Pecos County Court Record Requests
Pecos County splits its clerk duties. The District Clerk holds the 83rd and 112th Judicial District Court files, covering felony charges, major civil suits, and family cases. The County Clerk handles constitutional county-court criminal and civil matters, along with juvenile, probate, and mental-health files. Justice and municipal courts keep their own lower-court records. Use every channel the offices document. You can search re:SearchTX, or call, email, fax, mail, or visit the right clerk. Ask about an in-office terminal too, since the county pages do not list one. Judicial-record requests go to the custodian under Rule 12 and other law, not through an assumed countywide Public Information Act form.
- Identify the court, cause number, case style, and document.
- Check re:SearchTX for public events or an image.
- Choose the counter, phone, mail, fax, or email route.
- Request a plain, certified, or exemplified copy.
- Get a cost estimate before sending funds.
- Keep the receipt and any access decision.
Pecos County Has Two Clerks
District Clerk Darla Cude runs the district office. It sits at 400 S Nelson, Fort Stockton, TX 79735. Her phone is (432) 336-3503, the fax is (432) 336-6437, and email is darla.cude@co.pecos.tx.us. County Clerk Liz Chapman sits at 200 S Nelson, Suite 3, Fort Stockton, TX 79735. That office answers (432) 336-7555, faxes to (432) 336-7557, and takes email at liz.chapman@co.pecos.tx.us. The justice courts by precinct keep traffic, Class C, eviction, minor civil, and small-claims files. Fort Stockton and Iraan municipal clerks hold city ordinance and fine-only Class C records. So the issuing court matters a great deal. Bring a cause number if you can. It saves time. It may also avoid a search charge when staff must locate a file without one.
Kinds of Court Records
"Record" covers several different products. A docket sheet is the chronological index of a case. The filed document behind an entry is the petition, motion, order, judgment, return, or exhibit itself. A certified copy adds the clerk's authentication. A transcript is the verbatim record of the proceeding. It normally comes from the assigned reporter.
- Docket sheets and event histories
- Pleadings, motions, answers, and returns
- Signed orders, judgments, and dispositions
- Eligible exhibits and attachments
- Plain, certified, and exemplified copies
- Reporter transcripts requested through court staff
Pecos County official land records sit in a separate County Clerk series. The vendor indexes reaching back to 1983 are not a district pleading search. In the same way, eFileTexas accepts filings but is not the full public docket.
No Pecos County Copy Form
Neither principal clerk page posts a Pecos County court-record request form online. The County Clerk search-policy PDF offers guidance only; it is not a fillable form. The county also posts no countywide response deadline, tracking system, or universal appeal form.
Make the request narrow. Give the court, cause number, title or event date, page range, certification, delivery choice, contact details, and an offer to pay lawful costs.
When an old record cannot be located, ask staff whether they searched Odyssey, paper, docket books, microfilm, archived images, and migrated data. Get the date range they checked. Tracing one final judgment is easier than chasing every item tied to a name.
Court Records: What They Contain
A Pecos County court file can hold far more than its online summary. What you get depends on the court, the case type, the file's age, system integration, and access law. The docket proves an event was entered, but the instrument itself contains the full terms.
| Cause number | The unique court identifier used for retrieval. |
|---|---|
| Case style | The public caption, unless restricted. |
| Docket events | Filings, settings, orders, and disposition entries. |
| Filed papers | Eligible motions, returns, orders, and judgments. |
| Access marker | An image link, redaction, restriction, or sealed indicator. |
| Certification | Clerk authentication for an approved copy. |
A missing PDF does not prove sealing. The document may be priced rather than imaged, stored on paper, outside integration, or available only in redacted form, so ask the custodian.
Pecos County Docket Versus File
re:SearchTX gives registered users a statewide search layer for participating courts. It may show near-real-time case data. Hearings, docketed events, and some documents appear too. Pecos County coverage varies. It does not promise every local or historic file. For a public pleading, signed order, or certified judgment, the clerk-held file remains authoritative. When an event appears without its image, note the court, cause, title, and date. Send that detail to the proper Pecos County clerk. The county docket search walks through the earlier name and number lookup step.
Copy Fees and Certification
Texas Government Code Chapter 51 sets the baseline for fees. The Pecos County office must confirm totals for postage, retrieval, format, and delivery. Always ask first whether a plain electronic file will meet your needs.
| Product | Supported baseline | Confirm |
|---|---|---|
| Paper copy | Generally $1 per page | Pages and postage |
| Electronic copy | $1 through 10 pages, then $0.10 each | Availability |
| Certified paper copy | $5 seal plus $1 per page | Current total |
| Search without cause number | $5 | Scope |
| County Clerk card route | 2.75% convenience fee | Call first; bureau 5760180 |
The County Clerk takes cash, money orders, cashier's checks, Visa, Mastercard, and Discover, but no American Express. Card payment may process the next business day. Payment never proves a document exists, and district, JP, and municipal methods differ.
Pecos County District Clerk
400 S Nelson
Fort Stockton, TX 79735
(432) 336-3503
Pecos County Clerk Pages
The official District Clerk page supplies the district-record contact route.
This is the first stop for felony, district civil, and family files. The County Clerk page identifies the separate county-level counter.
Seen together, the two views show why a requester must name the court before seeking a copy.
Access Rules for Court Records
Pecos County judicial files do not follow the ordinary Texas Public Information Act route. Texas Rule of Judicial Administration 12 generally allows inspection and copying of eligible judicial records during business hours, subject to exclusions and other law. Government Code Section 552.0035 recognizes this separate rule. Several categories may be withheld or redacted. Sealed civil material, juvenile files, expunction or nondisclosure records, protected identifiers, child-protection information, and some mental-health or guardianship documents all qualify. Rule of Civil Procedure 76a governs civil sealing. Rule 21c protects sensitive data. A blank Pecos County result may simply mean a search mismatch or absent integration.
Ask for the public version. If access is denied, request the rule, statute, protective order, or sealing order and ask whether a redacted docket sheet or order exists.
Pecos County Older Record Search
How old is the case? That answer shapes your whole search for a Pecos County court record. Newer causes sit in Odyssey and flow out through re:SearchTX. Older ones may live only on paper. They could sit in a bound docket volume, on microfilm, or in files carried over from an earlier vendor. The county posts no year-by-year retention map. A party name alone will not carry you far. Bring a date range and the court whenever the cause number is gone.
Ask the clerk which systems and years were checked. A docket entry may point to a hearing transcript. The reporter or coordinator then needs the court, cause number, proceeding date, and the portion you want. Transcript fees and turnaround are not posted on one Pecos County schedule. An appellate file may rest with the Eighth Court of Appeals instead of the trial clerk. Knowing this keeps a failed portal search from ending a sound inquiry.
Beware of stale numbers. Historical Pecos County rules quoted transmission charges from the 1990s, and those figures are not current prices. Chapter 51 and a fresh clerk estimate govern today. The County Clerk official-record index may sell land-record images. It offers no public bulk criminal or civil docket feed. Aggregate reports count workload, not individual case files.