Public Records in Jefferson County, AL
Access To Public Records
The state of Alabama, the most populous county in Jefferson County with a population of 674,721, and is located at the center of the state. The seat of the county is Birmingham City.
Public records in the state of Alabama are regarded by the Alabama Public Records Law as documents of all kinds including the written, typed, and printed kinds, it also refers to papers, letters, maps, and other documents that are received by or in the possession of any public officer irrespective of the level of public office, as long as the document is held as a requirement by law and is gotten in the course of the transacting of a public business. It includes all court records as well.
Who can Access Jefferson County Public Records and What Public Records can be Accessed?
The Alabama Public Records Law gives every citizen of the state the right to request access to public records in the state; they may make copies of such documents and take those copies for themselves. However, this seeming omnibus provision is not without exceptions; this provision does not extend to registration and circulation records from libraries of public schools, colleges, and universities. Furthermore, the following documents are not accessible by residents of Jefferson county:
- Security plans procedures, measures, assessments, and systems
- Records that will endanger the lives and safety of individuals
- Records that would tamper with the safety of facilities, and public infrastructures
- Records of critical energy infrastructure
The law further provides that when a request is made for records of critical infrastructure, the owner of such infrastructure should be informed in writing and such owner will be allowed to state the security threats that may result from the provision of such records to the public.
Other records that are exempt from public disclosure also includes:
- Banking records
- Juvenile records
- Hospital records
- Probation records
- Tax and financial statements
- Medicaid recipients
- Reports of suspected disease cases
How to Obtain Jefferson Public Records
Obtaining Jefferson public records is largely dependent on the agency or organization in charge of the record being sought after. Each agency may have its specific means of providing access to the different public records. Generally, except otherwise stated, all public records requests may be made via the Jefferson county commission portal
For this write up we shall consider how to obtain Jefferson’s court, property, criminal and vital records.
How to Obtain Jefferson Court Records?
Court records for Jefferson county Alabama may be obtained online via Alabama on-demand Access to state trial court records. The search may be conducted using a name or a case number. Records available on the site include criminal records, civil records, small claim records, state traffic records, Domestic relations records, child support records. The report contains information such as setting dates, court actions, parties’ information, case action summary, financial info, and images. To obtain this record electronically the fee for a name search and a case number search is $9.99. For images, the fee is $5.00 for the first 20 pages and $0.50 per page thereafter. For case monitoring, which would last for the lifetime of the case, the fee for district courts is $19.99 while the fee for the circuit court is $29.99.
To obtain family court records, interested persons may contact the Clerk and Register division on (205) 325-5444 for cases involving juveniles and (205) 325-5803 for cases involving only adults, otherwise, they may visit the office located at
Jefferson County Family Court
120 2nd Ct. North, Birmingham AL 35204
Probate records may be obtained from the Jefferson county official records search portal
How to obtain Jefferson property records
Interested requesters may obtain property records by utilizing the Landmark Web portal which is maintained by the Jefferson Probate court Clerk. The search may be conducted by providing a name, the document type, book and page number, the consideration given, the date range of the record, the instrument number, and the legal terms used. The document may be viewed at no cost to the requester, however where those documents will be printed, there will be a nominal cost for uncertified copies. Where these documents are not available online, they may also be obtained by visiting the record room in person or sending a mail request including information that will aid in the search such as the names of the buyers and sellers, the date of sale, and the address of the property. The fee for copies made via this manner includes a $1.00 per page fee which does not include plats, documents including plats cost $15.00 per page. To certify the documents will require another $2.00 fee.
Payment may be made with cash, credit or debit cards, cashier’s check, money order, business check, and personal check with proper identification. The request may be mailed to
Birmingham Division
Jefferson County Courthouse
Probate Court
716 North Richard Arrington Jr. Blvd.
Birmingham, AL 35203
How to Obtain Jefferson Criminal records?
Criminal records for Jefferson county may be obtained from the office of the Sheriff, they curate, store and process a request for information such as criminal records, inmate search, and Sex offenders search. To obtain a criminal record, interested persons may visit the Sheriff’s office located at
2200 Reverend Abraham Woods Jr. Boulevard
Birmingham, AL 35203
Phone: (205) 325-5700
Inmate search may be conducted by providing the name, the subject number, the booking number, the booking date, and the housing facility to obtain the results.
Sex offender information may also be obtained by visiting the portal and providing the Address, city, state, and zip code. Requesters may also make the search using the first name and the last name of the suspected sex offender
How to Obtain Jefferson Vital Records
Jefferson’s vital records which include the records of birth, death, marriages, and divorces maybe sometimes be obtained from different sources.
For divorce and marriage records they are lodged with the Alabama Center for Health Statistics. The Center for health statistics keeps records of divorces from 1950 till date while records of marriages are kept from 1939 till date, requests for earlier recorded documents may be obtained from the circuit court where the divorce was conducted and from the probate court in the county where the marriage license was issued. These documents may be obtained by downloading and completing the request form which is also available in Spanish and sending it in person to any of the following health offices in Jefferson county:
Central Health Center (Guy M. Tate)
1400 Sixth Avenue South
Birmingham, AL 35233
(205) 933-9110
Eastern Health Center
601 West Blvd Roebuck
Birmingham, AL 35206
(205) 591-5180
Western Health Center
631 Bessemer Super Hwy
Midfield, AL 35228
(205) 715-6121
Alternatively, the request may be mailed along with the relevant documents and fees to
Alabama Vital Records
P.O. Box 5625
Montgomery, AL 36103-5625
The fee for this request is $15 for the first copy and $6 for additional copies requested at the same time.
Similar procedures also apply for persons requesting a Jefferson county birth and death certificate; the Center for Health Statistics stores birth and death records from 1908 till date.
Requesters may take note that access to vital records may only be available to specified persons or may be available to everyone after a specified time. Payments made by cheeks or money orders should be issued to the “State Board of Health”