Searching Daviess County Court Dockets
Begin a Daviess County docket search at Indiana MyCase. It is the state's public window into non-confidential Odyssey cases. Pick Daviess County in the court field first. From there, match the search to what you actually know. A cause number, citation number, or prosecutor cross-reference fits the Case search. A person's or business's name fits the Name search. Attorneys can be found by name or Indiana bar number. Stay narrow so false matches stay out. Yet stay loose enough to catch misspellings and old data.
- Choose Case, Name, or Attorney, based on the strongest fact available.
- Limit the court to Daviess County and add a filing range when useful.
- Open a result and compare its court code, type, filing date, status, and style.
- Read the chronological case summary for settings, orders, and disposition events.
- Contact the Daviess County Clerk when the public view is missing or unclear.
The official MyCase public home is the correct starting point for this process.
Daviess MyCase Since 2019
Daviess County joined Odyssey on December 2, 2019, according to the Indiana Odyssey court list. That date matters. The list covers both Daviess Circuit Court 14C01 and Daviess Superior Court 14D01. A search that turns up nothing online does not mean an older case never existed. Converted records vary in quality. Some historical files still sit with the Clerk or in archives.
MyCase also has limits worth knowing. It caps results at 1,000 and uses CAPTCHA controls. Broad or automated searches can fail early. Narrow things down with Daviess County, a case category, a status, or a filing range. Use a uniform cause number when you hold one. It beats a common name every time.
Inside a Daviess County Docket
Open a public case summary. Identifying fields come first: cause number, court, filing date, case type, status, and case style. The chronological case summary comes next. It walks through dated events. Think of a new filing, an appearance, a summons, a motion, a hearing setting, an order, a judgment, a payment, or a disposition. Criminal and infraction dockets can add charges, statute citations, offense levels, citation numbers, warrants, and financial entries. Civil dockets may show claims, service, motions, judgments, and party roles.
| 14C01 | Daviess Circuit Court code |
|---|---|
| 14D01 | Daviess Superior Court code |
| Case type | Two-letter code such as IF, CM, PL, SC, or DR |
| Status | Open or closed condition and its effective date |
| Event | A dated filing, hearing, order, judgment, or other docket action |
| Document link | A public image only when access rules permit and the document was posted |
One caution about docket entries. An entry records an event, not always the filed paper itself. When an event has no document link, the event may still be valid; the paper just stays out of the public online view.
MyCase Is Not the File
MyCase is not the official file. The MyCase public-document matrix makes clear that access depends on the case type. It also depends on the document itself. Some orders and records can be read online. Others are public but require an in-person request from the Clerk. Treat a blank link as a gap in online access, never as proof that no paper was filed.
Balances need care too. Online financial figures can lag. Ask the Clerk for an official amount before paying or relying on one. MyCase is a convenient view; the Clerk keeps the county-level official record.
Daviess County Courts and Dockets
Two trial courts serve Daviess County today. Circuit Court, coded 14C01, carries broad jurisdiction. It takes most probate, guardianship, family, paternity, adoption, juvenile, mental-health, protective-order, foreclosure, and small-claims matters under the local assignment rule. Superior Court, coded 14D01, functions as the county's criminal court. It receives all infractions and ordinance violations plus some civil and small-claims work.
A third code appears in old records. The official Odyssey list marks the former County Court code 14E01 as abolished. It can surface in historical data, but it points to no current counter or courtroom. Nor does any current Daviess city or town court appear in the county court directory, the Odyssey list, or the MyCase court selector. A case arising in Washington, Odon, Montgomery, Elnora, or Plainville therefore starts with the proper Daviess county court search. It does not start with a municipal docket.
For context, the Indiana court-system overview puts Circuit and Superior courts at the trial level. The Court of Appeals of Indiana sits above them. So does the Indiana Supreme Court.
The 14C01 and 14D01 Codes
Indiana's uniform cause number tells you whether a result truly belongs in Daviess County. Current numbers open with 14C01 for Circuit. Others open with 14D01 for Superior. Filing-year and month digits follow, then a two-letter case type and a sequence. That type code separates an infraction from a felony, small claim, estate, divorce, or anything else. Older cases may use different punctuation or shorter sequences.
Sanitized pattern: 14D01-YYMM-IF-##### represents a Daviess Superior infraction format. It is not a live cause number.
MyCase search tips note that hyphens and leading zeros may be optional. If you have the complete cause number, run it before any party name. That one habit avoids most mistaken matches.
How to Find Court Dates
For a court date tied to a specific cause number, the public case summary comes first. Read the event description with its date and time. Then look for later reset, continuance, cancellation, or order entries. Remember the basics. A filing date is not a hearing date. An appear-by date is not always a courtroom setting. The court's own current notice controls.
The county's Court Times page lists recurring initial arraignments at 10:00 a.m. Mondays and 8:30 a.m. Thursdays. Those times shift for weather or holidays. They never replace the setting in a specific case.
Clerk, Court, or Online Search
Each channel answers a different question. MyCase suits a quick public case summary plus any linked documents. The Clerk is the source for official county files. That covers certified copies, older material, copy procedures, and current balances. Circuit or Superior staff handle courtroom and judge-specific procedure. They also take jury duty questions or an upcoming setting. Transcript requests go to the court reporter.
