Connecticut Court Records: How to Use Case Look-up, and the Real Clean Slate Status

Connecticut's court records search, Case Look-up, is split by court type rather than run as one unified tool, and its own Clean Slate program page is a genuinely useful lesson in why a .gov page is not automatically the current truth. That page still displays a completion target that passed years ago, even though the underlying program has, in fact, caught up.

Information last verified on 2026-08-10. This article has not yet been reviewed by a licensed lawyer.

This guide is part of a broader look at court records by state. For the general mechanics of federal versus state versus county searches, see how to look up court records and are court records public.

Case Look-up: Split by Court Type

Connecticut's Judicial Branch runs its court records search as a family of tools grouped under Case Look-up rather than a single unified database. The Judicial Branch's own description of the section states it provides users with information about Supreme and Appellate, civil, family, criminal, motor vehicle, housing, and small claims cases, with each category generally reached through its own look-up path rather than one universal name search. That split-by-type structure is consistent with how a number of states organize case access, but it means confirming which look-up tool applies to the specific court level and case type is the first step, not an afterthought.

Erasure: Connecticut's Own Term

Connecticut does not use sealing or expungement as its statutory term. The operative word is erasure, defined in Connecticut General Statutes § 54-142a. Under that statute, all police and court records and records of any state's attorney pertaining to an erased charge are to be erased, and a person or agency in possession of an erased record generally may not disclose the underlying information to anyone. One notable carve-out: court records specifically excludes a record or transcript of the proceedings made or prepared by an official court reporter, and any audio or video recording of any court proceeding. In other words, the official transcript or recording of a hearing can survive even after the case record itself is erased.

Automatic Erasure: The Timelines

Connecticut General Statutes § 54-142a sets automatic erasure timelines for offenses committed on or after January 1, 2000. Misdemeanor convictions are erased seven years from the date the court entered the person's most recent judgment. Class D and E felony convictions erase automatically after ten years on the same basis. Family violence crimes, sexual offenses, and the violent crimes listed under the statute's exclusion provision are not eligible for this automatic track.

The Clean Slate Status: Why the .gov Page Is Wrong

This is worth flagging directly, because it is a real example of a state page going stale. Connecticut's own Clean Slate program page, at portal.ct.gov, still states as of this writing that the State is working to resolve issues that were identified while building the system to erase convictions automatically, with a target completion date of January 31, 2024, a date that has clearly passed without the page being updated.

The actual, more current picture comes from reporting published July 15, 2026: Connecticut has fully cleared its Clean Slate erasure backlog. All 170,000 people who were eligible have had their records erased, amounting to nearly 350,000 individual cases, and erasures are now happening automatically, on a rolling basis, as people become eligible going forward. If you are checking Connecticut's Clean Slate status for a specific purpose, do not rely on the stale program page alone; look for the most recent update available at the time.

Certified Copies

This guide does not publish a statewide certified-copy fee figure for Connecticut, since it could not be confirmed from a primary source in this session. Contact the clerk of the specific court where the case was filed.

For Full Expungement Eligibility Detail

This page covers Connecticut's terminology and the current, corrected Clean Slate status. For the full eligibility walkthrough, including how petition-based erasure works for cases that fall outside the automatic track, see Connecticut expungement laws, which this guide does not duplicate.

Using Connecticut Court Records the Right Way

Case Look-up is built for checking a specific case, whether it is your own or one you have a legitimate reason to look into, not for compiling a background file on someone else. If a Connecticut court record is used to screen a job applicant or a tenant, that use is governed separately by the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act. Under 15 U.S.C. § 1681c, a criminal conviction is exempt from the standard seven-year reporting window that applies to most arrests and civil judgments, meaning it can be reported indefinitely unless it has been erased under Connecticut law.

Related Resources

Court Records by State covers the full 50-state picture. See also How to Look Up Court Records, Are Court Records Public?, Connecticut Expungement Laws, Connecticut Background Check Laws, Connecticut Warrant Search, and Connecticut Public Records Laws.

Disclaimer

This article provides general information about Connecticut's Case Look-up system and its erasure law, including the current Clean Slate backlog status as of mid-2026 reporting. It is not legal advice. Program status and portal features change; verify current details with the Connecticut Judicial Branch or a licensed Connecticut attorney before relying on anything here for a specific situation.

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Last updated: 2026-08-10. Portal facts and fees reflect their published status as of August 2026.