Find Bartholomew County Civil Court Dockets

Bartholomew County Civil Docket Searches

Start with Indiana MyCase, the free public search for non-confidential Odyssey cases. Pick Bartholomew County. Then search by case number, party or business name, attorney, or cross-reference. The Case tab takes one case-number, citation, or cross-reference field at a time. On the Name tab you need a last name or business, and adding a first name, middle name, birth date, status, or file dates helps narrow common names.

1. Select Bartholomew County in MyCase.
2. Use the exact case number when available; otherwise enter a party or business name.
3. Narrow with Open or Closed status and a filing-date range.
4. Open the Case Summary and confirm court, case type, file date, status, and caption.
5. Read Events and Hearing Events, then check each document's public-access flag.

A trailing asterisk works only for a starts-with search. You cannot combine sounds-like and wildcard tools. Broad names need a tighter filter, since results above 1,000 are never returned. When MyCase comes up empty, call Shari Lentz, Clerk of the Bartholomew Circuit Court, at 812-379-1600. You can also visit 234 Washington Street, or mail a request with the cause number. The counter, phone, and mail all work as fallbacks. A courthouse public terminal and the assigned court work too.

Bartholomew Civil Codes and Courts

Every Bartholomew civil case number starts with the county code 03. The court IDs are 03C01, 03D01, and 03D02. Number patterns follow the type. Examples are 03D01-YYMM-CT-000123 for civil tort, 03D02-YYMM-CC-000123 for civil collection, and 03D02-YYMM-DC-000123 for domestic relations with children. These are patterns, not real cases. Circuit, Superior I, and Superior II all take civil work. Local rules use equal rotations and percentage assignments. So the case type alone may not tell you the court. The county court descriptions are a sound starting point. The code on the case summary settles the actual assignment.

Civil Dockets: What They Show

Think of a Bartholomew County civil docket as a chronology. It can record a new filing, appearance, complaint, summons, answer, recusal, special-judge assignment, pretrial order, scheduled hearing, stipulation of dismissal, judgment, or cancellation. One caution. A listed filing was not necessarily granted. And an event row never promises a downloadable pleading.

The Indiana public-document guide explains that online access varies by case type and date.

That guide draws a key line. A public docket event and a public pleading image are two separate access decisions.

Bartholomew Civil Collection Rotation

Local assignment rules divide ordinary civil collections among the three courts: 15 percent to Circuit, 35 percent to Superior I, and 50 percent to Superior II. Government civil collections go straight to Circuit. Foreclosures rotate between Circuit and Superior I, while civil tort, paternity, and domestic-relations filings follow their stated equal rotations.

The split is an administrative filing rule, nothing more. It says nothing about likely outcome. A transfer or recusal can move a case too, so search the original number and check for special-judge or reassignment events.

What Cases Fill the Civil Docket

Bartholomew Circuit Court handles civil plenary and tort matters, collections, tax collections, mortgage foreclosure, paternity and dissolution, protective orders, estates, guardianships, adoptions, and reciprocal cases. Superior I hears general civil work. It also takes torts like medical malpractice and property damage, family matters, wills and trusts, adult protective matters, collections over $6,000, and every mental-health case. Superior II can hear all civil types. It holds small claims and evictions.

• CT: civil tort.
• CC: civil collection.
• DC: domestic relations with children.
• Small claims: monetary or asset claims within the county's stated ceiling.
• Protective and family matters: access must be checked before treating a missing result as a search error.

Columbus, Hope, Elizabethtown, Hartsville, and Clifford post no separate city civil docket. A municipal ordinance record is not the same as a court-filed ordinance case. Those cases route to Superior II.

Bartholomew Small Claims Versus Collections

Small Claims is a court route, not a shortcut for finding debts. The county caps monetary or asset small claims at $6,000. Those claims route through Superior II. A civil collection that follows a verdict is a different animal and skips that ceiling. Keep the entries straight. A judgment, a later collection filing, and a payment record are three distinct docket entries.

