Santa Barbara County Court Records: The Courthouses, the Caseload, Case Search and Copies

The Courthouses and What Each Hears

The court's Locations and Contact Info page and its organization and locations page list every location. All clerk's offices are open weekdays from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., with phones answered from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. unless noted.

• Santa Barbara, Anacapa Division: 1100 Anacapa Street, P.O. Box 21107, Santa Barbara, CA 93121-1107, (805) 882-4520, fax (805) 882-4519. Civil, family law, probate, mental health, civil appeals and small claims for the south county, and the court's administration. Small claims venue: Carpinteria to Gaviota.
• Santa Barbara, Figueroa Division: 118 East Figueroa Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93101, (805) 568-3959, fax (805) 882-4647. Criminal, traffic and infraction cases for the south county, with South County Records and the misdemeanor and infraction appeals clerk, (805) 882-4534.
• Santa Barbara Jury Services: 1108 Santa Barbara Street, (805) 882-4530, sbjury@sbcourts.org, 24-hour jury information (877) 544-5094.
• Santa Maria, Cook Division: 312 East Cook Street, Building E, Santa Maria, CA 93454-5165, clerk's office at 312-C, (805) 614-6414, fax (805) 614-6616. Civil, family law, probate, mental health, civil appeals, small claims, unlawful detainers, domestic violence and restraining orders for the north county. Small claims venue: Santa Maria, Orcutt, Guadalupe, Los Alamos, New Cuyama, Lompoc, Vandenberg, Hollister Ranch and the Santa Ynez Valley.
• Santa Maria, Miller Division: 312-M East Cook Street, Building E, (805) 614-6590. Criminal, traffic and infraction cases for the Santa Maria area, criminal appeals, North County Records at 312-E, and Santa Maria Jury Services in Building F, (805) 614-6464.
• Santa Maria Juvenile Court: 4285-B California Boulevard, Santa Maria, CA 93455, (805) 614-6579, clerk (805) 614-6587, SMJUV@sbcourts.org. Delinquency on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays at 8:30 a.m. and dependency on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 1:30 p.m., in courtroom SMJ1. Juvenile case information is confidential and is not given by phone.
• Lompoc Division: 115 Civic Center Plaza, Lompoc, CA 93436-6967, criminal and traffic (805) 737-7789, civil (805) 737-5452, fax (805) 737-5440. Criminal cases, traffic infractions, limited civil cases, evictions, restraining orders and some family matters. Matters once filed at the Solvang Division, 1745 Mission Drive, have been filed in Lompoc since October 14, 2014, and small claims from Lompoc and Solvang have gone to the Cook Division since September 1, 2013.

Civil cases under $35,000 are limited jurisdiction and those over it are general jurisdiction; both are filed at Anacapa or Cook, by the court's Civil Division page. The court's organization page lists the judges by location: Thomas P. Anderle, Donna D. Geck, Pauline Maxwell, Raimundo Montes de Oca and Colleen Sterne and Commissioner Elizabeth Diaz at Anacapa; Thomas Adams, Clifford Anderson III, Von Deroian, Stephen Foley and Teresa Martinez at Figueroa; Jed Beebe and James F. Rigali at Cook; Sydney Bennett, Kristy Imel, Patricia Kelly, Stephen Dunkle and Karen O'Neil at Miller; Kay Kuns at the juvenile court; and Juan Higuera, sworn in on July 2, 2026, at Lompoc. Patricia Kelly is the Presiding Judge and Von Deroian the Assistant Presiding Judge, with Stephen Dunkle elected to that post on August 25, 2026; Angela Braun became Court Executive Officer on the retirement of Darrel Parker, announced in December 2025, by the court's About the Court page.

The Court's Caseload

The Judicial Council's 2026 Court Statistics Report reports every superior court's filings for the year ending June 30, 2025. Santa Barbara County had 24 authorized judgeships and 64,866 new filings, 2,703 per judge, the 33rd heaviest load of the 58 counties, up from 55,843 filings the year before. The court disposed of 55,514 cases in the year.

• Criminal: 51,668 filings, of them 2,568 felonies, 5,013 misdemeanors, 2,412 non-traffic infractions, 2,717 traffic misdemeanors and 38,958 traffic infractions.
• Civil: 7,843 filings. 2,408 were unlimited civil cases, among them 294 motor vehicle injury suits and 245 other injury suits; 4,704 were limited civil cases, including 809 evictions; and 731 were small claims.
• Family: 2,677 filings, of them 1,075 divorces, separations and annulments, 588 domestic violence petitions, 463 child support cases and 235 parentage cases.

Traffic infractions are the bulk of the work: 32,614 were closed in the year, 22,997 of them by paying the bail, 2,487 by a guilty plea and 1,115 by a court trial. Felony cases went to a jury 35 times and misdemeanors 27 times. The court resolved 71 percent of its general civil cases within a year and 89 percent of its evictions within 30 days, against 65 and 86 percent statewide.

Looking a Case Up Online

The court runs two portals, both reached from its Case Information page. The Public Portal shows the register of actions, the list of filings and hearings, for civil, criminal, family law, probate, small claims and traffic cases that are not confidential or sealed, takes payments on traffic and criminal cases, and gives registered attorneys and justice partners a login. The Civil Portal also shows the documents themselves in civil cases, as rule 2.503(b) of the California Rules of Court allows; family law and probate documents are not on it.

The Rules of Court keep documents in some kinds of cases, criminal and family among them, off remote display. Those records can be seen at the two records counters and on the public terminals in the Figueroa, Miller and Lompoc lobbies. The court's Court Calendars page warns that the online calendar is not the official record, and the court posts tentative rulings and probate notes online; probate notes go up about a week before the hearing, by the court's Probate Division page.

