Find Pulaski County Trial Courts

Pulaski County Trial Court Overview

Indiana's court structure has appellate courts and trial courts. The state appellate level includes the Supreme Court of Indiana, the Court of Appeals of Indiana, and the Indiana Tax Court. Local trial-level work is handled through circuit courts, superior courts, and local city or town courts where a county has them. The Pulaski County state court map identifies two official local trial court pages: Pulaski County Circuit Court and Pulaski County Superior Court. No separate official Pulaski County city or town court page was located in the research.

The file name remains district-court.html because the supplied build manifest keeps that target, but the correct local title is Circuit Court / Superior Court. Pulaski County court users should not look for a county district court to find local Indiana case files. For trial-court records, hearing entries, and certified copies, the practical chain is MyCase for public electronic data, then the Pulaski County Clerk of Courts for official copies, current financial data, older records, and certified documents. Federal district court is covered later because it is not the local county trial court.

The Indiana Judicial Branch court-system overview is the state source for the two-level trial and appellate structure. It helps explain why a Pulaski County search may involve the local trial court for the case file, the clerk for official records, and the Court of Appeals of Indiana if a local judgment is appealed.

Pulaski County Circuit Superior Courts

Pulaski County has two local trial courts in the Justice Center. The Circuit Court page describes Circuit Court as handling a wide range of civil, criminal, and family-law cases and serving as a primary trial court for the county. The Superior Court page describes Superior Court as a general-jurisdiction court that hears criminal and civil cases and processes about 3,000 cases each year. Both courts are connected to the court-record system used by MyCase, and both route official copies through the Clerk of Courts when the record is public and available.

The Circuit Court page lists Hon. Mary Welker as judge, a court administrator contact, fax 574.946.6585, and hours of Monday-Friday, 8:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m., closed noon-1:00 p.m. daily. The Superior Court page lists Hon. Crystal A. Brucker Kocher as judge, fax 574.946.3573, and hours of Monday-Friday, 8:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. ET. Those court contacts are for court operations and hearings; copies and many payment questions still point to the clerk.

The official Northern District of Indiana homepage is a federal court source, not a county trial-court source.

This federal screenshot helps separate Pulaski County Circuit and Superior Court records from federal district court records searched through federal systems.

Pulaski County Court Comparison

Indiana's local court labels do not match states that use district courts, justice courts, or county courts as separate trial levels. Pulaski County research did not locate a separate official city or town court page. The comparison should therefore center on the two Pulaski County trial courts, the Clerk of Courts, and federal courts. This prevents a common search error: using the phrase district court for a local Indiana county case when the case is actually in Pulaski Circuit Court or Pulaski Superior Court.

Note: A federal court may involve a Pulaski County person or event, but it is not a Pulaski County Circuit or Superior Court record.

Pulaski County Case Flow

A Pulaski County case generally starts as a filing, charge, petition, ticket, or claim in the local trial-court system. The court creates a cause number and the case appears in the chronological case summary when public access allows it. The judge handles hearings, motions, trial settings, orders, judgment, disposition, or sentencing. The Clerk of Courts receives and maintains the filed record, collects court money when assigned, and supplies official copies. If a party seeks appellate review, the state appeal path moves away from the trial court and into Indiana's appellate courts.

State trial-court flow: Filing or charge › cause number › Circuit Court or Superior Court › hearings and CCS entries › order, judgment, disposition, or sentence › Court of Appeals of Indiana if appealed.

Record-access flow: MyCase public search › review case summary and public documents › Clerk of Courts for official copy, certified copy, current balance, older record, or missing document › public access request if the record is administrative or not otherwise available.

This flow also explains the role of the Prosecutor's Office and Probation Office. Criminal charges are prosecuted by the county prosecutor, while court-ordered supervision is handled through probation. Those offices support court cases, but they do not replace the Circuit Court, Superior Court, or Clerk of Courts as the source for the court record.

Pulaski County Trial Case Types

Pulaski County trial-court records may include criminal cases, civil claims, family-law filings, small claims, infractions, protective orders, estates, guardianships, adoptions, juvenile matters, and judgment records. The Clerk of Courts page explicitly lists many of these categories as processed by the clerk, while the court pages confirm broad civil, criminal, and family jurisdiction for the local courts. Public access varies. Adoption, juvenile, sealed, expunged, protected-person, mental-health, and confidential identifier material should not be treated as ordinary public records.

Probate-related filings are a good example. Pulaski County does not have a separately branded probate court page in the official sources located during research. Instead, estates and guardianships route through the county trial-court and clerk system. Traffic infractions are another example. The clerk collects fees, fines, and costs for traffic infractions, deferrals, and pre-trial diversion, while the ticket or case itself can appear in MyCase if public.

