Search Pendleton County Court Records
Pendleton County trial-court case information starts with KYeCourts public records, the Kentucky Court of Justice guest portal for public case information across the Commonwealth. The guest page uses a reCAPTCHA entry step, then lets a user move into public search. It is best for public case information, party searches, case-number searches, citation searches, and business searches. It is not the same as a certified-copy request, and it does not replace the local clerk when a file is older, restricted, archived, or needed with a seal.
The Kentucky Court of Justice Pendleton County page identifies the Judicial Center and the local Circuit Court Clerk. The page is a useful source for office location, payment methods, judges, parking, and hours. That local office is the practical fallback when an online search does not show the document needed.
The screenshot below comes from the official Kentucky Court of Justice county page for Pendleton County.
The county page matters because it ties Pendleton court record questions to the Judicial Center and the Circuit Court Clerk instead of a county-built case-search site.
- Decide whether the record is a trial-court case, hearing date, traffic payment, copy request, jail custody item, vital certificate, or federal matter.
- Use KYeCourts for public trial-court case information when a party name, case number, citation, or business name is available.
- Use the docket portal for hearing calendars, then confirm important dates with the clerk because docket data can change.
- Call or visit the Pendleton County Circuit Court Clerk for certified copies, file-location questions, older files, and local payment questions.
- Route non-court records to the correct office, such as the County Clerk for marriage licenses and recordings or Bourbon County Regional Jail for current adult custody.
Pendleton County Court System
Kentucky has two main trial-court levels for Pendleton County: Circuit Court and District Court. Circuit Court is the court of general jurisdiction. It handles felonies, capital offenses, civil cases over $5,000, divorces, adoptions, termination of parental rights, contested probate, title disputes, injunctions, writs, and appeals from District Court or certain agencies. Family Court is a division of Circuit Court where assigned and handles family and children matters.
District Court is the limited-jurisdiction court. It handles traffic offenses, misdemeanors, violations, ordinances, small claims up to $2,500, civil cases up to $5,000, probate of wills, juvenile matters, mental commitments, arraignments, and felony probable-cause hearings. Pendleton County is in the 18th Judicial Circuit and 18th Judicial District with Harrison, Nicholas, and Robertson Counties.
The statewide court overview at Kentucky Court of Justice shows how Kentucky court levels fit together.
This structure explains why a Pendleton felony, divorce, traffic citation, and probate filing may all involve the same local clerk counter but different court divisions.
| Court or office | Pendleton County role | Record path |
|---|---|---|
| Circuit Court | Felonies, divorces, contested probate, civil over $5,000, appeals | Circuit Court Clerk and KYeCourts |
| Family Court division | Dissolution, custody, support, paternity, adoption, domestic violence, juvenile-related family matters | Circuit Court Clerk, with confidentiality limits |
| District Court | Traffic, misdemeanors, small claims, probate of wills, juvenile, mental commitments, arraignments | Circuit Court Clerk, dockets, KYeCourts, and ePay |
| County Clerk | Marriage licenses, recordings, liens, notary bonds, county-clerk open records | Pendleton County Clerk office |
Pendleton County Court Offices
The primary court counter is the Pendleton County Judicial Center at 120 Ridgeway Avenue, P.O. Box 69, Falmouth, KY 41040. The Office of Circuit Court Clerk is listed there with Michael D. Redden as Circuit Court Clerk. The phone number is 859-654-3347, and public hours are Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. The state court page lists on-site parking and payment options of cash, check, and money order, with Kentucky ePay linked for eligible fines, costs, and fees.
The County Clerk is nearby but separate. Rita M. Spencer's office is at 233 Main Street, Room 1, Falmouth, KY 41040, with mailing address P.O. Box 112, phone 859-654-3380, and fax 859-654-5600. That office handles marriage licenses, recorded land documents, liens, motor-vehicle forms, notary bonds, forms, and county-clerk open-records requests.
Pendleton County Judicial Center
120 Ridgeway Avenue
P.O. Box 69
Falmouth, KY 41040
859-654-3347
Monday-Friday, 8:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m.
Pendleton County Clerk
233 Main Street, Room 1
P.O. Box 112
Falmouth, KY 41040
859-654-3380
Monday-Friday, 8:30 a.m.-4:00 p.m.
