Box Butte County Court Record Requests
Send your request to the clerk who holds the case. That sounds simple. County Court keeps its own traffic, misdemeanor, municipal ordinance, probate, small claims, and juvenile files. The District Court Clerk keeps the rest. That office holds criminal, civil, and mental-health records, plus filings, judgments, service returns, writs, and orders. One caution: the administrative county clerk is a separate county-government office. Do not ask there for a known court case.
- Use the JUSTICE public case-information route to locate public case details, the register of actions, or available document images. It is not a complete-file delivery service.
- Inspect a public electronic record at the courthouse terminal during regular access hours, then note the case number and exact document sought.
- Go to the right clerk counter at 515 Box Butte Avenue in Alliance: County Court is at #100 and the District Court Clerk is at #300. Bring the case number when possible.
- Call County Court at (308) 762-6800 or District Court Clerk Kevin Horn’s office at (308) 762-6293 to confirm custody, request method, copy calculation, and whether a file is paper-only or restricted.
- Use the state copy-request page and CC 3:29 with the clerk holding the case. Confirm whether that clerk accepts the particular request by mail, email, fax, or counter delivery and how prepayment is handled.
- For a formal Nebraska Public Records Act request, direct a court-record request through the court-policy route. The court search policy says such requests are forwarded to the State Court Administrator; a general county request can be sent to the County Clerk for forwarding only when the custodian is unknown.
No set turnaround applies to CC 3:29. Ask the clerk who will handle it when copies could be ready, and whether you must prepay, leave a deposit, or get an estimate first.
Box Butte CC 3:29 Copy Requests
CC 3:29, Request for File Copies or Certified Copies is the state form for asking for specific documents. Mark Box Butte County Court or Box Butte District Court on the court-and-county line. Fill in the case number and case name, name the document and its date, pick a delivery and certification option, and add your contact details. Sign and date it. Attorneys add a Bar Number where that applies.
The form wants a recipient name, street or post-office address, city, state, ZIP code, telephone number, and email, plus a prepayment acknowledgment. Naming one order, motion, judgment, or the register of actions usually beats asking for a "complete file," which can run up a bigger estimate and sweep in material that cannot be released. CC 3:30 is the clerk's invoice form. It does not replace the request form.
The Judicial Branch copy-request landing page hosts the form. It also explains the copy-request process for Box Butte court records.
The state landing page just points you to the form. The Box Butte court clerk you send it to sets the local submission and payment rules.
Kinds of Court Records
"Court record" can mean several things. It might be a public index entry. It might also be one filed document, a full clerk file, a transcript, or an exhibit. The label matters, since the source, delivery method, fee, and access rule all shift with it. A case file is also not a criminal-history report, a driving record, or a police-agency file.
- Register of actions or docket: chronological entries for filings, hearings, orders, judgments, payments, and other events.
- Filed documents: complaints, petitions, answers, motions, notices, orders, and judgments, sometimes as images and sometimes only in paper.
- Case file materials: returns, exhibits, notices, and other items that may not be reflected in an image view.
- Probate, guardianship, adoption, juvenile, civil, criminal, traffic, and mental-health court files, each subject to its court and access rules.
- Typed transcript: a verbatim record prepared by reporting personnel, not an automatic part of a docket or ordinary copy request.
Box Butte Court Record Custody
Routing a request correctly saves real time. For the Box Butte County Court docket, Chelsie Tasso, Clerk Magistrate, is the public clerk contact. Kevin Horn, Clerk of the District Court, keeps that court's criminal, civil, and mental-health records, including filings, service returns, writs, orders, costs, fees, fines, restitution, and judgments. Cases can move between courts too. A felony, for example, may pass from County Court to District Court after a probable-cause bind-over. Confirm the court before ordering any file.
Box Butte County Court
Chelsie Tasso, Clerk Magistrate
515 Box Butte Avenue #100
Alliance, NE 69301
(308) 762-6800
Box Butte District Court Clerk
Kevin Horn, Clerk of the District Court
515 Box Butte Avenue #300
Alliance, NE 69301
(308) 762-6293
For a County Court record, start at #100. For District Court, start at #300. Either clerk can tell you whether the case is in that court's custody and what a specific document request requires.
Court Records: What They Contain
A public case detail can lay out a case's chronology without being the whole file. The document's name matters. So do its access status and whether an image shows up. Read a record as a sequence. One filing or event, standing alone, is not the outcome.
| Case Number and Court | The identifier and custodian needed to locate the correct Box Butte court file. |
|---|---|
| Case Summary | Public fields may include case type, filing date, parties or roles, assigned judge, and public status information. |
| Register of Actions | The chronological docket index of filings, settings, orders, judgments, payments, and other recorded events. |
| Pleadings and Orders | Individual filed documents, such as petitions, answers, motions, orders, and judgments, if public and available. |
| Images and Exhibits | Scanned documents or evidence where available; an absent image can reflect paper filing, conversion, retention, or restriction. |
| Transcript | A separately prepared verbatim hearing record ordered from court reporting personnel rather than presumed in the clerk file. |
Box Butte Dockets, Documents, and Transcripts
A docket, or register of actions, is the running index of a case. It tells you a complaint, order, hearing, payment, or judgment was entered. Its description is not the paper itself. The filed document is the actual complaint, petition, answer, motion, order, judgment, transcript, or exhibit. Even a complete file can hold unscanned, restricted, or off-image material.
