Public Access to Arkansas Court Records

The State of Arkansas is home to over 3 million people and has an area of 53,179 square miles. The state capital, and the most populous city in the state, is Little Rock. Arkansas was admitted to the United States in 1836 after being acquired in the Louisiana Purchase. During the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 60s, Arkansas, especially Little Rock, was a major battleground for efforts to integrate schools.

The Arkansas state court system has over 250,000 cases filed, heard, and processed each year. The Arkansas Courts are made up of District Courts, Circuit Courts, and appellate courts.

The Arkansas Supreme Court is the state's highest court and is composed of seven justices, including one Chief Justice. The Supreme Court has jurisdiction over all appeals involving the interpretation or construction of the Arkansas State Constitution; criminal appeals in which the death penalty or life imprisonment has been imposed; petitions relating to the actions of state, county, or municipal officials or Circuit Courts; appeals pertaining to election matters; appeals involving attorney or judicial discipline; second or subsequent appeals; and matters required by law to be heard by the Court.

Supreme Court of Arkansas Justices are elected in nonpartisan elections to eight year staggered terms. Justices may run again to remain on the Court when their term expires. To be eligible to be a justice on the Arkansas Supreme Court, a person must be at least 18 years old,

a U.S. citizen and state resident, licensed to practice law in Arkansas for at least eight years, registered to vote, and a qualified elector within the geographic area from which chosen.

Established in 1979, the Arkansas Court of Appeals has general subject matter jurisdiction over appeals from Arkansas trial courts. Generally, parties have an automatic right of first appeal to the Arkansas Court of Appeals from trial courts. The Court of Appeals handles the majority of appeals in the state.

The Arkansas Court of Appeals currently has 12 judges selected through nonpartisan elections to eight year terms. Judges may run again to remain on the Court when their term expires. To be eligible to be a justice on the Arkansas Court of Appeals, a person must be at least 18 years old, a U.S. citizen and state resident, licensed to practice law in Arkansas for at least eight years, registered to vote, and a qualified elector within the geographic area from which chosen.

The number of matters brought before the Arkansas Appellate Courts each year averages around 1,000. The Arkansas Appellate Courts have been involved with many important cases in U.S. jurisprudence, including Epperson v. Arkansas, Cooper v. Aaron, and Pavan v. Smith.

The Arkansas Circuit Courts are the state’s general jurisdiction trial courts, covering the following five different subject areas: criminal, civil, probate, domestic relations, and juvenile. There are 28 Circuit Courts in Arkansas, each with jurisdiction of at least one county in the state.

The Circuit Courts are run by 126 judges, who are elected to six year terms in nonpartisan elections. These judges may run for reelection at the expiration of their terms. To be eligible to be a judge on the Arkansas Circuit Courts, a person must be at least 18 years old, a U.S. citizen and state resident, licensed to practice law in Arkansas for at least six years, registered to vote, and a qualified elector within the geographic area from which chosen.

Arkansas has two types of limited jurisdiction District Courts: State and Local.

The Arkansas State District Courts are courts of limited jurisdiction that can hear traffic, minor criminal, civil, and small claims matters. According to Arkansas Supreme Court Administrative Order 18, the State District Courts have civil jurisdiction up to $25,000; small claims jurisdiction up to $5,000; and may hear limited circuit court matters.

The District Courts are divided across 39 districts, and are operated by 66 judges. Judges in the Arkansas State District Courts are elected in contested nonpartisan elections to serve four year terms. To be eligible to serve as a District Court Judge, a person must be at least 18 years old, a registered voter, a U.S. citizen and state resident, and have at least four years of experience practicing law.

The Arkansas Local District Courts have limited jurisdiction over traffic violations, misdemeanors offenses, violations of state law and local ordinances, preliminary felony matters and civil matters involving contracts, damage to personal property and recovery of personal property where the amount in controversy does not exceed $5,000, and some small claims issues.

There are ten Local District Court judges serving nine counties. These judges are elected to terms set by city ordinances in partisan elections. Eligibility requirements may differ by city.

Created in 1988, the Arkansas Judicial Discipline & Disability Commission is a state agency that has the power to  investigate and take disciplinary action against judges found to be a violation of the Code of Judicial Conduct. In the most serious cases, the Commission may recommend to the Arkansas Supreme Court discipline a judge.

The Judicial Discipline & Disability Commission has nine members. The members of the Commission include: three judges appointed by the Arkansas Supreme Court from the Court of Appeals, Circuit Courts, or District Courts; three attorneys licensed to practice in Arkansas, one appointed by the Attorney General, one by the President of the Senate, and one by the speaker of the House of Representatives; and three lay persons appointed by the Governor of the State of Arkansas.

• In 2021, over 81,000 criminal cases were filed in Arkansas.
• The Arkansas Court of Appeals disposed of 832 cases in 2021.
• The majority of cases in the Supreme Court are post conviction appeals.
• Hundreds of Arkansas residents receive free legal advice each year through the AR Free Legal Answers Program.

UniCourt is your single source for state and federal court records, offering comprehensive court coverage and the most complete and accurate dataset available.

Each day, UniCourt collects all of the newly filed civil and criminal cases in the Arkansas Courts we cover and lets you search through those new case filings in our CrowdSourced Library™. You can also use UniCourt to track state court litigation and get real-time case alerts sent directly to your inbox. Additionally, UniCourt empowers you to download court documents on-demand without ever having to login to a government court database, and gives you unlimited access to download millions of free state and federal court documents in our CrowdSourced Library™.

UniCourt provides you with access to several Arkansas State Courts, including many of the largest counties across the state, such as the Pulaski County Courts, the Benton County Courts, the Washington County Courts, the Sebastian County Courts, and the Faulkner County Courts.

UniCourt also gives you access to court records for all of the federal courts across the state of Arkansas.

• Eastern District of Arkansas
• Western District of Arkansas

• Eastern District of Arkansas
• Western District of Arkansas

• Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals

UniCourt’s industry-leading Legal Data APIs provide Enterprise users with on-demand, bulk access to structured data from Arkansas state and federal courts. Our Legal Data as a Service (LDaaS) collects, organizes, standardizes, and normalizes court data from Arkansas state courts and all federal courts, and makes it readily available via our UniCourt Enterprise API for business development, competitive intelligence, litigation strategy, and docket management.