Pendleton County Sheriff
202 Chapel Street
Falmouth, KY 41040
859-654-4511
After-hours dispatch: 859-428-1212
Pendleton County Case Search Fields
KYeCourts search options are more specific than a simple name box. Party search can use a last name and first name, a birth date for a narrower match, a driver's license number, a Social Security number if the searcher has it, or a county plus event range. Case search requires a case number and county of origin. Citation search needs the citation year, control number, and type. Business search uses a business name and county of origin.
| Search type | Fields | Useful note |
|---|---|---|
| Party | Last name, first name, birth date, county, event range, active-case filter | Best when the case number is unknown |
| Case | Case number and county of origin | Not a statewide case-number search |
| Citation | Citation year, control number, and type | Useful for traffic and citation-linked matters |
| Business | Business name and county of origin | Uses a starts-with search style |
Public case search can show events and case information, but copies, certified copies, and some documents still require the local clerk. Online records can also omit sealed, confidential, juvenile, adoption, and expunged material.
Pendleton County Court Dockets
The Kentucky docket portal is separate from the public case-search portal. It uses fields for Division, Date, Courtroom, and Subdivision, and it includes Circuit and District division options. The portal warns that docket information is not an official docket and is subject to change, so a hearing date that affects travel, bond, a warrant, or a deadline should be confirmed with the Circuit Court Clerk.
The official Kentucky docket search page is the source for the docket form and its warning language. Federal docket lookup is separate, and the PACER CM/ECF lookup for the Eastern District of Kentucky shows the federal court record path.
Federal docket access is different from Kentucky dockets. PACER and CM/ECF apply to federal district cases, while Pendleton trial-court dockets use Kentucky Court of Justice tools.
Note: A docket entry is a schedule or event record. It is not the full case file.
Public Access and Restrictions
Kentucky public-record access starts with KRS 61.872, which allows inspection of public records unless the Open Records Act or another law says otherwise. KRS 61.874 covers copying and fees, and KRS 61.878 lists exemptions that can keep some records from inspection. For court records, practical access still depends on the court system, the file type, redactions, and whether the record is public, sealed, confidential, or archived.
Several rules matter often in Pendleton County court record searches. KRS 610.320 restricts juvenile court record inspection. KRS 431.073 governs eligible felony and misdemeanor expungement. KRS 17.580 supports public availability of Kentucky sex offender registration information for covered offenses, but that registry is separate from ordinary court or jail custody records.
Key Kentucky statutes: KRS 61.872 covers inspection rights, KRS 61.874 covers copies and fees, KRS 61.878 lists exemptions, KRS 431.073 covers expungement, and KRS 610.320 limits juvenile records.
Pendleton County Record Types
Civil records can include complaints, answers, motions, orders, judgments, liens, garnishments, and hearing notices. Criminal case files can include charges, citations or complaints, indictments or informations, bond conditions, pleas, motions, dispositions, sentences, probation terms, fines, costs, and docket events. Family records include divorce, custody, support, paternity, domestic violence, adoption, dependency, neglect, abuse, and termination matters, but several family and juvenile files have restricted access.
Probate records include wills, petitions, orders appointing an executor or administrator, inventories, creditor notices, settlements, and final accounting documents. Traffic records include citation number, charge, court date, disposition, fines, court costs, payment plans, and failure-to-appear consequences. Kentucky driver history records are separate Transportation Cabinet records, not court files.
- Disposition
- The final outcome of a charge or case.
- Arraignment
- The first formal criminal appearance where charges and plea are addressed.
- Bench warrant
- A warrant issued by a judge, often after failure to appear.
- Expungement
- A court process that limits public access to eligible records.
Pendleton County Jail and Warrants
Pendleton County does not operate a detention facility. The sheriff's Prisoners and Wanted Persons page states that adult prisoners are transported to Bourbon County Detention Center in Paris. For arrested persons or bond amounts, the sheriff directs users to Bourbon County Detention Center. The Pendleton County Jailer can be contacted for current inmate information, and the Circuit Court Clerk is the court-date contact.
The sheriff is Jared M. Brewer. The office is at 202 Chapel Street in Falmouth, with phone 859-654-4511 and after-hours dispatch 859-428-1212. No official Pendleton County online active-warrant list or most-wanted roster was located in the reviewed official sources. Bench warrants and failure-to-appear events may appear through court case information, while custody and bond questions go to Bourbon County Regional Jail after arrest.
The official sheriff page for Prisoners and Wanted Persons documents the no-local-jail routing. For cases outside the state system, 28 U.S.C. 97 places Kentucky in federal judicial districts.
Federal custody and federal warrants are not handled by the Pendleton sheriff page. The federal district reference matters only when a case leaves the state court system.
