Riverside County Court Records Lookup

The following is for information purposes only

Riverside County is in the southern region of California and the fourth most populous county in California. Established on May 9, 1893, it was named for the City of Riverside and formed from San Bernardino and San Diego Counties. Its county seat is Riverside which also is the largest city by population. The county currently houses a population of 2.43 million people. The Superior Court is the only judicial court system in Riverside county and has general, exclusive, and original presidence over all cases in Riverside County.

There are 14 Superior Courts in Riverside County. Each Superior Court has jurisdiction over certain types of cases, sometimes multiple cases. The Superior Court of Banning hears civil, criminal, small claims, and traffic cases. The Superior Court of Blythe hears family law cases including all cases heard and decided in Banning County. The Superior Court of Corona has jurisdiction over traffic cases alone. The Superior Court of Hemet is conversant with civil, family, small claims, and traffic cases. The Superior Court of Indio, the Riverside Juvenile Court, and the Family Law Courthouse hear only juvenile cases. The Superior Court of Larson Justice Centre (located in Indio) rules over civil, family law, probate, and traffic cases. Moreno Valley Court is in charge of eviction cases and also hears small claims and traffic matters. The one in Palm Springs hears civil cases only. Riverside Superior Court Hall of Justice hears criminal cases. Only civil and probate matters are heard in the Historic Courthouse. The Southwest Justice Centre in Murrieta presides over civil, criminal, small claims, juvenile, and traffic cases. And last but not least, the Temecula Court of the Superior Court will hear only probate cases.

In the 2022 court statistics report of California, Riverside County Superior Court Civil Division received 41,793 civil filings, disposed of 10,795 for fiscal year 2020-2021. Criminal filings were 228,457 and the number of case dispositions was 168,589 cases. According to trends from FY12-21 case filings have dropped at the same rate as case dispositions. Yearly, Riverside county files 7,000 on average. Court records are handled and carefully managed by the Clerk of the Superior Court. The Clerk's Office is responsible for indexing these court records in order to enhance quick recovery of case records when requested which also attracts a fee. The Riverside County Court public access website provides a way to electronically view court records. Paper-based viewing is done in the courthouse. Adoption and juvenile (dependency and delinquency) court records remain confidential to the public.

Riverside County transmits its court hearings online. The Superior Courts have developed several ways to reduce the workload/caseload in courts on a yearly basis. This has brought about efficiency in the dispensation of justice and reduction in crime rate to a minimal level. In addition, the time-saving channels for viewing court records has enhanced the reliability of the people and means that transparency is not being by-passed for all judicial processes.