Transcripts work differently. The Judicial Branch's court-records materials give separate typed-transcript instructions for County Court and District Court. A court reporter or transcriber prepares the transcript. They quote an estimate, take payment directly, and mail the finished work. Have the case number, hearing date, and judge ready. Ask whether an audio record exists. A transcript may not exist until someone orders and pays for it. Expedited or technical work can add reporting charges.
Copy Fees and Certification
CC 3:29 lists copy choices that vary by delivery method. The state court fee schedule posts the figures for ordinary photocopies, seals, and authenticated certificates. A certified copy gets the court's certification treatment; a plain copy does not. Check the math before prepaying. Page count, delivery mode, and the required seal all change the total.
| Copy or certification item | Current researched amount |
|---|---|
| Emailed non-certified copy through CC 3:29 | No charge |
| Mailed non-certified copy through CC 3:29 | $0.25 per page |
| Emailed certified copy through CC 3:29 | $1.00 per request |
| Mailed certified copy through CC 3:29 | $1.00 per seal plus $0.25 per page |
| County photocopy on current fee schedule | $0.25 per page |
| Execution or affixing a seal | $1.00 |
| Authenticated three-seal certificate, where applicable | $3.00 |
The posted schedule is a guide, not a guarantee for every request. A clerk may need to calculate the cost, set a deposit, or explain whether your chosen copy can go out electronically.
Box Butte Paper and Archived Court Records
A Box Butte court record is not gone just because it has no electronic image. The file may live only on paper. It might sit outside image coverage. It may never have been converted, or it may fall under a retention rule or be restricted for legal reasons. Nebraska's own records-unavailable notice warns that case information can be withheld. Statute, retention schedules, or Supreme Court rules can be the reason. And the rules on public electronic access do not force courts to put unconverted paper files online.
For anything predating the electronic era, call the County Court or District Court clerk. Ask who actually holds the record: the court itself, the State Archives or Historical Society, or some other office. The Nebraska State Historical Society inventory lists Box Butte County records from 1887 through 1983. They exist in volumes and on microfilm. Treat it as a finding aid, though, not a promise that every old court docket is online. Ask the clerk whether you need a box number or similar reference before you go.
Access Rules for Court Records
Nebraska starts from openness. Court filings are public here unless a law, a rule, or a court order says otherwise. Rules §§1-801 through 1-810 lay out who may access records electronically, which categories are public, how public terminals work, and what fees apply. Rule §2-215 puts trial and appellate filings in the open unless restricted, and it allows electronic inspection at public terminals, with confidential and sealed records carved out. Paper copies may cost extra.
Key Rules:
Neb. Rev. Stat. §84-712 generally provides inspection and copying of public records, with a response framework for written requests.
Neb. Ct. R. §§1-801–1-810 governs public electronic court information, public terminals, remote authorized access, and protected exclusions.
Neb. Ct. R. §2-215 makes filings public unless restricted and recognizes public terminal inspection of electronic court records.
The Public Records Act does not brush aside court-specific limits. Sealing orders, criminal-history rules, juvenile and adoption protections, and other statutory restrictions still control. Compiled court data is different, too. That kind of request follows a separate court-policy route. It demands more than a routine file-copy ask.
Box Butte Restricted Court Records
Knowing a case number does not unlock everything. Sealed or confidential material stays off limits through ordinary JUSTICE access, the courthouse terminal, or a CC 3:29 request. That holds no matter what the requester knows. Adoption records, sealed matters, certain criminal-history information, juvenile files, personal and financial details, and sensitive exhibits all carry their own special restrictions. Box Butte County Court handles juvenile matters because the county has no separate juvenile court. But that routing does not open juvenile records to the public.
If your own record was sealed, form DC 1:12 lets you ask the clerk of the filing court for release or copies. Nobody else can file it for you. An adult who qualifies to seal a record uses CC 6:12 in the court where the case was heard. Sometimes a court keeps a redacted version or a docket summary public while restricting the document behind it. When a Box Butte entry says "not available," "confidential," "redacted," or "sealed," take it at face value. Guessing about the facts or the outcome gets you nowhere.
The Judicial Branch sealed-record release information explains how the state court system handles these requests.
The sealed-record procedure serves one purpose: letting an eligible person reach their own restricted court record. It is a lawful access route, not a loophole for getting around a court's restriction.