Start here: who holds what in North Carolina
North Carolina's court clerk and register of deeds do different jobs, even when their offices serve the same county. A clerk of superior court keeps the court file, including civil judgments, criminal dispositions and estate proceedings. The register of deeds records real estate instruments and maintains local birth, death and marriage records. A divorce judgment belongs with the clerk, not with the register that issued the marriage license. The Judicial Branch's records instructions and North Carolina Vital Records explain these separate routes.
For land, separate the recorded instrument from the tax account. Wake County's real estate search identifies the assessed property; Wake's tax billing system concerns the bill; the register's recorded-document index locates deeds and related instruments. Following all three can answer an ownership or tax question that no single screen resolves. The same division of work applies when using the site's property records and recorded documents pages.
Statewide coverage also means different things in different systems. The SBI's fingerprint file depends on reported arrests and dispositions. Adult Correction's database covers its prison and supervision populations. The courts' online case service reaches every county, but does not make every document public. North Carolina's completed eCourts conversion changed where people can look; it did not combine the clerk, sheriff, register and tax office into one records custodian.
North Carolina's Public Records Law in 2026
North Carolina calls its statute the Public Records Law, Chapter 132. Under G.S. 132-6, any person may inspect public records at reasonable times under reasonable supervision, and copies must be supplied as promptly as possible. The ordinary rule is not a fixed five, ten or thirty business day deadline. The custodian cannot require an explanation of the requester's purpose. Special provisions can impose different deadlines for particular records, so a deadline attached to economic-development documents should not be applied to every county request.
G.S. 132-6.2 generally limits an uncertified copy charge to the actual cost of reproduction unless another law sets the fee. An agency may impose a reasonable special service charge for extensive technology use or extensive clerical or supervisory assistance, based on the actual work involved. Ask for the scope and calculation before approving that work. The statute also permits a requester to ask the State Chief Information Officer or a designee to mediate a disputed copying charge. Removing confidential information from an otherwise public record is the agency's cost under G.S. 132-6(c).
Electronic access matters. G.S. 132-6(a1) allows an agency to fulfill its copying obligation by posting records online in a form that lets users view and print or save them. G.S. 132-6.2 otherwise addresses copies in media the agency can provide. The law does not require an agency to create a missing report or convert records it does not keep electronically. Requests for copies of computer databases may be required in writing; a denied database request must receive an explanation, reduced to writing if requested.
For a denial, the Department of Justice Open Government Unit provides information about access rights. A binding disclosure order comes through court under G.S. 132-9. G.S. 7A-38.3E permits voluntary mediation before suit and requires initiation of mediation after suit, no later than thirty days after responsive pleadings are filed, subject to its waiver provisions. That is a litigation procedure, not a response deadline for the original request. Attorney-fee recovery has statutory conditions and exceptions; an unanswered email does not automatically produce an award.
Court records: statewide access, county files
The Supreme Court and Court of Appeals sit above the trial courts. The Judicial Branch currently describes superior court as five divisions and 48 districts, with a clerk in each county. District court has 41 districts. Superior court handles felony trials and larger civil cases; district court handles matters including divorce, child custody, misdemeanors and infractions. Business Court is a specialized superior court forum, not another countywide trial tier.
All 100 counties completed the eCourts conversion on October 13, 2025. Start with the public Portal for case information and with Court Dates when the immediate question is a scheduled appearance. A hearing listing, a case event and an entered judgment answer different questions. Open the relevant document when available, and ask the filing county's clerk for a public document that is absent from the online display. A search result is not itself a certified copy of the file.
The courts' records guidance also directs users to courthouse public-access computers and the clerk for copies. G.S. 7A-308 lists $2 for the first page of a clerk-prepared copy and 25 cents for each additional page, along with a $3 certificate-under-seal service. The section contains rules for combined services and exemptions, so have the clerk quote the applicable charge for the document and certification requested. Free online viewing does not mean free preparation of certified paper records.
Federal litigation follows a separate route. The Fourth Circuit's case-information page directs users to federal appellate records, while PACER serves federal case access, including North Carolina district and bankruptcy matters. A missing federal case in the state Portal says nothing about whether it exists. The site's court records directory helps separate these federal and state searches before ordering a particular court's record.