The Daviess County Clerk's Office sits at 200 East Walnut Street, Washington, Indiana 47501. The county lists 812-254-8664 and weekday hours from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Call before a special trip. The county publishes no general court-copy email or fax. There is no drop box, terminal reservation, or online checkout process either.
Public Access to Court Dockets
Indiana Access to Court Records Rule 4 starts from a simple premise. The public gets access. Specific exclusions carve out exceptions. Rule 5 lists what is off limits. Protected personal data is one example. Juvenile, mental-health, adoption, and certain protection-order material also stay out of view. Rule 6 covers extraordinary circumstances. It gives a court a process for pulling otherwise open records from view. Rule 9 handles requests aimed at excluded records.
Indiana Code 5-14-3, the Access to Public Records Act, sets a broad framework for state records generally. Court records answer to the court-specific rules, though. Sealed, expunged, confidential, or excluded material may simply never surface. Even an open Daviess County case can mix public events with documents you cannot see. Have case questions or copy requests? The official Daviess County Courts page points you to the Clerk or the right court.
Daviess Records Lost to Fire
Fire has shaped what survives in Daviess County. Courthouse blazes struck in 1891, 1927, and 1985. Each one burned some records. That tally comes from the Indiana State Library's Daviess guide. So an old Daviess County court docket may simply be gone. Or it may live on only in a copy held elsewhere. The State Library's holdings and microfilm can fill gaps the Clerk cannot.
The courthouse you see today is a Classical Revival building from 1927-1928. That date matters for more than looks. When a building, its storage, or its filing system changes, what a docket search can recover changes too.
Docket Records at the Clerk's Office
The Clerk's office holds the county-level case records. Staff can explain filing status, copy availability, certification, payment methods, and the official balance. They cannot give legal advice or tell a party what to file. When you ask, give the cause number if you have it, the case caption or party names, the approximate year, and the exact document you need.
Indiana's court-record request guidance points requesters to one place. It directs them to the Clerk in the county where the case was heard. A genealogy page lists a mail route, but treat that as one option rather than a universal general-copy procedure. Call the Clerk before mailing a general court-record request. Certified copies and transcripts each follow their own processes.
Daviess Statistics Need Context
The Indiana Office of Court Services statistics hub publishes trial, probation, weighted-caseload, and interactive reports. These describe court workload. They say nothing about one person's case. A utilization measure compares judicial need with available judicial resources, and it cannot predict how long any hearing will run.
Annual reports do have value for a researcher. They let you compare broad filing categories. They also explain why local assignment rules divide work between Circuit and Superior. What they will not do is supply a daily hearing list, prove a single case is delayed, or replace a chronological case summary. Numbers can shift after publication, since provisional statistics get revised. Cite a figure with its year, definitions, and update date attached. Have a real hearing or filing question? Go back to MyCase and the court office. Do not read case-specific meaning into county totals.
State Filing Is Not Searching
The Indiana Judicial Branch Daviess page gathers local rules, MyCase, and court statistics. It also collects e-filing information in one spot. Attorneys must e-file in Daviess County. Other filers are encouraged to use Indiana's e-filing system too. But keep the distinction straight. E-filing sends papers to a court. A docket search is how the public reads the case. They are different tools.
One more detail from the local page. Daviess sits in Judicial District 25 alongside Dubois, Knox, Martin, Perry, Pike, and Spencer Counties. A special judge from elsewhere in the district can show up on a Daviess docket entry. The case never leaves the county.
Daviess County Court Dockets by City
Washington is the county seat. It is Daviess County's only incorporated city. Odon, Montgomery, Elnora, and Plainville are towns chosen by population for local search pages. None has a current municipal court. For any resident, the case type decides the search. A criminal, civil, traffic, probate, or family case is searched through Daviess Circuit or Superior Court. In short, one Daviess County court docket system covers every city and town.
Washington Docket Search
Start with MyCase, then use the courthouse Clerk in Washington for the official file.
Odon Docket Search
Search county courts rather than a nonexistent Odon municipal docket.
Montgomery Docket Search
Use Daviess court codes to distinguish Circuit and Superior results.
Elnora Docket Search
Combine MyCase with Clerk and archival routes when records are old.
Plainville Docket Search
Check the county docket and confirm time-sensitive entries with the court.
The official Washington city site offers municipal context, but city agendas and codes are not court dockets; every case still runs through the county courts.
Federal Dockets Use PACER
Federal cases skip the county system entirely. A federal matter tied to Daviess County will never appear in MyCase. Daviess falls within the Evansville Division of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana. PACER serves as the official federal docket service, and CourtListener's RECAP collection offers free copies of some federal docket material when coverage exists. Treat the CourtListener service as a useful secondary search. It cannot promise a complete federal file.
Map and Directions to the Daviess County Courthouse
Daviess Circuit Court (14C01) and Daviess Superior Court (14D01) case records, along with the Clerk's office that keeps them, are held at the Daviess County Courthouse, 200 East Walnut Street, in Washington. The county's Court Times page lists general courthouse hours of Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., with a noon-to-1 p.m. closure reflected on the individual court pages, while the Clerk's own page lists slightly different hours of 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Daviess County Clerk's Office
200 East Walnut Street
Washington, IN 47501
812-254-8664
Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Official pages do not publish a courthouse parking map, security-screening policy, public-terminal availability, or ADA entrance details, so call the courthouse at 812-254-1091 or the Clerk at 812-254-8664 before a special trip to confirm access and the noon-hour closure.