Pendleton County Marriage and Probate
Marriage licenses are issued by the Pendleton County Clerk. Both applicants must appear together, the license is valid for 30 days from issuance, there is no waiting period or blood test under the clerk's posted rules, and the license must be used in Kentucky. The clerk's page lists application details such as names, addresses, dates of birth, places of birth, parents' names, current status, prior marriages, occupations, sex at birth, race, relationship question, and planned ceremony date.
Divorce case files are Circuit or Family Court records through the Circuit Court Clerk. Kentucky Office of Vital Statistics has marriage and divorce certificates from June 1958 forward, while earlier marriage records route to the county clerk where the license was issued and earlier divorce records route to the Circuit Court Clerk where the decree was granted. Probate is handled by District Court for probate of wills and routine administration, with contested probate in Circuit Court.
The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky is a separate federal court path for bankruptcy matters.
Bankruptcy files do not sit with the Pendleton Circuit Court Clerk, even when the debtor lives in Pendleton County.
Federal Court Records
Pendleton County is in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky under 28 U.S.C. 97. The most relevant federal courthouse for the region is Covington at 35 West 5th Street, Covington, KY 41011, with phone 859-392-7925. Federal records include federal criminal cases, federal civil rights cases, federal-question cases, diversity cases, prisoner civil rights matters, federal tax cases, and other actions filed under federal jurisdiction.
The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky provides federal court information outside the Kentucky state trial-court system.
Federal cases use federal systems such as PACER and CM/ECF. KYeCourts and the Pendleton Circuit Court Clerk are for Kentucky court matters, not federal case files.
The Covington federal courthouse page identifies the regional federal courthouse relevant to Pendleton County.
Covington is also important for bankruptcy access because the bankruptcy court maintains a Covington location in the same city.
The Covington bankruptcy court page gives location information for bankruptcy services.
For bankruptcy case information, the bankruptcy court also points users to case information tools and McVCIS.
The bankruptcy court's case information page describes federal bankruptcy lookup channels.
These federal tools should not be mixed with state traffic, probate, criminal, or family case searches.
Pendleton County Record Fees
The County Clerk publishes a fee schedule for recorded instruments and copies. Court-copy fees for Pendleton trial-court files were not located in the reviewed official sources, so copy-cost questions for Circuit, Family, District, and Business Court records should be confirmed with the Circuit Court Clerk before visiting or mailing a request.
| Item | Fee or note |
|---|---|
| County Clerk certified copy | $5 plus 25 cents per page after 5 pages |
| County Clerk deed recording | $50 |
| County Clerk mortgage recording | $80 |
| County Clerk judgment lien | $46 |
| County Clerk will recording | $47 |
| CHFS marriage or divorce certificate | $6 non-refundable search fee per certificate |
| Online three-year driver history | $6 through the Kentucky driver history portal |
Pendleton County Court Context
Pendleton County's clerk homepage describes the county as the Land of Meandering Rivers and Rolling Hills in Northern Kentucky, halfway between Cincinnati and Lexington. Falmouth is the county seat, located between the Main Licking and South Licking rivers. That local setting helps explain why the court and county offices are close together in Falmouth but still separate by function.
The most important local access pattern is not scenic. It is operational. Court files go to the Circuit Court Clerk at Ridgeway Avenue. County Clerk records go to Main Street. Adult jail custody goes to Bourbon County Regional Jail. State vital certificates go to CHFS. Driver history goes to the Transportation Cabinet. Federal cases go to federal court systems. Matching the record to the correct office saves time.
Pendleton County Court FAQ
Can Pendleton County court records be searched online?
Public case information can be searched through KYeCourts. Dockets are searched through the Kentucky docket portal, and traffic payments may be available through ePay. Copies and certified copies still route through the Pendleton County Circuit Court Clerk.
Does Pendleton County have its own jail roster?
No official Pendleton jail roster exists because the county does not operate a detention facility. Adult prisoners are transported to Bourbon County Regional Jail, and the sheriff directs custody and bond questions there.
Where are marriage records handled?
Marriage licenses are issued by the Pendleton County Clerk. Certified marriage certificates from June 1958 forward are handled by Kentucky Office of Vital Statistics, while earlier records start with the county clerk where the license was issued.
Are all records public?
No. Juvenile records, adoption matters, sealed cases, expunged records, mental health proceedings, protected identifiers, and some family-related records may be restricted by law or court order.