Criminal history: a county certification or an SBI fingerprint record
The Judicial Branch's criminal background check instructions identify three different products. A clerk can prepare a certified name search for yourself or another person in that clerk's county for $25, using Form AOC-CR-314. It is explicitly a single-county search. Public-access computers at any courthouse allow free, uncertified searches across counties or statewide; printing can cost extra. The court guidance specifically directs people conducting background checks to the county clerk's office rather than Portal.
The SBI's Right to Review is a $14 fingerprint search of your own North Carolina history. The current request packet requires the completed request and legible fingerprints, accepts a certified check or money order, and requires submission by U.S. mail. Results go to the subject by first-class mail. The SBI does not send this personal-review response to a third party, although the recipient may share it. Local fingerprint collection is a separate service to arrange before mailing.
This SBI search covers arrests and associated dispositions reported to its North Carolina fingerprint file. It does not search every other state or the national file. Employers with statutory authority use the appropriate SBI employment or licensing process, not another person's Right to Review application. The SBI background-check information and the site's criminal records directory distinguish those routes.
Expunction can change public availability. G.S. 15A-146(a4) provides automatic expunction for qualifying cases with final dispositions on or after December 1, 2021, within its 180 to 210 day statutory window. It has conditions and excludes a case with a felony dismissed pursuant to a plea agreement. Do not assume every dismissal disappears immediately. The courts' expunction guidance explains petition routes and how to raise a lingering court-record problem with the clerk.
Arrests, county jails and state custody
North Carolina's jail searches describe local custody events. Cabarrus County's inmate inquiry cautions that a displayed charge may not reflect the latest court disposition and directs that question to the clerk. Randolph County's confined-inmate page says its data updates automatically four times daily and represents booking information. Catawba's jail roster, Rowan's detention-center information and Union County's inmate inquiry serve their respective local facilities. A state prison search will not replace these county sources.
Mecklenburg's sheriff search separates arrest and inmate inquiries and describes a three-year search window. Its current notice says the sheriff no longer supplies warrant information to the general public, and directs users to the courts for served warrants. The old Mecklenburg warrant address should therefore not be treated as an active public warrant database. Union's arrest and incident search likewise concerns reported local events, while its wanted list is a different tool. Published wanted notices, including those linked through Cherokee County and Cabarrus County, are not a statewide clearance certificate.
The Department of Adult Correction's offender-search explanation says its database reaches back to 1972 and covers state prison offenders, probationers and parolees. It explicitly excludes county jail information. The existing Offender Public Information Search remains the main individual lookup, with separate tools for escapes, probation and parole absconders and releases. Match the offender identifier and custody category before interpreting a historical entry as current imprisonment.
Adult Correction also links NC SAVAN for custody-status notifications covering county and state populations. A notification service and a jail roster have different purposes; neither supplies the court's final disposition. For police reports, G.S. 132-1.4 separates specified public incident and arrest information from protected investigative material. Body and dashboard recordings fall under G.S. 132-1.4A, which distinguishes viewing from receiving a copy and does not classify those recordings as ordinary public records. Use the wants and warrants directory to find the responsible agency, then ask for the particular record that agency can release.
Birth, death, marriage and divorce records
North Carolina Vital Records maintains births from 1913, deaths from 1930, marriages from 1962 and divorces from 1958. Its ordering page identifies local alternatives: the register of deeds for birth, death and marriage records, and the clerk of court where a divorce was filed. A divorce certificate is not the court's complete divorce judgment. Ask for the judgment from the clerk when an institution needs the order's terms.
The state's fee schedule charges $24 to search one three-year period or part of a period, including one certificate if found. Another search period costs another $24; additional copies of the same certificate cost $15 each. The search charge is kept if no matching record is located. Online or telephone orders through VitalChek add $13.95, producing a $37.95 total with regular shipping for a single certificate. Optional overnight shipping adds cost and begins after processing; it does not turn the underlying search into an overnight service.
