Ohio runs court records at the county level — no unified state portal. Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas (General Division) handles felony + civil >$15k via the Clerk of Courts case docket portal; covers General and Domestic Relations divisions. Domestic Violence and Civil Stalking Protection Order cases are NOT internet-accessible. Cleveland Municipal Court runs separately for evictions, misdemeanors, traffic.
Guided record check
Run this in order.
Start with the systems most likely to change your read of a person. Then cross-check custody, registries, and paper-trail sources before you go wider.
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01 · The docket layer
Start with courts
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Run county and statewide court portals first. Civil, criminal, family, and lower-court systems are often separate, so this is where most missed records happen.
Cleveland Housing Court is a SEPARATE court from Cleveland Municipal Court that handles most landlord-tenant matters and Forcible Entry and Detainer (FED) eviction cases for the City of Cleveland. Civil Division reachable at (216) 664-4818. Cuyahoga County suburbs (Lakewood, Parma, Cleveland Heights, etc.) run their own municipal courts not covered here.
Cleveland is unusual in Ohio: evictions go to a dedicated Housing Court rather than Municipal Court. Cleveland Municipal Court still exists for misdemeanors and traffic, but the eviction docket lives at Housing Court. If your concern is whether someone has been evicted in the City of Cleveland, this is the right portal. Cuyahoga suburbs run separate municipal courts, so a tenant evicted in Lakewood or Parma will not show up here. Pair with the Common Pleas court row above for felony and civil-over-$15k.
Cuyahoga County Clerk of Courts case docket search. Covers Court of Common Pleas General Division (felony, civil over $15k) and Domestic Relations Division. Free, no registration required for searching; copy fees apply.
This is your Cleveland-metro felony, civil-over-$15k, and divorce search. Important caveat: Domestic Violence cases are NOT internet-accessible from this portal, and Civil Stalking Protection Order cases under the General Division are also kept off the web. To see those, you must visit the Justice Center at 1200 Ontario Street in person. Cleveland Municipal Court runs evictions and misdemeanors separately from this portal.
Ohio's statewide sex offender registry. Covers all 88 counties — each county sheriff feeds the system. Search by name or by geographic radius around an address. Public, no login.
If you are vetting someone in Ohio, this is the first registry to check. The address-radius search is the version to use when you only have a partial picture: enter an address, get every registered offender within a mile. Names search returns current address, work address, and vehicle info. The registry is fed by all 88 county sheriff offices, so coverage is statewide and updates in near-real-time.
Cuyahoga County Corrections Center inmate information. Note: Cuyahoga moved primary inmate lookup to a Sheriff's Office mobile app rather than a web search. Web page lists facility info, intake hours, and 24/7 inmate phone line. Single facility (Downtown CCC, 1215 W. Third Street, Cleveland).
Cuyahoga is the rare county that has migrated jail roster lookup to a phone app instead of a public web search, which is friction. The fastest no-app path is the 24/7 inmate phone line at (216) 443-6211. Staff can confirm custody status, charges, and visitation. Single jail facility downtown, so no need to check multiple locations like Franklin. Booking confirmation is also possible at the Justice Center booking window during posted intake hours.
MyPlace is Cuyahoga County's consolidated online property search. Cuyahoga combines auditor, recorder, and treasurer functions under a single elected Fiscal Officer, so MyPlace surfaces ownership, parcel valuation, tax records, ownership history, and recorded documents in one place.
Cuyahoga is the unusual county where one elected official runs property valuation, recording, and tax collection together. That makes MyPlace genuinely powerful: search by address, owner name, or parcel and you get tax history, ownership history, and assessed values together. The fastest route to find an owner is by address, then click General Information for the parcel ID and current owner. For deed-level detail go to the recorder portal in the next row.
Cuyahoga County Recorded Document Search. Covers deeds, mortgages, liens, leases, and plats from 1810 forward. Run by the Fiscal Office's Recording Division. Search by name, address, or instrument number.
Records back to 1810 means this is the deepest searchable property record in Ohio for individual research. Personal information is being progressively redacted from online images for privacy, so older records may show more than newer ones. The recording office is at 2079 E. Ninth Street, 4th floor, in Cleveland. Mortgage history without a recent satisfaction filing is a financial-distress signal worth chasing.
ODRC Offender Search covers anyone currently incarcerated in Ohio state prison, currently under Department supervision, or judicially released. Search by last name alone, first plus last, or offender number with prefix (A or R for male, W for female).
