Jim Wells County Court Record Requests
First, figure out which court holds the file. R. David Guerrero, District Clerk, keeps the 79th Judicial District Court records plus civil and family matters assigned to the County Court at Law under local rules. J.C. Perez III, County Clerk, maintains county, probate, and county-level index records. A justice court, municipal court, or federal court keeps its own file. So the right custodian depends entirely on where the case was heard.
- Locate the cause number through the county-linked iDocket route or a prior case paper. If the District cause number is missing, call 361-668-5717, option 6.
- Define the product: docket sheet, named filing, judgment, plain copy, certified copy, complete file, or transcript.
- Use the District Clerk’s electronic request route through eFileTexas, call, visit Suite 207, or mail P.O. Drawer 2219, Alice, TX 78333.
- For a County Clerk record, use iDocket to identify it, call 361-668-5702, visit Suite 103, or mail P.O. Box 1459, Alice, TX 78333.
- Ask for a quote, confirm the payee and accepted payment, and state whether certification is needed. The clerks do not promise same-day delivery.
re:SearchTX may work as a statewide fallback. But the court docket coverage it offers for Jim Wells County varies. A Texas Public Information Act request is not a substitute for the case-record rules that govern court files.
Two Jim Wells Clerk Counters
Both clerks work at 200 N. Almond Street in Alice. Their suites and hours differ. The District Clerk sits in Suite 207. It is open Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The County Clerk is in Suite 103, with hours of 8:00 a.m. to noon and 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. A shared courthouse address does not create shared custody.
| Office | Records route | Contact |
|---|---|---|
| District Clerk | District Court plus locally assigned civil and family matters | 361-668-5717, option 6 |
| County Clerk | County, probate, and county-level index records | 361-668-5702 |
| Lower court clerk | Justice or municipal case named on the citation | Use the current county or OCA directory |
Call ahead to confirm the right suite, the accepted payment instrument, any record restriction, and how copies get delivered. The clerks publish nothing on parking, a public terminal, or same-day copying.
Kinds of Jim Wells County Court Records
Name the product clearly. That keeps a court records search fee from being spent on the wrong item, since Jim Wells County offers several distinct record products.
- A docket sheet or register of case events showing filings, settings, and dispositions.
- Pleadings such as petitions, complaints, answers, and motions that were filed in the case.
- Signed orders and judgments stating what the court decided.
- Notices, citations, returns, and other process records included in the public file.
- Probate, civil, family, or criminal documents that remain public after required restrictions and redactions.
- A reporter’s transcript or recording, requested separately from the clerk’s ordinary copy process.
Federal court records for Jim Wells County matters run through PACER and the Southern District of Texas Corpus Christi Division. Those are not county clerk files.
Choose the Jim Wells Record Product
A plain copy just reproduces a document. A certified copy adds the clerk's official certification. A docket sheet summarizes event entries. But it may not contain the text of a motion or ruling. A complete file can be much larger than the few documents actually needed. A transcript comes from the court reporter's record. The county publishes no local fee or turnaround for one.
Use a document checklist: Give the cause number, case style, filing or event date, document title, certification choice, delivery preference, and contact information.
If the record will be filed elsewhere, ask the receiving office what form of certification it requires before ordering.
iDocket's image flag does not grant certification authority. Even when a District-row image is available, only the maintaining clerk can issue an official certified copy.
Court Records: What They Contain
The official Jim Wells civil/calendar sample and County Court at Law judgment sample show the gap between a docket view and the underlying signed record. Private names and addresses are left out. A hearing calendar tells you what was set, not what was signed.
| Cause number | The local file identifier used to locate the case and documents. |
|---|---|
| Case style | The caption identifying the sides in the matter. |
| Docket entries | Chronological actions, settings, filing dates, and dispositions. |
| Pleadings | Petitions, motions, answers, and other filed requests or responses. |
| Orders and judgments | Signed rulings, including findings and relief stated by the court. |
| Service and exhibits | Citations, returns, attachments, or evidence when public and retained in the file. |
The CCL judgment sample includes a cause number, court designation, case style, findings on jurisdiction and service, an active-military finding, and a property description. But that structure is no promise. Every public docket search result may not display those fields.