Use the current ordering page for ordinary mailed certificate applications. It directs them to VitalChek, with payment to VitalChek, and says not to include an expedite fee. Amendments, adoption-related certificates and other special registrations have separate forms and procedures. The general fee page still describes payment methods for requests paid directly to NC Vital Records, so mixing instructions from two order types can send a payment to the wrong recipient. State in-person certificate service requires an appointment.
Local certified copies can cost less. G.S. 161-10 sets a $10 register-of-deeds fee for a certified birth or death certificate or marriage license, subject to applicable exemptions. Guilford County's vital-record instructions confirm $10 certified copies and describe mail processing within three working days after receipt. That local estimate is not the state's turnaround promise. Carteret's recorder service and Onslow's register index are county entry points; an index or guest search is not an order for an eligible certified certificate.
Under G.S. 130A-93, certified copies are limited to eligible applicants, including the subject, specified relatives, people establishing personal or property rights, and authorized representatives. Special rules cover adoption and protected medical information. The Vital Records FAQs distinguish certified from uncertified copies. Research access does not confer eligibility for every certified record.
Check current processing estimates before choosing a route. On October 16, 2026, the state page listed ten business days for regular birth certificates, two business days for deaths from 2022 forward, eleven for deaths from 1930 through 2021, and nine months for marriage and divorce certificates. These estimates run from entry into the system to shipment and exclude special registrations. For earlier research, Johnston County's marriage bonds cover 1779 through 1867, while its cohabitation marriage index and obituary collection document different kinds of evidence. Hickory Public Library's genealogy page includes Shuford Funeral Home records from 1908 through 1957. The vital records directory connects these archival and certificate routes.
Property, deeds and county assessments
A North Carolina parcel search is usually the quickest way to identify an account, but the register of deeds holds the recorded conveyance. In Mecklenburg, compare Polaris mapping with tax-bill information. In Durham, real estate appraisal, tax payment and collection information and the register of deeds answer different questions. An assessed owner, a mailing address, a paid bill and a recorded grantee can reflect different dates. Read the deed and its recording information before treating a tax display as a title conclusion.
Wake's recorded-document search explains that its index guides users to documents and recommends searching spelling variations. Guilford's deed-search disclaimer identifies its Greensboro office as the location of official records. Alamance's register also distinguishes the informational website from the official records in the office. Search a person's earlier name or a business's recorded name when the expected instrument does not appear, and carry the book and page or instrument identifier into a copy request.
The register's charge for a certified instrument is generally $5 for the first page and $2 for each additional page under G.S. 161-10(9), where that section provides no other specific fee. Birth, death and marriage copies use their own fee provision. Uncertified copy fees may be locally set under subsection (11) and must be uniformly applied and posted. A free image download therefore does not establish the price of a certified deed, a mailed copy or a recording service.
Older searches need the county's history. Alleghany's register of deeds explains that the county was created from Ashe in 1859 and directs earlier land and marriage research to Ashe. Iredell's register describes deeds, plats and other documents reaching into the 1700s. Rutherford's register likewise maintains early real estate instruments. These historical holdings do not establish that every year is searchable by a modern online name field. Ask the office which index or book series covers the date in question.
Tax research also benefits from choosing the right county tool. Catawba parcel mapping and its tax-bill search separate geography from collection. Forsyth's geodata tools complement its real and personal tax bills. Nash mapping and Nash tax information offer a similar pairing. In Orange County, use Land Records and GIS, ownership-history inquiry and tax bills for their distinct functions. A map can identify the parcel you need without establishing what was recorded against it.
For coastal research, Craven's appraisal office and Craven GIS provide different entry points. Dare maintains land-transfer information, tax certification, property-use codes and subdivision codes, which can help interpret a record rather than merely locate it. Onslow mapping connects geographic research with its Tax Office. When seeking a recorded instrument instead, return to the county register, including Cabarrus, Catawba, Pender, Rowan or Surry, rather than assuming the assessor stores the full deed image.
