Alaska Court Case Search — Find Your Lawsuit

George Simons | March 06, 2023

Searching for your Alaska court records is like ^^

Summary: If you are being sued for a debt in Alaska, you can access your records online or by visiting the courthouse where the lawsuit was filed. Reduce worry and stress by using SoloSuit to draft and file an Answer to the lawsuit and increase your chances of winning by 7x.

Finding your debt collection lawsuit in Alaska has been simplified thanks to the state’s online platform, CourtView. Before, you had to go to the court clerk in the records department and make a request or send your request via mail and wait for days, if not weeks, to get a response. Alaska is a big state, and traveling to the court clerk’s office can be an arduous task. Below, we provide a link to the online portal and information on how to use it effectively.

Debt collection agencies can sometimes include the wrong debt information on your lawsuit or use other means to get the court to rule in their favor. It is crucial to follow up on your case once you receive the Summons and Complaint and after you respond with an Answer. Today, SoloSuit will give you more information on how the Alaska court system works and how to find your case records.

Alaska court structure explained

The Alaska court system consists of two main categories of courts; the Appellate Courts and the Trial Courts. The Alaska Appellate courts consist of the Court of Appeals and the Alaska State Supreme Court, while the trial court consists of the District and Superior Courts. These courts perform the following functions:

District Courts: Most cases originate in these courts. They hear cases within their limited jurisdiction. Cases heard include small claims of up to $10,000, minor criminal offenses, traffic violations, and contract issues of up to $100,000.

Superior Courts: These courts hear and decide all types of criminal and civil cases appealed from the District Courts.

Court of Appeals: These courts handle appeals from the District Courts. They also make decisive appeals, such as sentence appeals and merits from the Superior Court. The Court of Appeals has the legal right to decide which cases to hear from the lower courts.

Supreme Court: This court gives the final decision on cases from the lower courts. It also oversees the entire state's judicial administration. The Supreme Court does not have the unrestricted right to choose which appeals to handle.

Since debt collection lawsuits are considered civil cases, we’ve created this graphic that focuses Alaska’s court system regarding civil cases specifically:

AK court structure

Your debt collection case will most likely be heard in the Small Claims Court, a subdivision of the District Courts, depending on the amount of money in question. The Alaska courts allow you to represent yourself in small claims matters.

You have 20 days to respond to a debt lawsuit in Alaska. You must file a written Answer to the case within this deadline, otherwise you’ll lose automatically. Check out this video to learn more about how to learn how to draft and file your Answer:

How to find your case number

Knowing your case number will make it easy to find your lawsuit in a pool of thousands of case files. It is crucial to know your case number if you plan to fight the lawsuit yourself, as the case number will have to be included in any documents you file with the courts. The case number comprises characters, numbers, and letters; here is an example 4PA-99-01248CI. You may be wondering what this format of giving case numbers represents:

The prefix 4PA denotes the judicial district and the court's location. In this example, the fourth Judicial District in Palmer County.
The following number, 99, stands for the year the case was filed.
The following figure -01248-is the numbering sequence for cases filed that year.
The Suffix CI tells you the type of court. In this example, civil court.

If you do not know your precise case number, visit the Alaska CourtView online portal and click on the search cases button. Next, click the name button and fill in all the information you know. The details will be sufficient to locate your case records with your case number.

How to access your court records

You have two main ways to access your court records in Alaska, physically visiting the court or searching remotely on their website.

Access your lawsuit in the courthouse

In Alaska, the court clerk in the records department collects, maintains, and avails the court records in the courthouse. To receive your debt collection records, go to the courthouse where your case was filed and fill in a written request. Some courts also allow you to use public terminals to view the records, but you will be charged a fee for making copies and certifying them.

Ensure your written request includes vital information such as the case number, names of both parties, the case type, your phone number, and your address. Follow this link to find your court's location. Look for your county’s name and click to view the physical address, phone numbers, working hours, and other details.

Access your records remotely

The Alaska CourtView portal avails two search options for obtaining civil case records in all trial courts, using the case number or by name search. You can search for records using just the name of one party, such as your own, if you are unsure of the other parties involved.

Go to the CourtView Portal and click on the search cases button. You will be taken to a new page to enter the case number and immediately access your records.

The second option after clicking the search cases button is to click on the name search option. You’ll be required to enter the following details:

The first and last name of at least one party
Case type
Case status
Party type
Date the case was filed

If you do not have all the information requested, you can still find the case online–it will just take a bit more time. Enter the first and last name of a party and hit enter. A list of cases related to that name will appear, and you will need to search through and find the correct case.

If your case is in the Appellate Courts, use this link to search for your case documents by following the same steps above.

Need help with your debt collection case?

Hiring an attorney to represent you in a debt lawsuit can be an expensive endeavor. SoloSuit can help. Our software assists debtors in creating powerful documents acceptable to the Alaska courts. We can also help you ask creditors to settle out of court using our Motion to Compel Arbitration document and SoloSettle.

Explore the document calculator below to determine which SoloSuit resource is most applicable to your case and circumstance.

Decide what to do next

This calculator is for educational purposes only.

What is SoloSuit?

SoloSuit makes it easy to fight debt collectors.

You can use SoloSuit to respond to a debt lawsuit, to send letters to collectors, and even to settle a debt.

SoloSuit's Answer service is a step-by-step web-app that asks you all the necessary questions to complete your Answer. Upon completion, we'll have an attorney review your document and we'll file it for you.

Respond with SoloSuit

"First time getting sued by a debt collector and I was searching all over YouTube and ran across SoloSuit, so I decided to buy their services with their attorney reviewed documentation which cost extra but it was well worth it! SoloSuit sent the documentation to the parties and to the court which saved me time from having to go to court and in a few weeks the case got dismissed!" – James

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>>Read the FastCompany article: Debt Lawsuits Are Complicated: This Website Makes Them Simpler To Navigate