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ND Criminal Records Search
Compare North Dakota court searches with a BCI criminal-history request, understand result limits, and obtain official case information from the filing court.
Choose between a court-case search and a statewide criminal-history check
| Need | North Dakota source | What the result is |
|---|---|---|
| Find a public state-court case | NDCRI — North Dakota Courts Records Inquiry. | Free case-information lookup covering criminal and other public case types. The Court System says it is not the official court record and does not certify NDCRI search results. |
| Obtain the North Dakota criminal-history product | Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) record check. | A statewide North Dakota criminal-history record check with defined public-release rules, a current $15 public-request fee and a processing period. |
| Need the filed or certified court document | Use NDCRI to identify the court and case, then request the official record from the clerk at that case location. | The clerk’s court file is the source for the official filing; an NDCRI screen is only online case information. |
Treat NDCRI as a locator, not as a certified background report
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Check the update window
North Dakota Courts says NDCRI data is current through the end of the previous day. A very recent filing or update may not yet appear.
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Verify the person
The Court System warns that people can share the same name and date of birth and that offenders may use aliases. Match case details before attributing a record to a person.
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Remember that online coverage is incomplete
NDCRI does not display every court record. Its public view is limited to available case-search results, registers of action, civil judgments and court calendars for publicly accessible cases.
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Escalate when the record itself matters
If a recipient needs an official order, judgment or certified filing, contact the clerk for the court holding the case. North Dakota expressly says NDCRI itself is not the official court record.
Use BCI when the task is North Dakota criminal history rather than one court case
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Use the current BCI request form
Follow the Attorney General / BCI request instructions and submit the original signed form with the required fee using the current mailing or drop-off directions.
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Plan the current fee and processing time
BCI currently lists a $15 public criminal-history request. The office says processing and completion takes approximately seven to ten business days.
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Read the result as a release product
A BCI report follows North Dakota dissemination rules. It is not the same thing as downloading every underlying court file, and different regulatory/licensing checks may disclose categories differently from a general-public check.
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Use the case court for document proof
If the BCI result identifies an event whose exact disposition matters, locate the related court case and obtain the filed disposition or order from the court holder rather than relying on a short history line alone.
Two limits change how a North Dakota BCI result should be interpreted
“No information” is not a universal no-record finding
The North Dakota Attorney General result guide says a general-public check reports North Dakota convictions regardless of age, plus specified dismissed/nonconviction/no-disposition charges and custody records when they are less than three years old. Older items in those latter categories are not released on the general-public check, though regulatory/licensing checks can differ. The same guide says a “No information” notice means either no information exists or dissemination is prohibited. It also excludes federal, other-state, tribal and juvenile records, most traffic offenses and civil judgments. Read the result within that scope instead of converting it into a nationwide or all-records conclusion.