• Criminal court records can show charges, hearings, pleas, dispositions, sentencing entries, fines, costs, and probation references where public.
• Civil court records can show complaints, appearances, motions, orders, judgments, settlements, and collection entries.
• Family court records can include divorce, custody, child-support, and post-decree events with redactions for protected information.
• Probate and guardianship records can include estate petitions, wills, letters, inventories, claims, accountings, and orders.
• Infraction and traffic records can include citation numbers, violation descriptions, hearing dates, costs, and disposition entries.

Pulaski County Specialty Courts

Pulaski County specialty-court research shows several court-connected programs that are not ordinary public-record databases. The Circuit Court's Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative has been part of the local justice system since 2016 and is administered through Pulaski Circuit Court under Judge Mary Welker. The official JDAI description frames the program as a juvenile-justice reinvestment effort that shifts resources from mass juvenile incarceration toward youth, families, and communities. It supports rural youth on probation and seeks to prevent youth from entering the local justice system.

The Superior Court page says Pulaski County Superior Court oversees Veterans Treatment Court and Community Navigator work. The Drug Treatment Court referral form is another strong local source. It instructs referral sources to complete all sections and says referrals will not be considered until the full referral form is received. The form routes submission to the Drug Treatment Court Coordinator at the Justice Center with phone 574-946-6558 ext. 300, fax 574-946-6741, and email vetcoordinator@pulaskicounty.in.gov. Eligibility does not guarantee admission because the DTC Team makes the final admission decision.

JDAI

A court-connected juvenile detention alternatives program tied to Pulaski Circuit Court and youth probation support.

Veterans Treatment Court

A Superior Court supervised specialty court for eligible veterans, based on the local court source.

Drug Treatment Court

A treatment-court referral process with screening, assessment, team review, and acceptance or denial by the DTC Team.

Pulaski County Appeals Path

Appeals from Pulaski County Circuit Court or Superior Court do not stay at the clerk counter. The trial court creates the local record, but appellate review moves into Indiana's appellate courts. The state map resolves the appellate court name as Court of Appeals of Indiana. The Supreme Court of Indiana and Indiana Tax Court are also appellate-level state courts. Which court receives a particular appeal depends on Indiana appellate rules and case type, but the core point for record users is simple: local trial records and appellate filings are not the same record set.

For a local case, MyCase may show trial-court entries, hearing dates, dispositions, and financial information if public. Appellate materials may appear in state appellate systems or records linked to the appeal. A certified copy of a Pulaski County trial-court order still comes from the local court or clerk maintaining that record. If a person needs an appellate mandate, brief, order, or docket entry, the request may need to go through the appellate court system instead of the Pulaski County Clerk of Courts.

The official Northern District South Bend Division page lists Pulaski County in the federal South Bend Division.

The South Bend Division screenshot supports the federal routing distinction, not a change in Pulaski County's state trial-court labels.

Pulaski County Federal Court Distinction

Pulaski County is within the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana, South Bend Division. The official South Bend Division page lists the Robert A. Grant Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse at 204 S. Main St., South Bend, IN 46601, phone 574-246-8000, and office hours Monday-Friday, 9:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. It explicitly includes Pulaski County among South Bend Division counties. Federal cases can include federal crimes, civil-rights cases, federal-question civil cases, diversity cases, habeas matters, prisoner petitions, and other matters under federal jurisdiction.

Those federal files are not Pulaski County Circuit Court or Superior Court records. Federal docket searches use PACER, federal CM/ECF links, and federal court websites. Bankruptcy is also federal. Pulaski County is in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Indiana. The bankruptcy court has South Bend, Fort Wayne, and Hammond offices, and the PACER CM/ECF lookup for INNBK lists the South Bend bankruptcy address at 401 South Michigan Street, South Bend, Indiana 46601, phone 574-968-2265, email ecf_innb@innb.uscourts.gov, and hours 9:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. Monday-Friday.

The official bankruptcy district composition page documents the Northern District bankruptcy coverage.

Bankruptcy records are federal records, so they should not be requested from the Pulaski County Circuit or Superior Court clerk counter.

The PACER portal is the federal docket access system for district and bankruptcy case searches.

PACER access is separate from Indiana MyCase, which is the public search path for many Pulaski County state trial-court records.

The PACER CM/ECF lookup for INNBK identifies the Northern District of Indiana Bankruptcy Court's electronic filing system.

The CM/ECF lookup reinforces that bankruptcy dockets are handled through the federal judiciary rather than Pulaski County trial-court records.

Pulaski County Court Contacts

The correct contact depends on the task. For a hearing date or active courtroom question, use the specific court. For official copies, current balances, certified records, and older files, use the Clerk of Courts. For criminal prosecution questions, the Prosecutor's Office is a separate office in the Justice Center. For probation supervision, the Probation Office is separate again. Keeping these roles distinct avoids delays and keeps record requests pointed at the office that can actually produce the file.