Los Angeles County Public Records: Offices, Fees and Lookups for 2026

Start Here: Which LA County Office Holds Your Record

Five agencies, five buildings. Match the record to the office before you drive anywhere.

Birth, death and marriage certificates, marriage licenses, fictitious business names, notary registrations and every recorded deed, lien and mortgage in the county are held by the Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, headquartered at 12400 Imperial Highway in Norwalk. The same department runs elections, which is why its website is lavote.gov.

Civil, criminal, family, probate, small claims and traffic cases are held by the Los Angeles Superior Court, the largest trial court in the United States, with 36 courthouses spread from Lancaster to Long Beach. Each courthouse keeps the files for the cases heard there, and the court's online index covers all of them.

Jail bookings and custody status belong to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, which books arrestees from its own deputies and from most city police departments into the Inmate Reception Center on Bauchet Street downtown. The Los Angeles Police Department and Long Beach Police Department run their own jails for the first hours after arrest.

Assessed values, parcel maps and building characteristics are at the County Assessor. Property tax bills and payment history are at the Treasurer and Tax Collector. Restaurant inspection grades, public health permits and the local copies of vital records for the past few years are at the Department of Public Health, except in Long Beach and Pasadena, which run their own health departments and issue their own certificates.

City records, meaning council files, permits, business licenses, code enforcement and police reports for incidents inside city limits, are held by each of the 88 cities separately. The county has no role in them.

The Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk: Norwalk and the Branch Offices

One headquarters, five branch offices, one phone number. Most certificate orders are same day at the counter.

The main office at 12400 Imperial Highway, Norwalk, CA 90650 is open Monday through Friday from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM, and the department's single phone line is (800) 201-8999, with option 1 for birth, death and marriage records and option 3 for property documents. Real estate document viewing and the historical vital records indexes are only available at Norwalk, by appointment, and appointments open up to three weeks ahead for vital records and two weeks ahead for real estate viewing through the booking links on lavote.gov.

Certificates and marriage licenses are also issued at the branch offices in East Los Angeles at 4716 E. Cesar Chavez Boulevard, Building B, open 8:30 AM to 4:00 PM, in Van Nuys at 14340 W. Sylvan Street, at the LAX Courthouse at 11701 S. La Cienega Boulevard on the sixth floor, in Lancaster at 44509 16th Street West, Suite 101, and in Florence Firestone at 7807 Compton Avenue, Room 102, the last four open 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM. Branch hours are shorter than Norwalk's and a few services, including document recording and record viewing, are Norwalk only.

Mail orders for certificates go to Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, Birth, Death and Marriage Records Section, P.O. Box 489, Norwalk, CA 90651-0489, with a notarized sworn statement for an authorized copy. Online orders start at lavote.gov and are fulfilled either by the department directly or through its third party vendor, which adds a service fee.

The counter accepts cash, checks, money orders, debit and credit cards, Apple Pay and Samsung Pay. It does not accept e-checks, temporary checks or foreign checks, and card payments carry a small processing surcharge.

Residents directly affected by the January 2025 wildfires can still get replacement birth, death, marriage, property and business records at no cost by calling (800) 201-8999, emailing RRCCFireAssistance@rrcc.lacounty.gov, or visiting the LAX, Van Nuys or Lancaster offices.

Birth, Death and Marriage Certificates in LA County

34 dollars for a birth certificate, 26 for a death, 19 for a marriage as of January 1, 2026. Same day for most years since 1962.

After the statewide increase under Assembly Bill 64 that took effect January 1, 2026, a certified birth certificate from LA County costs 34 dollars, which is the 31 dollar state fee plus the county's three dollar surcharge. A death certificate is 26 dollars and a marriage certificate is 19 dollars. Every copy is a separate fee, and the fee is a search fee, so if no record is found you receive a Certificate of No Record and no refund.

The county issues certificates for events that happened anywhere in Los Angeles County, including inside the cities. At the counter, births from 1962 to the present, except 1972 through 1977, deaths from 1995 to the present and marriages from 1995 to the present are printed while you wait. Births from 1866 through 1961 and from 1972 through 1977, deaths from 1877 through 1994 and marriages from 1852 through 1994 are pulled from archives and mailed within 20 business days even when you order in person.

