are the sources that actually charge you, so treat $20 as the correct current certification fee and the Guide's $10 as stale.

Peace officers and Justice Canada employees acting in their official duties are fee-exempt, Legal Aid certificate holders get search fees waived, and a clerk may waive fees for someone who cannot pay.

In-Person Requests

For Court of Appeal and Court of Justice matters, and as an alternative for King's Bench, members of the public attend a Registry counter in person to make a search request. The process is: complete a Search Request Form (Civil/Family or Criminal/Traffic), or for the Court of Appeal a Civil/Criminal Search Request Form plus a Terms and Conditions of Access form, and pay the search fee at the counter by cash, cheque, or credit card. A further $25 viewing fee applies for each additional file requested beyond the first. Someone who already has access to view a file may make their own copies, by phone photo or portable scanner, inside the court administration area, at no charge beyond the search fee, though the Court of Appeal's record is now electronic so this mainly applies to older paper-only files. Alberta's stated best-efforts processing time for a request is 5 business days.

Restrictions on Access

Family files (King's Bench): anyone can get the procedure card (a list of proceedings and documents filed), scheduling information, and addresses for service through a paid search request, with no further gatekeeping. Beyond that, only a party, their lawyer of record, the lawyer for the children, a government employee acting in the course of duty on that file, someone named on a filed Authority to Access Family Law File form, or accredited media get further access as of right. Anyone else must serve a Request to Access Family Law File form on the parties or their lawyers, file proof of service, and wait 30 days; if no party objects, staff must then grant access. Financial disclosure documents carry a further carve-out: even someone otherwise entitled to see the file needs a court order to view financial disclosure if a confidentiality order is in place.

Youth records: the federal Youth Criminal Justice Act controls access, and Alberta's own Youth Justice Act adds parallel publication-ban rules. There is no access to a youth record except as the Act specifically authorizes, and it is itself an offence to permit unauthorized access. Public or media requests are forwarded to a youth court judge for a decision; the young person and their lawyer have access at any time. For a youth traffic or provincial-offence ticket, court staff can tell the public and media only the next court date and location. These restrictions stop applying once a young person receives an adult sentence and the appeal process is over.

Sealed and mandatory-seal records: the Clerk of the Court must seal all documents relating to an adoption, and they cannot be inspected without a court order or the Minister's written consent. Medical evidence documents subpoenaed in a child-protection proceeding must be sealed. All wiretap application documents under Criminal Code s. 187 are automatically sealed with no separate order needed. Corporate-investigation documents held by the court under the Business Corporations Act are confidential unless the court orders otherwise.

Publication bans: Alberta's Access Guide catalogs statutory bans that apply automatically (identifying a child or parent in a child protection proceeding, identifying a young person under the YCJA, sexual-history evidence applications), mandatory bans a court must grant on request (identity of a sexual-offence victim, or any victim or witness under 18), and discretionary bans a court may grant (general victim or witness identity, juror identity). A ban restricts what can be published about a record, not whether the record itself can be accessed.

Court Records Versus a Criminal Record Check

A King's Bench criminal search or a Court of Justice registry request looks up a specific court file. It is not a criminal record check. As the King's Bench Criminal Search portal itself states, it cannot substitute for a criminal record check, which comes from police services and is the correct tool for employment or tenant screening. Use the court portals to look up a specific case, not as a general-purpose background check.

Transcripts

Alberta transcripts come only from Transcript Management Services, a contracted court reporting service, ordered online with a credit card or, for those without one, by email or voicemail. Pricing is per character and tiered by turnaround: $0.0048 for 30 calendar days, $0.0058 for 10 business days, $0.0068 for 5 business days, and $0.0078 for 2 business days, with an additional $0.0010 per character for real-time reporting. The Court of Appeal record is billed separately at $40.00 per hour. Additional copies cost $0.40 per page if ordered with the original or $1.00 per page after delivery, and a court audio recording copy costs $25.00 for the first day and $10.00 for each additional day. The Court of Appeal only provides transcripts of oral submissions and argument, and only for proceedings from January 1, 2019 onward; anything earlier needs prior court approval. Every transcript carries a standard warning that a publication ban can still apply to its content even after release.

For how to certify a birth, death, or marriage record instead of a court file, see vital records in Alberta. To start or respond to a small claim, see Alberta small claims. For the national picture and neighbouring provinces, see the Canada court records hub and British Columbia's court records guide.

Disclaimer

This article is for general information only and is not legal advice. Court access policies, portal availability, and fees change; the certification fee discrepancy noted above (the government's own Access Guide states $10 where the regulation and live portals charge $20) is an example of how quickly official secondary guidance can trail the underlying rule, so confirm current fees directly with the court or eservices.alberta.ca before paying. Alberta Court of Justice's own civil monetary jurisdiction ceiling was confirmed only indirectly, through a King's Bench cross-reference, and was not found stated directly on a Court of Justice page; verify it with the court if it matters to your matter. Accessing a court record does not give you the right to publish what a publication ban restricts. Confirm current procedures and fees with the relevant Alberta court registry before relying on anything in this article.