Skip to main content

Oregon State Flag An official website of the State of Oregon »

Oregon Judicial Department Logo

Copy Requests

How to Request a Copy of a Public Record

A written request to inspect or copy court records must be submitted to the appropriate court or administrative office having custody of the record. Requests may be submitted in person, by mail or via the below specified email addresses.

The Oregon Judicial Department (OJD) provides access to court records maintained in the Oregon eCourt Information system without charge, through public access terminals in each circuit court. In addition, routine requests to inspect court case files may be made at the court clerk’s counter in each state court.

Oregon Circuit Court case record copies can be requested by filling out the statewide form below. To request a record, you will need to know the case number and exact documents, or hearing dates. To find case information, visit Online Records Search or contact us at Crook County Circuit Court 541-447-6541​.

Before requesting records, please review all the information provided on our Statewide Records Request page and the information below.

  • For circuit court records in each of Oregon’s 36 counties, the Trial Court Administrator of the specific circuit court is the records custodian. Requests may be submitted to the JeffersonCounty in person, or electronically via Jefferson Copy Request Form​, or by regular mail to:
    Jefferson County Circuit Court
    129 SW E Street
    Madras, OR 97741

    To submit a request to another circuit court view circuit court contact information. 
  • For Supreme Court and Court of Appeals records, you must send your request to the Appellate Court Records Section. The request may be emailed to docrequest@ojd.state.or.us or may be submitted in person or by regular mail to:
    Records Administrator
    Appellate Court Records Section
    Supreme Court Building
    1163 State Street
    Salem, OR 97301-2563
  • For Tax Court records, you must send your request to the Tax Court. The request may be emailed to records.request@ojd.state.or.us or may be submitted in person or by regular mail to:
    Records Administrator
    Oregon Tax Court
    Supreme Court Building
    1163 State Street
    Salem, OR 97301-2563
  • For records in the custody of the Office of the State Court Administrator (such as statewide data requests, or other administrative records), you must submit your request to that office. The request may be submitted via the online form or by regular mail to:
    Tim Lewis, Public Records Administrator
    Office of the State Court Administrator
    Supreme Court Building
    1163 State Street
    Salem, OR 97301-2563

To help us find records that respond to your request, your request must identify as specifically as possible the following:

  • Case Number
  • County
  • Type of record(s)
  • Subject matter
  • Approximate date(s) we created or received the record
  • Names of people named in the record or who created or received the record
  • The number of copies you request for each record requested
  • Which copies, if any, you want us to certify.

Your request must also include your:

  • Name and signature
  • Address
  • Telephone number where we can reach you during business hours
  • Email address, if possible.

If your request is not specific enough for us to easily identify and locate the records you want or is very broad (and therefore costly), we may call or write you for more information or clarification so that we can keep your cost and our cost reasonable. Please use the Jefferson Copy Request form located under Court Records and then Access to help ensure that you provide all of the information that we need.​​​

  • Oregon’s taxpayers bear the cost to provide records for free or reduced cost. We will consider waiving some or all of the cost to respond to a public records request only if you demonstrate that disclosure of the records is in the public’s interest because it affects the community or society as a whole and helps us meet our responsibilities to them. A concern or interest of a private individual or entity does not merit a fee waiver.
  • We generally do not waive fees for requests made by for-profit business entities except when necessary to enlist the public’s assistance in public safety or personal safety issues.
  • Requests for fee waivers must be in writing.

We will give you an estimate of costs if they will likely be more than $25.00. We will not proceed further with the request until you confirm in writing that you want us to proceed and until you send payment in advance and the payment clears. We will refund any excess over actual costs. If we underestimated our costs, we will inform you as soon as possible so you can determine whether you want us to continue working to respond to your request.

State law allows us to charge fees to recover our actual costs for locating and providing public records. For photocopies that we make of letter-size or legal-size pages, including normal and reasonable staff time to locate, separate, photocopy, and return documents to files and to prepare copies for mailing, we charge:

  • $0.25 per page (a double-sided copy is two pages)

Normal and reasonable staff time is 10 minutes or less per request.

We may charge additional amounts for staff time and other actual costs when responding to requests that require additional services or more than the normal and reasonable time for routine requests, including:

  • Time we spend to locate, compile, and sort requested records, even if we find no records that respond to your request or the records we do find are exempt from disclosure
  • Time we spend to review requested records and redact any exempt material
  • Time we spend to copy requested records
  • Time we spend returning documents to files
  • Time we spend to supervise inspection by the requestor
  • Necessary research time
  • Time we spend preparing correspondence related to your request
  • Special copy services and mailing services for documents that are not of standard size or for voluminous requests

State law permits us to charge for certifying that a copy of a document is a true copy. If you request a certified copy, we charge $5 per certificate in addition to the $0.25 per page. For more information, see CJO 13-065 and CJO 14-067.

We will give you an estimate of costs if they will likely be more than $25.00. We will not proceed further with the request until you confirm in writing that you want us to proceed and until you send payment in advance and the payment clears. We will refund any excess over actual costs. If we underestimated our costs, we will inform you as soon as possible so you can determine whether you want us to continue working to respond to your request.

The Oregon Judicial Department (OJD) provides access to court records maintained in the Oregon eCourt Information system without charge, through public access terminals in each circuit court. In addition, routine requests to inspect court case files may be made at the court clerk’s counter in each state court.