Business filings, assumed names and professional licenses
North Carolina separates the legal entity, the name under which it operates and the license for its work. The Secretary of State's business search identifies registered entities and their filings. The office's fee schedule lists $125 LLC articles of organization and a $200 LLC annual report. For an LLC, G.S. 57D-1-22 distinguishes a $15 paper certificate of existence or authorization from a $10 electronic certificate and separately sets copying charges. Those are different services; looking up an entity does not require forming it or buying a certificate. Certified-document orders use the office's online business services and require an account.
An assumed business name is filed with a county register of deeds. The Secretary of State's assumed-name guidance explains that filings from December 1, 2017 forward enter a statewide database and that one filing can designate multiple counties. Earlier filings had to be refiled by December 1, 2022 to preserve their effectiveness. Search the assumed-name database separately from the entity register, particularly when a storefront or invoice uses a name absent from the corporate record. Information changes must be updated within sixty days under the office's guidance.
Professional credentials come from the responsible regulator. The North Carolina State Bar handles attorney status, with disciplinary records available separately. The accountancy board searches both CPAs and CPA firms, while the social-work board offers its own credential lookup. The Real Estate Commission's database explicitly includes active and inactive licenses and directs questions about expired licenses to the Commission. A missing result there is not enough to say someone was never licensed.
Different health and service searches also have different scope. Child care facility search uses facility and license characteristics. The nurse-aide and medication-aide verification page distinguishes those registries from the Health Care Personnel Registry. Environmental-health specialist search covers registered specialists and their authorizations. The well-contractor directory explains that certification level determines the work a contractor may perform. Use the site's license directory to identify the regulator before treating a general business filing as permission to perform regulated work.
For a regulated company rather than an individual professional, the Commissioner of Banks covers state banks and other financial-service providers. The Department of Insurance is a separate regulator; its company-filings page concerns insurance forms and rates and currently marks one search route temporarily down. Agriculture's meat and poultry plant directory concerns inspected establishments. These databases answer operational and regulatory questions that an entity's incorporation record does not answer.
The sex offender registry
The SBI maintains North Carolina's public sex offender registry and links its public search and email alerts. Registration is administered through the appropriate county sheriff. The public site concerns registered offenders, not every person arrested or every individual ever convicted of an offense. Use the public registry linked by the SBI, not an agency login page with a similar name.
Under G.S. 14-208.7, the ordinary registration period is at least thirty years from initial county registration. G.S. 14-208.12A permits a qualifying person to petition superior court after ten years, subject to its conditions and a judicial decision. Ten years is not an automatic removal date. G.S. 14-208.23 imposes lifetime registration on specified categories, including recidivists, aggravated offenders and sexually violent predators, subject to the statute's stated exception.
A registry entry and a custody entry serve different purposes. Use Adult Correction or a sheriff for incarceration information and the court clerk for the underlying judgment. For an apparent registration error, identify the relevant sheriff or SBI registry contact rather than treating another directory's copy as the controlling North Carolina record.
Unclaimed property through NCCash
The State Treasurer's NCCash instructions start with a property search, which generates the claim process. Some claims qualify for electronic matching. Others require a signed form and supporting documentation, submitted through the official upload service or by mail. Keep the property identifier and claim number; the agency asks for them when answering a claim question.
The NCCash Match program can identify qualifying claims of $5,000 or less without an owner filing first. It sends a notification letter to a verified claimant, followed by a check in six to eight weeks. That program is distinct from filing a claim yourself after finding a record. A search result alone does not establish that the person searching owns the property or can act for an estate or business.
G.S. 116B-67 requires an allowance or denial with written notice within ninety days after filing and payment or delivery within thirty days after allowance. The claims page separately describes processing after all required documentation is received. These are different stages, so do not read the ninety-day decision provision as a promise that every newly started online claim will yield a check within ninety days. A denial must identify its reasons and the additional evidence needed.
Driving records and voter registration
NCDMV supplies driving histories through its driving-record service. Its current DL-DPPA-1 request form lists $18 for a certified complete history and $12.75 for an uncertified complete, three-year or seven-year history. The form identifies the applicable privacy-authority categories. A third-party request requires a permitted basis; it is not an unrestricted name-and-address lookup.
