Alabama charges for its statewide court index and gives away most of the rest. The court record system, Alacourt ACCESS, sells a name search for $9.99 with one case detail included; the Department of Corrections inmate search, the ALEA sex offender registry, the Secretary of State's business entity search and the State Treasury's unclaimed property search are free.
The practical order: the Secretary of State's business search first, because it is free and searches by officer, agent or incorporator; then the free status lookups at the Department of Corrections and ALEA; then Alacourt when the question is whether the person has been sued, charged, divorced or taken to small claims court; and county health departments or VitalChek when a certificate is needed.
- Courts, paid: Alacourt ACCESS holds criminal, civil, small claims, state traffic, domestic relations and child support records, searched by name or case number for $9.99.
- In custody: the Department of Corrections inmate search.
- Registered offenders: the ALEA sex offender registry.
- Who runs a company: the Secretary of State's business entity search by officer, agent or incorporator.
- Certificates and money: vital records at any county health department, and the Treasury's unclaimed property search.
Written by SearchSystems.net from Alabama's own systems: Alacourt ACCESS, the Department of Corrections, the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, the Secretary of State's business entity records, the Department of Public Health Center for Health Statistics, the State Treasury, the Board of Medical Examiners, each read on October 13, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
Alacourt ACCESS: the statewide court record, by the search
Alabama's court records are sold through Alacourt ACCESS, the Alabama Judicial System's public portal. The records it lists are criminal, civil, small claims, state traffic, domestic relations and child support cases, searched by name or by case number. A name search costs $9.99 and includes one case detail report; every further case detail from that search is $9.99. A case number search is also $9.99 with one case detail included. The portal is explicit that a result of No Matching Records on File is still a search and is charged as one.
The case detail report is where the people search value sits. Alacourt describes it as basic case information, court action, case status, setting dates, party information, financial history and a detailed case action summary. Document images cost $5.00 for the first 20 pages and $0.50 a page after that. Case monitoring, which emails the subscriber every time the state system records a change in a case, showing the old entry alongside the new one for the life of the case, costs $19.99 for a district court case and $29.99 for a circuit court case.
Who the Department of Corrections is holding
The Alabama Department of Corrections runs an inmate search on its site. When SearchSystems read it on October 13, 2026 the page delivered only its heading to an automated reader, so this guide does not describe its fields; it is the department's own search for the people in its custody, and the place to check before assuming someone is free.
The ALEA registry and the ALEA background check
Alabama's sex offender registry is kept by the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency within its Criminal Justice Information Services, at the registry page. ALEA also offers an Alabama Background Check through its State Bureau of Investigation. Both pages answered SearchSystems with their titles and no description, so the terms of each search are on the pages themselves rather than here.
Who runs a company: the Secretary of State's officer and agent search
The Secretary of State's Business Entity Records search is the one Alabama system that was built to find a person by name for free. It searches by entity name, by entity ID, by reservation ID and, the one that matters here, by officer, agent or incorporator. The entity name search can be narrowed by type, place of formation, principal city and status. When read on October 13, 2026 the page stated that filings completed through 10/12/2026 were included, so the index runs a day behind the filing counter. The office is at P.O. Box 5616, Montgomery, AL 36103-5616.
Doctors: the Board of Medical Examiners
The Alabama Board of Medical Examiners and the Medical Licensure Commission describe themselves as the state regulatory authorities over the practice of medicine in Alabama, and their site carries the license lookup for physicians. The home page SearchSystems read gives notices rather than search instructions, so the lookup's own page sets the terms.
Birth, death, marriage and divorce certificates
The Department of Public Health's Center for Health Statistics operates Alabama's vital records system and issues certified copies of birth, death, marriage and divorce certificates for events that occurred in Alabama. Its vital records page explains that an automated system called ViSION lets every Alabama county health department issue the records, so most certificates can be obtained at a county health department, usually while you wait, or by mail in about 7 to 10 days. The Center does not take online orders itself; online and telephone orders go through VitalChek, an independent company, for an added fee, at 1-888-279-9888, with UPS shipping available for most destinations at extra cost. Keepsake birth certificates for framing cost $45.00. The Center's Statistical Analysis Division publishes health statistics and an interactive query system, which are counts, not records of named people.
Money the Treasury is holding
The Alabama State Treasury safeguards unclaimed funds and valuables until they can be returned: forgotten bank accounts, uncashed checks, refunds, insurance proceeds and safe deposit box contents. The Treasury says searching its official database is free and that claims are filed online at no cost, with the claimant guided through the steps to verify ownership. Safe deposit box contents and other tangible items that stay unclaimed past the required holding period may be sold at a public auction through the Treasury's auction partner, with the proceeds held for the rightful owners. A name that appears in the database is a name the state is already looking for.
Voters and public records requests
The Secretary of State's voter lookup, VoterView at myinfo.alabamavotes.gov, answered SearchSystems' automated read with a block rather than a page, so this guide says nothing about what it shows beyond its existence. The same office takes public records requests through a page of that name; the page SearchSystems read carried the heading alone, so the request terms are on the page itself.
Alabama: Alacourt, the inmate search and the counties
For an Alabama name, the free searches come first and the paid one last. The Secretary of State's officer and agent search ties a person to any company they formed, run or serve as agent for, with the principal city attached. The Department of Corrections search and the ALEA registry settle whether the person is in state custody or registered. Alacourt then answers, for $9.99 a name, whether the person has been a party to a criminal, civil, small claims, traffic, domestic relations or child support case, and its case detail gives the court, the dates and the other parties. For a current address, the county records are the trail: deeds and assessments at the county, which the Alabama county pages on SearchSystems list by office.
Commercial people search sites assemble their Alabama reports from the same sources named here, with the Alacourt data bought in bulk and matched by software. A report is a lead; the court record, the registry entry and the certificate are the proof.
County Starting Points
Questions about finding someone in Alabama
Every Alabama Guide
The full set: arrest records, background checks, inmate search, offender registry, birth certificates, unclaimed property, business search, and the Alabama records law that opens every door on this list.