Illinois Court Records: How to Search by County and What re:SearchIL Actually Covers

Illinois is in the middle of building a statewide court records repository, re:SearchIL, but its rollout to the general public is not finished. For now, most readers still need to search Illinois court records county by county, and Cook County, the state's largest, is a useful example of what a county-level system looks like.

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 mechanics of federal versus state versus county searches generally, see how to look up court records and are court records public.

re:SearchIL: A Statewide Repository Still Rolling Out

Illinois Courts' own eservices page lists re:SearchIL as the "Statewide Document Repository," alongside eFileIL, online traffic and conservation ticket payment, and Remote Proceedings. It is a genuinely statewide project, but access has been rolled out in phases rather than opened to everyone at once. According to the Illinois Courts' own announcement of the system, the rollout moved from courts themselves, to judges, clerks, and parties to a case, and only later to "non-party attorneys and the general public in a phased implementation," with a subscription or transactional fee basis planned for attorney and public access once that phase arrives. Because the public-facing rollout has continued to evolve since that announcement, readers should check illinoiscourts.gov directly for the current status of general-public access and any fees, rather than assuming re:SearchIL already works like a finished statewide search the way it does in some other states.

Searching by County: Cook County as an Example

Until re:SearchIL's public tier is fully available, the practical path in Illinois is the county circuit court's own system. Cook County's Clerk of the Circuit Court runs a free Online Case Information portal covering civil, law, chancery, and domestic relations or child support divisions. The clerk's own site is explicit about its limits: "The electronic docket information available through this service is not the official record of the court," and the same disclaimer states the data "may not be represented as an official court record." Full criminal case files are not available online through this portal; the alternative is a public-access terminal at the courthouse. Other Illinois counties run their own separate systems with their own coverage and interfaces, so a search in one county says nothing about what another county's clerk provides online.

What's Public and What's Restricted

The Illinois Supreme Court has adopted a rule establishing distinct access categories that apply to case records and individual documents, ranging from fully public, to impounded, confidential, sealed, and expunged. Which category a record falls into, not just its general case type, determines what a member of the public can see, whether searching re:SearchIL once it is fully available or a county's own system in the meantime. Separately, Illinois court rules also require filers to keep certain personal identifiers, such as Social Security numbers, out of publicly filed documents, redacting or filing that information under seal instead.

Sealing and Expungement in Illinois

Illinois's Criminal Identification Act draws a clear line between two remedies. Expungement destroys the record. Sealing keeps the record but restricts public access to it, while leaving it visible to law enforcement and certain other agencies for specified purposes. Which remedy applies, and when, depends on the offense and how the case ended. For current eligibility rules and the filing process, see Illinois expungement and sealing laws, which this page does not duplicate.

Certified Copies and Courthouse Access

A certified copy of an Illinois court document comes from the Circuit Court Clerk in the county where the case was filed. Even in Cook County, which runs one of the state's more developed online systems, full criminal case documents, not just the docket entries, require an in-person courthouse visit rather than an online request.

Using Illinois Court Records the Right Way

A free county docket search is meant for checking your own case, confirming a court date, or general research, not for screening a tenant, applicant, or date, and Cook County's own disclaimer is a reminder that what displays online is not the official record. Under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, criminal convictions are exempt from the seven-year reporting-window limit that applies to arrests and most civil judgments, meaning a conviction can appear on a consumer report indefinitely; only an Illinois sealing or expungement action removes it from a compliant background report. The FTC's 2023 settlement with TruthFinder and Instant Checkmate, over marketing public-records reports for tenant and employee screening without following federal background-check law, is a reminder that a court-records search is not a substitute for an FCRA-compliant background check when a housing or employment decision is on the line.

Disclaimer

This article explains how Illinois court records are organized and searched. It is general legal information, not legal advice, and it is not a substitute for a licensed legal or background-screening professional. Portal features, rollout status, and fees change without notice; verify current details directly with Illinois Courts or the relevant county clerk. Consult an Illinois-licensed attorney for advice about a specific case.

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