Online records arrive as PDFs. NCDMV says a record requiring a raised seal for use outside the country must be requested by mail or in person. Mail requests should allow ten business days after receipt for processing, plus postal delivery. In-person service for five records or fewer can be immediate at the designated records locations; ordinary driver-license offices should not be assumed to provide that service. Choose the required record type before paying for a different extract.
The State Board of Elections voter search provides registration information, jurisdictions, polling place, sample ballots when available and participation history. Its explanation of your voter record makes clear that voting history does not reveal whom someone voted for. It can take weeks after Election Day for county participation information to be uploaded. Wake's voter-information page and Catawba's voter mapping are local starting points for different election questions.
G.S. 163-82.10B generally protects voter dates of birth, with enumerated exceptions; disclosure of age is treated differently. For historical research, Johnston's 1902 voter-registration collection is an archival source, not a current eligibility check. The site's voter records directory distinguishes these historical, registration and mapping services.
Writing a request that reaches the right North Carolina office
For a county land question, begin with the parcel identifier and the book and page found in the register's index. For a court document, use the county, case number and the particular filing or judgment. For a police incident, identify the responding agency and date, then distinguish the public incident information from any requested investigative material or recording. North Carolina's separate custodians make a precise record description more useful than asking a state office for everything about a name.
A request to a county tax office might read: "Under Chapter 132, please provide the existing property record card and assessment-change notices for parcel [number] for tax years 2024 through 2026. Please send available electronic copies or the direct location where the records can be viewed and saved. Before incurring a special service charge, please provide an itemized estimate. If any portion is withheld, please identify the applicable legal basis and provide the public remainder." Substitute the actual county and existing record series, rather than asking its staff to prepare a new valuation analysis.
Retain the acknowledgment, estimate and any clarification of scope. A useful follow-up asks which records have been located and when the remaining review is expected to finish. North Carolina's general promptness standard does not create an automatic thirty-day permission to delay. Conversely, the clerk's prescribed certification fee and a register's certified-copy fee are not necessarily governed by the ordinary actual-cost copying rule.
When a dispute reaches formal service of legal papers, DOJ's process-agent directory identifies service agents for state departments and other state bodies. It is not a directory of public-records officers or a list of licensed process servers. Ordinary requests should go to the custodian; the service directory addresses a different step.
North Carolina record guides on SearchSystems
The arrest records guide follows an arrest from local reporting to the court outcome. The background check guide helps select the right county or fingerprint product. Use the inmate search guide for prison and supervision searches and the people search guide to understand the limits of combining North Carolina public indexes.
The birth certificate guide covers ordering and eligibility, while the death records guide addresses certificate and historical routes. The business search guide separates entities, assumed names and official documents. The public records law guide develops the request and enforcement process. The registry guide explains registration-specific searches, and the unclaimed property guide follows an NCCash claim beyond the initial result.
What the FBI counted in North Carolina in 2024
The FBI Crime Data Explorer counts offenses reported by local agencies, not convictions and not calls. For 2024 it recorded 33,840 violent offenses and 168,447 property offenses across 99 counties in North Carolina, from 303 agencies that reported a full twelve months. Against the same count for 2023 that is down 4 percent in violent offenses and down 5 percent in property offenses, though the number of agencies reporting changes from year to year, which moves the totals on its own.
The count follows population, so the largest counties carry most of it. These reported the most violent offenses in 2024:
- Mecklenburg County, 7,651 violent and 40,623 property offenses from 6 reporting agencies.
- Guilford County, 3,116 violent and 11,235 property offenses from 2 reporting agencies.
- Forsyth County, 2,360 violent and 8,749 property offenses from 2 reporting agencies.
- Cumberland County, 2,329 violent and 9,411 property offenses from 3 reporting agencies.
- Robeson County, 1,309 violent and 4,606 property offenses from 7 reporting agencies.
- Gaston County, 1,075 violent and 5,068 property offenses from 12 reporting agencies.
A county total is the sum of what its agencies sent in, so a county whose agencies reported fewer months looks quieter than it is. Each county page on this site carries its own figures and names the offices that hold the underlying reports.