State prison only. If you suspect someone served time in a county jail, use the county sheriff inmate roster instead. The search shows last recorded address, not current location, so a release-and-relocate combo can leave the record looking fresh when the person has moved on. Records persist after release, so this is also where you confirm whether someone in your life has a state prison history.
Ohio SOS Business Search. Direct search by business name with filters for All, Active, Cancelled, or Dead status. Returns entity type, registered agent, filing history, and officers/incorporators where filed.
If someone has told you they own a business in Ohio, this is where you confirm it. Filter on Cancelled and Dead too: a long list of dissolved entities tied to the same registered agent or officer is a pattern worth knowing. The free monthly business reports list new filings, trademarks, and dissolutions, useful for tracking activity over time.
Ohio Secretary of State statewide voter registration lookup. Returns current registration status, polling location, and voting district. Address verification is the primary use here.
Voter rolls are one of the most reliable address-of-record sources in any state. If someone is registered to vote in Ohio, this returns where the state mailed them their last ballot. Useful for confirming an address you suspect, or for catching a move you were not told about. The lookup is statewide; for additional polling and ballot detail, also check the county Board of Elections row.
Cuyahoga County Board of Elections voter lookup. Returns registration status, polling place, sample ballots, and voting districts. Covers all of Cleveland and Cuyahoga County including suburbs like Lakewood, Parma, Cleveland Heights.
County BOE confirms what the state lookup shows, plus polling place and sample ballot detail. Useful for catching cross-county moves: someone registered in Cuyahoga but living in another county shows up here as still active until they re-register elsewhere. Cleveland-specific suburb addresses sometimes lag in commercial people-search tools, so voter rolls are more current.
Ohio's primary unified professional license verification system. Covers most licensed professions including counselors, social workers, marriage and family therapists, nurses, and many others through participating regulatory boards. Returns license status and disciplinary history where on file.
If someone tells you they are licensed in Ohio in a regulated profession, this is your verification. Beyond license status, the lookup surfaces disciplinary actions, which is the more useful signal: suspensions, revocations, or restrictions. Note the system migrated for the Real Estate division in January 2026 to a new vendor, so realtor lookups may surface separately under the Department of Commerce. Attorneys are licensed by the Supreme Court of Ohio (separate registry), not eLicense.
Ohio Department of Health Bureau of Vital Statistics. State office holds birth records since 1908-12-20 and death records since 1972-01-01. Earlier records live at the Probate Court of the county where the event occurred. $21.50 search fee per record (charged whether or not located).
The fee is per-search, not per-found-record, so confirm the right county and event date before paying. Online ordering was temporarily unavailable as of May 2026 due to a system upgrade; mail and in-person paths still work. Over 100 local offices statewide accept in-person same-day requests, often the fastest path. For pre-1972 deaths or pre-1908 births, skip ODH and go directly to the Probate Court of the county where the event occurred.
The Supreme Court of Ohio licenses and disciplines attorneys (eLicense does NOT cover lawyers). Search by name, registration number, or geographic location. Returns attorney status (active, suspended, retired) and a summary of any disciplinary action taken by the Court.
If you have ever been told someone is a lawyer in Ohio, run the name here. Status alone is the easy part. The harder part is the disciplinary summary: this directory shows when the Court has issued a sanction. For deeper history including pending cases and full opinions, go to the Office of Disciplinary Counsel at odc.ohio.gov. The Board of Professional Conduct online docket also tracks active cases.
Federal District, Appeals, and Bankruptcy courts. Over 1 billion documents filed. $0.10/page (capped at $3.00/document); free if quarterly charges under $30. Account required for search. Confirmed live 2026-05-03.
PACER catches federal cases the state DOC and state courts will not. Account required, small per-search fees. Worth using for white-collar, federal drug, immigration, and bankruptcy.
All federal prison inmates, current and historical from 1982. Search by name (with race/sex/age filters) or inmate number. Note: search backend showed intermittent error during 2026-05-03 verification — likely temporary. If main tool is down, try https://www.bop.gov/mobile/find_inmate/byname.jsp as fallback.
All 50 states aggregated, plus DC, US territories, and tribal nations. Search by name or location. DOJ-operated. Named after Dru Sjodin. Also links to abuse reporting resources. Confirmed live 2026-05-03.