Are Australian court records public?
Generally, yes — with important exceptions. Most criminal proceedings in Australia are open to the public, and court lists and judgments are published online by the courts themselves. However, the systems are fragmented across eight states and territories, each with its own court hierarchy and online portal.
What you can typically find
- Criminal convictions — guilty verdicts in District and Supreme Courts are often published in law databases and news archives.
- Court listings — daily lists of who is appearing in which court, for what matter, are published publicly in most jurisdictions.
- Apprehended Violence Orders (AVOs) — final orders are public record in NSW. Other states have equivalent orders (DVOs, IPOs, FVOs) with varying publication rules.
- Bankruptcy and insolvency — the Australian Financial Security Authority (AFSA) maintains a searchable register of bankruptcies, debt agreements, and personal insolvency agreements.
What you cannot easily find
- Charges that were dropped or dismissed — these generally do not appear in public records.
- Spent convictions — each state has spent convictions legislation. After a qualifying period, minor offences are "spent" and cannot be disclosed.
- Juvenile records — proceedings involving people under 18 are almost always closed and suppressed.
- Interim orders — temporary protection orders are not always publicly listed.
Why it's hard to search manually
Australia has no single, national court record search portal. The NSW Supreme Court, District Court, and Local Court all have separate systems. Victoria's CourtConnect is separate again. Queensland, SA, WA, Tasmania, the ACT, and the NT each have their own portals — and not all of them are keyword-searchable by name.
This fragmentation means a thorough manual search takes significant time and technical knowledge to navigate.
Using a background check service
Services like Vett aggregate public court data, news archives, and insolvency registers into a single search. This doesn't replace a formal police check — but it's faster and more accessible for everyday use, and it surfaces information that a social media search alone will never find.
A note on privacy
Searching public court records for legitimate safety purposes is lawful. Using that information to harass, stalk, or discriminate against someone is not. Always use public record information responsibly.