Certified pleadings, judgments, and orders come through the Clerk's copy process. A transcript or recording? That comes from the reporter. Historic civil, probate, estate, and Common Pleas volumes sit with Bartholomew County Archives, not the current small-claims desk.

Hearings on the Civil Docket

A civil hearing entry can cover many things. Think pretrial conferences, telephonic attorney conferences, trial settings, scheduling activity, results, and cancellations. Always check a current date against the newest event and any order attached to it. Each courtroom has its own phone line. Circuit is 812-379-1605, Superior I is 812-379-1623, and Superior II is 812-379-1610.

Local Rule LR03-TR40-1 governs the trial calendar. Most matters need a written request. The request names the hearing or trial type, offers a good-faith time estimate, and confirms readiness. Agreed continuances work differently. The parties set up a conference call with the court reporter and pick a date together. If the reporter is unavailable or one side will not cooperate, the court may set a binding date on its own. So a canceled telephonic conference is not a dismissal. It is one scheduling event in the civil docket.

Do not confuse a pretrial event with a trial date. Bartholomew civil docket summaries can include orders for pretrial conference, hearing-scheduling activity, a canceled telephonic attorney conference, and an order on pretrial conference. Read the event description, the result, and any linked order as one picture. An appearance or answer shows participation, nothing more. A summons entry concerns issuance or service. Neither resolves the civil claim. Even a stipulation of dismissal is only a filing event until the case status and a court order confirm what happened.

Bartholomew Civil Filing Volume Context

Indiana's workbook data covers the whole county trial-court load. That limit matters. In 2024, the three Bartholomew courts opened with 8,299 pending cases, received 11,780 new filings, disposed of 10,888, and ended the year with 9,264 pending. Superior II alone received 8,101 new filings. That fits its mix of traffic, misdemeanor, small-claims, ordinance, and civil work.

The Indiana court statistics page shown below leads to the official reports.

These totals are not a civil caseload. They are not an outcome rate or a count of unique people. They give workload context only.

The trial and probation statistics collection publishes the statewide workbook series behind those annual figures.

Annual figures stay apart from any live Bartholomew civil docket search.

Who Can See Civil Dockets

Access Rules 1 and 4 presume the public can see court records. Rule 5 exclusions and other law still apply. Some case types need extra care. Domestic relations, paternity, adoption, protective-order, estate, guardianship, juvenile, and mental-health files all carry limits. A missing record has several possible causes. It may reflect confidentiality, a seal, an older non-Odyssey case, or a search mismatch.

The Indiana court-record request guide sends record requests to the clerk of the court that heard the case. Transcript requests go to the reporter.

MyCase sometimes names a filing without showing its image. That is when the request route above matters. Use the Clerk's electronic form only for a cause-numbered document that can be emailed. The form promises a seven-business-day response and no certification. Visit or mail the Clerk for certified-copy steps and current fees. For an excluded record, Access Rule 9 may demand a verified request, notice, a harm analysis, and a court order. Indiana APRA does not by itself open a sealed court file.

Electronic requests do not always fit. Keep the cause number, court code, filing date, event title, and desired format ready. Ask whether the item is public, electronic, archived, or reporter-held. Mail goes to the Clerk at P.O. Box 924, Columbus, IN 47201. In-person requests go to 234 Washington Street during the posted counter hours. The fax number is 812-379-1675. The clerk posts no universal fax fee or turnaround, so ask first. These channels supplement MyCase. They do not bypass a confidentiality rule.

Bartholomew Civil Copies and Fees

The state fee manual caps the document fee at $1 per page. A certificate adds $1. Preparing and recording a transcript of judgment costs $3. The county posts no complete current schedule covering every ordinary, certified, exemplified, or electronic civil copy. Confirm the product and total with the Clerk first.

The trial-court fee manual landing page is pictured below.

The manual sets statewide fee authority; the Clerk sets the current Bartholomew total and certification method.