Appearing by Zoom

Many hearings can be attended by Zoom. The court posts the Zoom links for each department, criminal and traffic in Santa Barbara, Santa Maria and Lompoc, civil, family and probate, and juvenile, on its Zoom Information for Remote Appearances page, with the exhibit rules for remote hearings and interpretation instructions for a computer or a phone, in English and Spanish. A party without a video device can join by telephone at (833) 568-8864 with the meeting ID and passcode. Recording a hearing, by audio, video or screenshot, is not allowed.

Copies, Certified Copies and Transcripts

The court's Court Records page and its Copy Request Form cover every request. Two offices answer them, each open weekdays 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. with phones from 9 a.m. to noon, in person, by mail or by email, within about 14 business days; cases stored off site or in a courtroom take longer. South County Records is at the Figueroa Division, 118 East Figueroa Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93101, (805) 882-4778, southcountyrecords@sbcourts.org, for cases filed in Santa Barbara, Goleta and Carpinteria. North County Records is at the Miller Division, 312-E East Cook Street, Santa Maria, mail to 312-C East Cook Street, Santa Maria, CA 93454, (805) 614-6414, northcountyrecords@sbcourts.org, for cases filed in Santa Maria, Lompoc, Guadalupe and the Santa Ynez Valley.

• 50 cents a page; $1 a page for faxed copies.
• Certified copy: $40 per document plus the copy fee; certified copies are mailed or picked up, never emailed. A certificate alone is $40.
• Certified copy of a divorce judgment: $15 plus the copy fee.
• Record search over 10 minutes: $15. Invoice fee: $1. Postage: $2 for up to 10 pages, $3 for 11 to 25, $3.50 for 26 to 30, $13 for more, $14 for over 100 pages by Priority Mail.
• Payment by check to the Clerk of the Court with "not to exceed $175" on the memo line, by card in person, or by card through an emailed invoice, which appears on a statement as WAVE-SNTA BARBRA COURT; card payments carry a 2.9 percent plus 60 cent surcharge. Copies held for pickup are kept two weeks.

The court does not confirm a party's date of birth, address, driver's license number or the last digits of a Social Security number by phone or email; that information is looked up at the courthouse or through the form. A party with a fee waiver gets one copy of any necessary document free, until 60 days after the judgment. Transcripts of hearings come from the court's reporters, through its Court Reporting Services page.

Filing, E-Filing and Fee Waivers

Mandatory electronic filing began on January 1, 2016, through the providers linked from the court's E-Filing page; a document received by 11:59 p.m. on a court day is filed that day. The court charges $5 for each e-filed envelope, not in criminal cases, plus a card processing fee or 25 cents by eCheck, and a cost recovery fee since September 1, 2025. Wills, bonds, subpoenaed documents, state vital records forms and trial exhibits cannot be e-filed. Paper filings go in the drop boxes: the Santa Barbara civil box until 5 p.m., Lompoc until 4 p.m., and Santa Maria around the clock; a payment drop box for traffic and criminal fines is open from 3 to 5 p.m. on weekdays, no cash.

Filing fees follow the statewide schedule, effective January 1, 2026, linked from the court's Filing Fees page; a divorce petition is $435 to $450, and small claims are $30 to $75 by the amount claimed. A person who receives public benefits or has a low income can ask to have filing fees waived with form FW-001; the waiver covers filing fees, certified copies and Sheriff's service, and expires 60 days after the judgment, as the courts' fee waiver guide explains. Court staff cannot give legal advice or choose forms; the Legal Resource Centers, staffed by the Legal Aid Foundation, help with forms and documents at the Anacapa courthouse, (805) 568-3303, the Lompoc courthouse on Wednesdays, and the Santa Maria Law Library at 312 East Cook Street, (805) 691-2457.

The Historic Courthouse

The Anacapa Division sits in the Santa Barbara County Courthouse at 1100 Anacapa Street, designed by William Mooser III in the Spanish-Moorish style and completed in 1929, after the 1925 earthquake ruined much of the city; the 1872 courthouse stood where the Sunken Gardens are now. It is a working courthouse with an 85-foot clock tower, El Mirador, open to visitors, and free docent tours Monday through Friday at 10:30 a.m. and every day but December 25 at 2 p.m., from the Mural Room on the second floor, by the court's Historic County Courthouse page.

Appeals

Appeals in infraction and misdemeanor cases, including traffic tickets, go to the Superior Court's own Appellate Division, through the Figueroa clerk at (805) 882-4534 or the Miller Division. Appeals in felony and unlimited civil cases from Santa Barbara County go to the California Court of Appeal, Second Appellate District, Division Six, which sits in Ventura.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I look up a court case in Santa Barbara County?

On the court's Public Portal, by case number or party name, for civil, criminal, family, probate, small claims and traffic cases that are not confidential or sealed. Criminal cases have no online name index; use the courthouse terminals.

Which courthouse has my case?

Civil, family and probate cases are at the Anacapa Division in Santa Barbara or the Cook Division in Santa Maria; criminal and traffic cases at the Figueroa Division, the Miller Division or the Lompoc Division; juvenile cases at 4285-B California Boulevard in Santa Maria.

How busy is the Santa Barbara County court?

64,866 new cases in the year ending June 30, 2025, with 24 judges, or 2,703 cases per judge; 38,958 of the cases were traffic tickets.

How much are court copies in Santa Barbara County?

50 cents a page, $40 per document to certify, $15 for a certified divorce judgment, and $15 for a search over 10 minutes.

What are the court's hours?

Clerk's offices are open weekdays from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.; phones are answered from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., and the records offices answer phones from 9 a.m. to noon.

Can I appear by Zoom in Santa Barbara County court?

For many hearings, yes. The court posts the Zoom link for each department on its remote appearance page, with a telephone number for parties without video.