Pawnee County Court Records Lookup

The following is for information purposes only

Pawnee County was founded in 1893 and named for the Pawnee Nation. It houses 15,682 inhabitants which occupy a total of 595 square miles. Its county seat is Pawnee and its largest city is Cleveland. Pawnee County is in the Tulsa Oklahoma metropolitan statistical area. The residents of Pawnee County are represented by a District Court and multiple Municipal Courts which play crucial roles in litigation matters and aid in resolving court cases through skilled manpower, timely saving, and cost-effective procedures.

The Pawnee County District Court, Pawnee handles all civil and criminal matters. It has original jurisdiction over all matters. Civil appeals from the District Court are directed to the Oklahoma Supreme Court and criminal appeals to the Oklahoma Criminal Court of Appeals. All the trials in Pawnee County are held in the District Court. The Municipal Courts operate at the lower level guiding the people on locally acceptable behaviors in the community, thereby preventing disorderly behavior such as truancy, reckless driving, misdemeanor, community littering, drunk driving, and petty misdemeanor behavior. They also punish offenders who go against municipal ordinance laws, traffic laws, building code laws, underage drinking laws, animal control laws, cemetery ordinance laws, and DWI/DUI laws. Punishments are usually not severe for offenders except such cases are appealed or transferred to the District Court for trials. Offenses attract a payment of a fine or going to jail for a short period. There are four functional Municipal Courts in Pawnee County, all having city-wide jurisdiction in their respective locations.

• Jennings Municipal Court at 305 N Main St, Jennings, OK 74038
• Pawnee Municipal Court at 510 Illinois St, Pawnee, OK 74058
• Ralston Municipal Court located at 650 Main St, Ralston, OK 74650
• Cleveland Municipal Court at 201 N Broadway St. Cleveland, OK, 740201

In the year 2022, according to an FBI report on crime rates in all U.S. states, there were approximately 420 violent and 2,332 property crime offenses committed per 100,000 people in Oklahoma. This is a reduction from the number of crimes committed in the previous year bringing the number of violent crimes committed to 400 and property crimes to 2,000 approximately every year. The Pawnee County District Court Clerk is responsible for organizing and maintaining court records for the District Court. These records are preserved on online servers. Sealed and expunged court records are exempt from public disclosure. Through an online platform, the public can access court records on the Oklahoma State Court Network website. In addition, a member of the public can also visit the office of the clerk of each municipal court as they are in charge of cases filed there.

Pawnee County is a function of its judiciary. The different levels of the state's judiciary such as the District and Municipal Courts have distinct and sometimes concurrent jurisdiction over some cases such as criminal cases. This has given no room for lapses in delivering transitional justice. The justice system in Pawnee County guarantees the protection of human rights, dignity, and easy accessibility to court records for all and sundry.