A birth is normally on file about ten days after the event and a death about eight weeks after, because the funeral home and the physician file first and the record then moves through the local registrar. Ordering earlier than that produces a no record result. For a newborn's certificate in the first weeks, the Department of Public Health's vital records office at 313 N. Figueroa Street downtown is the faster counter.

Authorized copies, the ones valid for passports, driver licenses and benefits, go to the person named, parents and legal guardians, children, siblings, grandparents, grandchildren, spouses and domestic partners, attorneys for those people or for an estate, and government agencies on official business, each with a sworn statement and photo ID. Anyone else can order an informational copy, marked as not valid to establish identity, with no eligibility requirement.

Marriage licenses are issued by the County Clerk side of the same department. A public license is 91 dollars and a confidential license 85 dollars, a civil ceremony at a county office is 35 dollars, a county provided witness is 20 dollars, and the Deputy Commissioner for a Day program that lets a friend perform the ceremony is 75 dollars. Confidential marriage records can be released only to the two spouses or by court order.

Los Angeles Superior Court Case Records

A lookup by case number is free. A search by name costs 4.75 dollars per search unless you register. Since January you can photograph the file yourself.

The Los Angeles Superior Court handles about 2.7 million new matters a year, roughly 1.7 million traffic citations, about 500,000 criminal cases, nearly 120,000 family law cases and more than 150,000 civil suits, with 583 judicial officers across 36 courthouses. Its Executive Officer and Clerk of Court is David W. Slayton and its Presiding Judge for 2026 is Sergio C. Tapia II. Central civil filings are at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse, 111 N. Hill Street, and central criminal filings at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center, 210 W. Temple Street. Every other district, from Long Beach to Van Nuys to Pomona, keeps its own case files at its own courthouse.

The court's online tools live at lacourt.ca.gov. If you have a case number, the case summary, register of actions, future hearings and party list are free to view. If you only have a name, the Civil Index and the Criminal Defendant Index charge per search, 4.75 dollars per search for a guest and a sliding scale for registered users that starts at one dollar for the first ten searches in a month. You pay whether or not the search returns anything, so narrow the name and date of birth before you run it.

The Civil Index covers unlimited civil, probate and family law cases from 1983, limited civil from 1991 and small claims from 1992. The Criminal Defendant Index covers felonies from 1980 and misdemeanors from 1988, and it does not include traffic infractions. Results show the case number, defendant name, filing date and courthouse, and the case number then opens the free summary. Document images for many civil cases can be bought online by page.

At the courthouse, the clerk's office charges 50 cents a page for copies and 40 dollars to certify a copy. Since January 1, 2026, under AB 1524, you may photograph or scan a public paper file or a public terminal screen with your own phone or scanner at no charge, provided you handle the file carefully. Juvenile files, sealed files and confidential family law material stay closed. Remote viewing of family law files is limited by court rule, so most divorce and custody files must be read at the courthouse even when the index shows the case online.

The courthouse hearing an arrest is decided by where the arrest happened. Downtown arrests go to the Foltz building, Long Beach arrests to the Governor George Deukmejian Courthouse at 275 Magnolia Avenue, and so on across the districts. The court's find my court tool on lacourt.ca.gov maps any address to its courthouse.

LASD Inmate Information Center: Who Is in LA County Jail

Search by name and date of birth or by the seven digit booking number. A person appears about two hours after booking.

The Sheriff's Department jail lookup is the Inmate Information Center at app5.lasd.org/iic. Search by last name, first name and date of birth, or by the seven digit booking number if you have it. A result shows the housing facility, the charges, the bail amount, the next court date and courthouse, and any holds from other agencies such as immigration or another county. Bookings usually appear within about two hours, and a person drops off the system when released, so a blank result means either not in custody or booked very recently.

The same information is available around the clock by phone from the Inmate Information Line at (213) 473-6100. The Inmate Reception Center at 450 Bauchet Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012 is where nearly every county arrestee is processed, next to Men's Central Jail at 441 Bauchet Street and the Twin Towers Correctional Facility. Women are housed at the Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood, and sentenced and longer term inmates at the Pitchess Detention Center complex in Castaic.

