How to Look Up Madison County Court Records (IL)
Where Madison County court records live and how to search them — the official clerk of court and its records portal.
How to Look Up Madison County Court Records
The Madison County Circuit Clerk (Edwardsville) maintains court records for the Third Judicial Circuit and offers online case access through the county. Search covers civil, criminal, family, and traffic matters.
The Courts That Serve Madison County
Madison County is served by Illinois's trial courts, whose case files are kept by the clerk of court for the county. That office is the office of record: it maintains the dockets and runs the public search linked above. For how Illinois organizes its courts and where the county fits, see our Illinois court records guide.
The Official Search Portals
Start at the official portal above rather than a commercial “public records” site — those resell the same public data, often for a fee and often out of date. Where a county keeps different case types in different offices, the clerk's site will point you to the right one.
Criminal, Civil, and Family Records
The public search generally covers criminal, civil, family, and probate matters, minus the records the law keeps confidential. Juvenile cases, adoptions, and sealed or expunged records do not appear in the public index. When a case does not turn up, that is often a restricted record rather than a missing one.
Searching by Name or Case Number
A case number pulls a single case directly. A name search returns everyone who matches, so narrow by filing date, court, and case type to separate people who share a name — a middle initial or an approximate year usually does it.
Copies, Fees, and In-Person Requests
Reading a docket online is usually free, but an official or certified copy comes from the clerk of court and typically carries a per-page fee. If a record is not online — as older or smaller-volume cases sometimes are not — the clerk's office can run a search or pull a file in person. These are court records for informational lookups, not a background-screening product, and may not be used for employment, tenant, or credit decisions governed by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).
Clerks' offices rename portals, change fees, and adjust what they publish online without notice. If a detail on this page looks out of date, trust the clerk's own site — and for anything that matters, confirm the current rules with the office directly.