Jim Wells Electronic Copy Route
The District Clerk page handles document requests and searches electronically through eFileTexas. Copies are transmitted by email. eFileTexas is also the filing system for represented filers, though filing a paper and requesting a copy are different tasks. An emailed attachment is not automatically a valid court filing. The county's eFileTexas link opens the state entry point. Supply a cause number where possible, and call the District Clerk when it is missing. The County Clerk instead points users to iDocket for its criminal, civil, and probate index. Copy questions then go through the office. Neither clerk publishes a guaranteed turnaround for every request. Online document images can be useful for reading. Yet the iDocket County row is marked no for images while the District row is marked yes. Participation, restricted content, and vendor charges can still limit what a docket search returns.
Copy Fees and Certification
Jim Wells County publishes separate fee schedules. The District Clerk schedule is dated 2026, while the County Clerk schedule is dated January 2025. Use the row that matches the custodian and the transaction. Filing, service, recording, and process charges are not copy fees.
| Item | Published amount |
|---|---|
| District Clerk search | $5 |
| District Clerk plain copy | $1 per page |
| District Clerk certification | $5 |
| District Clerk fax copy | $2 first page; $1 each additional page |
| County Clerk regular copy | $1 per page |
| County Clerk certified copy | $5 |
| County Clerk search | $10 |
Fees change, so get a current quote from the clerk before you pay. What one office calls a plain copy, another may bill as a certified copy. A certified multi-page request for a Jim Wells County court docket can carry both a per-page charge and a certification charge, and transcript, archive retrieval, municipal copy, and unlisted image rates are not published.
Jim Wells County District Clerk
200 N. Almond Street, Suite 207
Alice, TX 78332
361-668-5717, option 6
Mailing Jim Wells Record Requests
Mailing a record request takes precision. Check with the right office first. For District Clerk copies, payment goes by check, money order, or cashier’s check to R. David Guerrero, District Clerk, at P.O. Drawer 2219, Alice, TX 78333, and every mailing should carry the case number and full name. The county page also lists cash plus separate Certified Payments links for civil and criminal transactions. Paying is not the same as requesting, so send a complete case lookup packet too. The County Clerk takes mail at P.O. Box 1459, Alice, TX 78333. That office posts no universal certified-copy form and quotes no turnaround, so call ahead for the total and payment instructions before anything goes in the envelope. Keep the two clerks separate. Never send a District Clerk payee instrument to the County Clerk or combine the fees of both offices in one check.
Access Rules for Court Records
Access to a court record depends on what the record is, not just on whether its case name shows up in an index. Some files stay closed. Sealed matters, juvenile records, expunction-related files, and protected portions of family or probate cases may be withheld or redacted, and sensitive identifiers can be stripped from copies that are otherwise public. Statutes, court rules, common law, and the court itself decide what a requester may see in the Jim Wells County court docket.
Texas access framework: Texas Judiciary guidance explains that Rule 12 governs judicial records but does not govern case records.
Texas Government Code Chapter 552 excludes the judiciary from the Act’s ordinary scope, so the Texas Public Information Act is not a universal case-file request law.
Texas Rules of Civil Procedure 21c and 76a address sensitive-data filing and sealing procedures relevant to public civil records.
The simplest step is to ask the right Jim Wells County clerk directly. The clerk can say what portion of the court record is public and whether a court order or proof of authority is needed to release it.
Jim Wells Transcripts and Federal Files
A transcript from a court reporter is a different product from an ordinary clerk copy. The 79th District Court page names a court reporter. Local rules bar private recording of streamed or remote proceedings. The clerk's fee schedule lists no local transcript charge, so availability, cost estimates, deposits, and production time all come from the court or the reporter.
Federal cases go elsewhere. Use PACER, or contact the Southern District of Texas Corpus Christi Division at 1133 N. Shoreline Boulevard, Corpus Christi, Texas 78401, 361-888-3142. PACER's current page sets out a per-page fee along with policy-based caps and waivers. Those are federal access charges rather than Jim Wells County clerk fees.
Before ordering anything, run a preliminary Jim Wells County docket search. Pin down the cause number and the document date first. For certified county records, the clerk still has the final word.