Under Government Code 7923.610 the booking information itself, name, physical description, date of birth, time and place of arrest, charges, bail and custody status, is public and must be released on request. What is not public is the person's full criminal history, which stays at the state Department of Justice. An arrest that the District Attorney or a city attorney declines to prosecute never reaches the court index and is sealed at the DOJ automatically after one to three years.

Anyone arrested without a warrant must be brought before a judge within 48 hours, Sundays and court holidays excluded, under Penal Code 825. Most misdemeanor arrestees are cited and released before that. Once charges are filed, the case appears in the court's Criminal Defendant Index and stays there.

The Los Angeles Police Department books its own arrestees into LAPD jails first, at the Metropolitan Detention Center downtown and at area stations, before transferring anyone held on a felony to the Sheriff's system, so a person arrested by LAPD may not show in the county lookup for a day. LAPD's jail division answers custody questions for that window.

Property Records: Assessor Online, Recorder in Person

Values and parcel details are free online without owner names. Deeds and liens require a trip to Norwalk or a paid copy order.

The Assessor's portal at portal.assessor.lacounty.gov is free and searchable by address or Assessor Identification Number. It returns the assessed land and improvement values, the value history, the tax rate area, building square footage, units and year built, exemption status and the parcel map. It does not return the owner's name. Ownership information is available at the Assessor's public counter at the Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration, 500 W. Temple Street, Room 225, Los Angeles, CA 90012, by phone at (213) 974-3211, and at the district offices.

The Recorder's grantor and grantee index, the record of every deed, deed of trust, lien, reconveyance and notice recorded since 1851, is not online. The department cites the state law that bars posting home addresses of officials and protected persons. To search the index you book an appointment at Norwalk, where records from 1851 through 1957 are on the lower level and 1958 to the present on the second floor, and search the alphabetical indexes by name and year. Staff do not run index searches by phone.

Once you have a document number, or a name and approximate year, copies can be ordered online through the department's vendor at payments.lexisnexis.com/ca/co/rrccrecords, by mail, or at the counter, and mailed orders are processed within 20 working days. Fees vary by document type and length, with a separate certification fee. Recorded documents are public without restriction once located.

Property tax amounts, payment status and the annual bill are a third system, the Treasurer and Tax Collector at ttc.lacounty.gov, searchable by Assessor number. Unpaid taxes and tax defaulted property auctions are published there as well.

Public Records Act Requests to LA County Departments

No central portal. Each of the county's departments answers its own requests, most through NextRequest, within 10 days.

Los Angeles County does not have one records office for Public Records Act requests. The request goes to the department that holds the record. The Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk takes requests at lacountyrrcc.nextrequest.com, the Sheriff's Department, the District Attorney, Public Health, Public Works, the Assessor and the Board of Supervisors each run their own intake, and the county's main site lists the contact for every department.

The deadline is the state one, 10 calendar days to say whether disclosable records exist, with one 14 day extension. Copies are at direct cost, and electronic records are provided electronically on request. The department must cite the exemption for anything it withholds.

Some records are excluded from the request process because they are sold or issued under their own statutes instead. Birth, death and marriage certificates, recorded documents, fictitious business name statements, marriage licenses, military discharge papers, UCC filings, notary records, voter registration data, campaign finance statements and tax lien records are all obtained through the counters and procedures described on this page, not through a Public Records Act request. Sheriff's incident and arrest reports for a specific event are requested from the Sheriff's Records and Identification Bureau with a report request form.

Business Names, Licenses and Public Health Records

DBAs are at the County Clerk, restaurant grades at Public Health, business licenses at the county only for unincorporated areas.

Fictitious business name statements for any business in the county, including inside the cities, are filed with the County Clerk in Norwalk and searchable for free through the fictitious business name search on lavote.gov, which returns the registrant's name and the filing date for any DBA. A statement expires after five years and must be renewed. Corporations and LLCs are not filed here, they are at the Secretary of State.

