Searching Clay County Criminal Dockets
Begin online. Indiana MyCase / Odyssey Public Access serves up non-confidential Clay County criminal docket data at no cost. Both county trial courts use it. Pick 11C01 Clay Circuit Court or 11D01 Clay Superior Court. Unsure which one has the case? Search both. The Criminal & Citation filter clears away civil and probate noise. A cause number beats a name every time, since common names pull in strangers.
The search tool takes a case number. It also takes a citation number, cross-reference, party name, business name, or attorney. Name searches allow several refinements. Add a first and middle name, a birth date, court, status, and a file-date range. Drop the birth date if that field was never recorded. Results cap at 1,000, so narrow broad searches before you start.
- Open MyCase and choose the Case or Name tab.
- Select Criminal & Citation and, when known, 11C01 or 11D01.
- Enter the cause number or enough name detail to narrow the list.
- Open the match and verify the court, type, filed date, and status.
- Read the CCS from oldest to newest, then confirm a live date with the court.
Clay Criminal Court Codes
An Indiana cause number opens with a code for the county and the court. Take 11C01-2608-F6-000123, which is shown for format only. The 11 means Clay County. C01 means Circuit Court. After that, 2608 gives the filing year and month. F6 names the case type. The last group counts the filing sequence. Superior Court appears as 11D01. MyCase may take the number without hyphens or leading zeroes.
- F1 through F6
- Level 1 through Level 6 felony case codes.
- CM
- A misdemeanor cause.
- MC
- A miscellaneous criminal matter.
- IF
- An infraction assigned to Superior Court.
- RF
- A red-flag firearm-seizure matter.
These codes sort cases into types. They say nothing about outcomes. For that answer, read the CCS disposition and judgment entries.
Inside a Clay Criminal Docket
A Clay County criminal docket opens with a header and a party block. From there it logs charges, appearances, filings, hearings, orders, and money events. Check the court and the case type. Do that before the event list. A charge row states an allegation. It is not a conviction. Dismissal, plea, trial judgment, or some other disposition shows up later in the CCS.
| Case header | Cause number, court, filed date, case type, caption, and status. |
|---|---|
| Parties | State and defendant roles, plus public attorney appearances. |
| Charges | Count, offense date, statute, level or class, and description. |
| CCS events | Dated filings, settings, motions, pleas, orders, sentencing, and appeal activity. |
| Disposition | The actual outcome and decided or closed information. |
| Financial area | Costs, fines, credits, payments, or balance, which may not be current. |
A document link appears only when the type is allowed online and an image was posted. No link? The clerk can explain how to request that public document.
Clay Charges Are Not Convictions
Many readers mistake the charge block for the verdict. That block only records what was filed, with its count and level. Later CCS entries tell the real story. They include pleas, dismissals, amendments, trial results, and sentencing. Labels like open, closed, or decided do not settle the merits on their own either.
Read in sequence. Match each charge with later disposition and judgment language before drawing a conclusion about the Clay County criminal docket.
Confused by the online summary? Ask the Clay County Clerk’s Office for the public final order or RJO entry. The RJO is the Record of Judgments and Orders, and it holds final judgments plus designated orders.
How a Clay Criminal Case Moves
The CCS grows entry by entry as the clerk records each new event. A typical path through a case is no promise that every matter hits every step. Some end early, while others drag through motions, reset settings, or an appeal.
Docket flow: Filing › Initial Appearance or Arraignment › Pretrial › Plea or Trial › Disposition › Sentencing
A later entry can correct or continue an earlier one. Indiana guidance says CCS entries are never backdated, so the date an entry posts may differ from the hearing date in its text. Trust the newest future setting, and verify it with the court.
Clay Criminal Docket Allocation
Clay Circuit Court and Clay Superior Court both handle criminal matters. The current Clay local rules set the split. A case whose highest charge is a misdemeanor lands in Superior Court. Felony levels and murder generally split. The two courts share them. OWI, BAC, and driving-above-limit filings stay out of Circuit allocation. Miscellaneous criminal and red-flag matters get split equally.
| Case group | Clay placement |
|---|---|
| Highest charge is misdemeanor | Superior Court, 11D01 |
| OWI/BAC driving cases | Superior rather than Circuit allocation |
| Felony and murder | Generally allocated between both courts |
| MC and RF | Allocated equally |
New charges stay with the court first assigned. A dismissed and refiled cause goes back to its first court too. That is why searching under both identifiers makes sense when all you have is a name.
Courts That Hold Criminal Dockets
One unified Clay County Clerk’s Office maintains the CCS, the RJO, and the case files. It also keeps the indexes for both trial courts. Court staff confirm assignment and settings. The prosecutor runs the prosecution plus any deferral or diversion work. That office does not keep the official docket record. No separate Clay municipal court, justice court, or criminal portal appears in the current official directory. Neither does a criminal-only calendar.
The official prosecutor page shows the separate office. Contact it about prosecution, deferral, and diversion questions.
The prosecutor can answer questions about its programs. The clerk still keeps the Clay criminal docket and all court-file copies.
Clay County Clerk’s Office
609 East National Avenue, Room 209
Brazil, IN 47834
812-448-9024
Assigned Court Offices
Circuit Court, Room 314: 812-448-9036
Superior Court, Room 203: 812-448-9031
The statewide directory lists the clerk in Room 213, but the county locations page says Room 209. Confirm the room and the hours before you visit. No official source confirms a public terminal or a general mail, fax, email, or drop-box copy route.
Clay Criminal Costs and Balances
Indiana's current fee manual puts a basic criminal-fee total at $189 before conditional add-ons. The number bundles several statutory cost items. It is statewide, not a payoff quote for a particular Clay County case. Conditional charges can stack on top. Alcohol or drug services, domestic-violence costs, worksite fees, and other listed items may apply, and payments, credits, restitution, or interest can move the total you actually owe.
MyCase posts a caution of its own: financial data may be incomplete or out of date. Skip the old CCS line and the portal balance. For a true current amount, call the Clay County Clerk. Want a certified docket copy? That is a separate request, and it still does not prove the online balance is current.
Bond calls for the same caution. Clay's 2026 local bail schedule sets starting amounts and eligibility terms by offense level, yet a judge can sign a different order for the case at hand. Sex offenses need a hearing before any bond is set, and certain domestic-violence and other listed matters carry holds plus no-contact conditions. Read the newest bond order in the CCS. The schedule can explain an entry, but it never replaces the order itself.
Sealed Dockets and Public Access
Indiana Access to Court Records Rule 4 opens the courthouse doors, so to speak. It presumes that court records are public. Rule 5 then lists what stays shut. Confidential case types, sealed filings, protected personal details, and more stay closed. Expunged matters can vanish from view entirely. Juvenile, mental-health, treatment, victim, and protected-address material may be missing from a Clay County docket. Some of it may be blacked out. So a search that comes back empty does not prove no case exists.
Access rules: Rule 5 controls exclusions and redaction. Rule 9 provides a verified-request, notice, possible-hearing, and written-order process for seeking excluded records.
Need a live court date? Check MyCase online, or call the Circuit or Superior Court for the current setting. The clerk can also hand you a public CCS, RJO, order, or copy of the case file. That covers records the online docket leaves out. When the online docket looks thin, a trip to the clerk counter fills the gaps. Bulk or compiled court data goes through the Office of Court Services instead. For name and cause-number searching, the Clay County case lookup page has the fuller walkthrough.