Maine Court Records: How to Search, What's Public, and How to Seal Them

Maine is in the middle of switching from paper court files to an online system called re:SearchMaine, and the rollout is happening region by region rather than all at once. Whether you can search a Maine court case online right now depends heavily on which county the case was filed in and when that county's courts went live on the new system.

This page covers how re:SearchMaine works, which counties are live as of this writing, what stays confidential under Maine law, and how Maine's sealing process, which is not called expungement, actually works.

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

How to Search Maine Court Records

Maine's court system is mid-transition. The state is rolling out a new electronic case-access system called re:SearchMaine, built by Tyler Technologies, to replace an older tool called the Odyssey Public Portal. Registration is required but there is no fee to register or search.

The catch is coverage. re:SearchMaine is being turned on region by region rather than statewide at once, and as of this writing the confirmed live regions are Androscoggin County (live after June 2025), Oxford and Franklin Counties (live after September 2025), Kennebec and Somerset Counties (live after February 2026), York County (live after March 2026), Aroostook County (live after June 2026), and Hancock and Washington Counties, Judicial Region 7, live as of Monday, July 27, 2026. Counties not on this list simply do not have electronic case search available yet.

Where re:SearchMaine is live, it covers a fairly broad set of case types: criminal, civil violation, and traffic citation cases; Business and Consumer Docket cases; personal injury and non-personal-injury tort and contract cases; constitutional and civil-rights cases; title-to-real-estate cases; appeals under Rules 80B and 80C and other civil appeals; money judgments; and eviction, small claims, and foreclosure cases where the plaintiff prevailed and the case has reached the post-judgment stage.

Maine's own access page is direct about the limitation: the public can only view records "the court makes accessible remotely," not every public document that exists, and courthouse visits remain necessary for anything beyond what's been made available online. In a county that hasn't gone live yet, there is currently no electronic case search at all for criminal, juvenile, or civil-violation records.

What's Public and What's Restricted in Maine

Maine's Judicial Branch describes court records in plain terms rather than pointing to a single named access rule: records are "generally open to the public, although some records and case types are confidential by law," and "the public cannot access court records in cases that are confidential."

Maine's own help page lists a substantial set of confidential case categories: mental health civil commitments, medical malpractice screening proceedings, sterilization proceedings, extreme weapon protection orders, HIV/AIDS testing proceedings, minor settlement proceedings, child protection matters, adoptions, guardianships of minors, name changes for minors, court-authorized abortion petitions for minors, emancipations of minors, assisted reproduction matters, and most juvenile case records.

Beyond the county-by-county re:SearchMaine rollout, there's a deeper structural point: most Maine court records exist only on paper. Electronic records generally only exist for cases filed after November 2020 in courts that had already implemented e-filing at that point. For the large majority of Maine's case history, there is simply no remote access option; a paper request or an in-person clerk's office visit is the only way to see the record. For the broader, nationwide principle behind this presumption of access, see are court records public?

Sealing in Maine (Maine Does Not Use the Word Expungement)

Maine's courts are explicit that the state's remedy is called sealing, not expungement, and the two words are not interchangeable when you're researching your own record here. Under Maine's sealing process, eligibility generally covers Class E crime convictions, with exceptions for sexual-assault offenses, specific marijuana-related offenses committed before January 30, 2017, and convictions tied to sex trafficking or prostitution victimization handled under a separate process.

The waiting period is at least four years since the person fully completed their sentence, including any imprisonment, probation, administrative release, fine payments, license suspension, restitution, or community service. Maine's courts describe what sealing actually does in practical terms: once sealed, someone "may respond to inquiries from persons other than criminal justice agencies, the court, and other entities... as if the conviction had not occurred." The record is not erased; it is withheld from employers, lenders, landlords, and similar parties who would otherwise be able to find it.

The process runs through a Motion to Seal Criminal History (form CR-218) filed with the District Court clerk. The court holds a hearing to verify eligibility by a preponderance of the evidence, and if the motion is granted, the State Bureau of Identification is notified to seal the record. Maine's own page is direct on this point: sealing "is not automatic." There is no Clean Slate mechanism in Maine; a court motion and judicial approval are required every time.

For eligibility detail beyond what's summarized here, see our Maine expungement guide, which uses Maine's actual sealing terminology in its coverage.

Getting Records When re:SearchMaine Is Not Live in Your County

Where re:SearchMaine has not yet rolled out, Maine offers two alternatives. You can mail a Records Search Request form with a self-addressed stamped envelope to the Judicial Branch Service Center at P.O. Box 266, Lewiston, ME 04240, or reachable by phone at 207-753-2901. Or you can contact the clerk's office of the specific court where the case was heard directly, in person or by phone, with the party names, case type, and docket number if you have them.

Because coverage depends on which county and which case type you're looking for, it's worth checking Maine's own rollout schedule before assuming a search will come back empty; a county that just went live might have records you didn't expect to find online yet, and a county still waiting on the rollout will have nothing searchable regardless of how you phrase the search.

Using Court Records Responsibly: The FCRA Rule

Checking your own case, or a case you have a genuine personal reason to look into, is a normal use of re:SearchMaine or the mail-in records process. Using either one, or a commercial people-search site pulling from the same underlying data, to screen a tenant or job applicant triggers the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), a separate set of obligations from anything Maine's courts require of a records requester.

Under 15 U.S.C. § 1681c, most negative consumer-report information ages off after seven years, but § 1681c(a)(5) exempts criminal convictions from that window, so a conviction can be reported indefinitely unless Maine's sealing process actually restricts it. In 2023, the FTC fined TruthFinder and Instant Checkmate $5.8 million for marketing public-records-based background reports for tenant and employment screening without complying with the FCRA, on the theory that a company marketing reports for that purpose is a consumer reporting agency under the law. Treat re:SearchMaine and the mail-in process as personal-use research, and route any real tenant or employment screening through a properly FCRA-compliant background check.

Related Maine Records Searches

This page is part of our broader Court Records by State guide, and our how to look up court records guide covers name-versus-case-number searching across states in more depth. If you're checking your own history before a job or a lease, see Maine background check laws. If you think you might have an active warrant rather than an ordinary case, see Maine warrant search. For records held by state agencies rather than the courts, see Maine public records laws.

Disclaimer

This article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Court portals, fees, and coverage change without notice, and the Maine Judiciary is the only authoritative source for its own records. If you need a certified copy or have a legal question about a specific case, contact the clerk of court where the case was filed, or consult a licensed Maine attorney.

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