The County Clerk also registers notaries public, process servers, legal document assistants, unlawful detainer assistants and professional photocopiers, and each registry can be checked at the Norwalk counter.

The Department of Public Health posts restaurant and food facility inspection results, including the letter grade and the inspection history, at ehservices.publichealth.lacounty.gov, searchable by name or address. Public pools, housing complaints and other environmental health permits are in the same system.

A county business license is required only for businesses in the unincorporated areas and for a few regulated trades countywide, and it is issued by the Treasurer and Tax Collector. Businesses inside a city are licensed by that city, so a Long Beach or Los Angeles business license is checked at city hall.

The 88 Cities: What City Hall Holds

Council files, permits, business licenses and police reports are city records. Certificates, deeds and court cases are county records no matter the city.

Los Angeles County contains 88 incorporated cities, from Los Angeles with almost four million people to Vernon with a few hundred, plus large unincorporated communities such as East Los Angeles, Altadena and Florence Firestone that are governed directly by the county. Each city clerk keeps that city's council agendas and minutes, ordinances and resolutions, contracts, campaign finance filings and lobbyist registrations, and each city answers its own Public Records Act requests. Building permits, code enforcement, business licenses and planning files are city records too.

Police reports for incidents inside a city with its own police department, which covers 46 of the 88 cities, are requested from that department's records unit. The other 42 cities contract with the Sheriff's Department for policing and their reports are at the Sheriff's station that serves them.

Whatever the city, birth, death and marriage certificates, deeds and liens, court cases and jail bookings are county or court records and are obtained exactly as described above. The exceptions are the health departments of Long Beach and Pasadena, which issue recent certificates for events inside those two cities.

City guides on this site: Long Beach. Guides for Los Angeles, Glendale, Santa Clarita, Lancaster, Palmdale, Pomona, Torrance, Pasadena, El Monte, Downey, Inglewood, West Covina, Norwalk, Burbank and Compton follow the same layout and are being added city by city.

Step by Step: The Five Most Common LA County Lookups

What to have in hand, where to go and what it costs, for the requests people make most.

1. Find out whether someone is in jail. Go to the Inmate Information Center, enter last name, first name and date of birth. If nothing appears and the arrest was within the last two hours, or was made by LAPD, wait and try again or call (213) 473-6100.
2. Look up a court case. With a case number, use the free case summary on lacourt.ca.gov. With a name only, the Civil Index or Criminal Defendant Index costs 4.75 dollars per search as a guest, or register first and pay one dollar each for the first ten. Then read the free summary or visit the courthouse listed.
3. Get a birth, death or marriage certificate. Book a Norwalk or branch appointment on lavote.gov, bring photo ID and 34, 26 or 19 dollars per copy. Recent years print while you wait, older years are mailed within 20 business days. By mail, add a notarized sworn statement.
4. Find who owns a property and what is filed against it. Start on the Assessor's portal for the parcel number and value history. For the owner's name call (213) 974-3211 or visit the Assessor counter. For deeds and liens, book a records viewing appointment at Norwalk and search the index by name, then order the copy.
5. Get a police or sheriff report. Identify the agency by where the incident happened. Sheriff reports go to the station or the Records and Identification Bureau with a report request form, city police reports to that department's records unit. Victims and involved parties get reports, third parties usually get only the public portions.

What Changed in LA County Records in 2025 and 2026

Fees, court copying rules and the ongoing wildfire waiver.

Certificate fees rose two dollars on January 1, 2026 under AB 64, to 34 dollars for a birth certificate, 26 for a death certificate and 19 for a marriage certificate at county counters.

AB 1524 took effect the same day and ended per page copy fees for anyone willing to photograph or scan a public court file themselves at any Los Angeles Superior Court clerk's office.

The Registrar-Recorder's no cost replacement program for residents directly affected by the January 2025 wildfires remains open for vital records, recorded property documents and business filings, by phone, email or at the LAX, Van Nuys and Lancaster offices.

The Assessor's public portal continues to omit owner names, and the Recorder's index remains offline, so the in person routes described above are still the only ways to tie a name to a parcel in Los Angeles County.