North Carolina records by county
Start with Mecklenburg or Wake when the record concerns Charlotte or Raleigh, but distinguish a city department's records from the county's tax, jail or deed records. Guilford connects Greensboro and High Point county sources; Forsyth covers the county systems serving Winston-Salem. The statewide court conversion did not transfer these local records into the Judicial Branch's Portal.
In the Triangle and surrounding counties, Durham, Orange, Alamance and Johnston have separate deed and tax systems. Alamance tax records and Johnston's Tax Administration concern different accounts even when owners have property in both counties. Johnston GIS supplies geographic context for that county, not a statewide property boundary service.
For the western counties, use Buncombe with Buncombe mapping, and Henderson with its GIS information and Tax Department. Iredell has a separate tax and sales search, while Catawba maintains its own jail, parcel and tax services. County identity is especially important when a postal city name crosses the geography used by the record system.
For southeastern and coastal work, Cumberland connects its sheriff and tax system, while Onslow and Craven lead to their local registers and property offices. Union combines its sheriff sources with county mapping. These county pages narrow the office search; they do not make a record from one county a substitute for the same record type in another.
What changed in 2025 and 2026
The largest access change was the final eCourts rollout. The Judicial Branch's October 9, 2025 announcement identifies October 13 as the statewide completion date. Instructions describing counties still waiting to move online are now outdated. The clerk remains responsible for county court records, and the court's separate directions for background checks still apply.
Vital Records revised its ordering instructions in July 2026. Its current ordinary mail-order route names VitalChek as the payment recipient, while special registrations follow their own procedures. Its posted processing estimates also differ sharply by certificate type. Someone needing a marriage record quickly should compare the local register route before assuming the state's certificate timeline resembles its birth-certificate timeline.
Local notices deserve attention too. Mecklenburg's current sheriff site withdraws the former general-public warrant service. Moore County's recorded-document service now warns that online document images include a watermark, while saying the watermark does not restrict access or change the information. The notice does not supply an effective date, so it should not be assigned an invented legislative start date. These practical access notices can matter as much as a portal's new name.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I search all North Carolina court counties online in 2026?
Yes. The eCourts conversion reached all 100 counties on October 13, 2025. Public online case access does not include every confidential or sealed document, and the clerk remains the source for unavailable public documents and certified copies.
Is the $25 clerk background check statewide?
No. The Judicial Branch describes that certified name search as covering one county. Courthouse public-access computers can search statewide without a search charge, but the resulting search is uncertified and printing may cost extra.
Can I buy someone else's SBI Right to Review record?
That $14 process is for the subject's own North Carolina fingerprint history, with results sent to that person. The SBI has separate routes for employers and licensing entities with statutory authority. Public court records use the clerk's process.
Does North Carolina give every agency thirty days to answer?
Chapter 132 ordinarily requires copies as promptly as possible, without a general thirty-day deadline. The thirty-day mediation provision concerns litigation after responsive pleadings, not the time allowed to ignore a records request.
Must I pay $24 for a certified birth certificate?
That is the state search fee, with additional vendor charges for applicable orders. Registers of deeds have a separate $10 statutory certified-copy fee, subject to exemptions, for records they can issue. Confirm eligibility and the correct county before ordering.
Will the state offender locator show a recent county jail booking?
Adult Correction says its database excludes county jails. Start with the holding county's sheriff, then use the court clerk for the charge's disposition. A later state prison admission belongs to the separate Adult Correction record.
Where to go next in North Carolina
Each subject above has its own North Carolina page on SearchSystems, with the offices that hold the records and what each one charges: court records, criminal records, arrest records, inmate and jail searches, wants and warrants, the sex offender registry, property and land records, recorded documents, vital records, birth certificates, death records, business entity searches, professional licenses, voter records, unclaimed property, people searches, background checks and the public records law.
Records in North Carolina are held county by county. The largest are Wake, Mecklenburg, Guilford, Forsyth, Durham, Cumberland, Buncombe, Union, Johnston, Cabarrus, New Hanover and Gaston, and all 100 North Carolina counties are listed on the North Carolina index.
Driver and vehicle records sit outside the offices above, and the DMV sections built so far are on the DMV guides page.