Consulting a court record

Generally, court records in civil, criminal and penal matters are public. No authorization is required to consult a court record. However, in some cases, you may be denied access if the record is confidential or classified as restricted.

Court ledgers are computerized public registers.

The court ledgers of the Ministère de la Justice can be accessed from any courthouse in Québec .

They provide access to the historical court records of individuals and companies in civil, criminal and penal matters of all Québec courts (except municipal court records).

The ledgers contain a wealth of information on cases, for example:

• file numbers;
• names;
• contact information;
• dates;
• decisions;
• etc.

With the information in the ledgers, you can:

• check the status of a case;
• check whether a company or individual is the subject of a lawsuit or dispute.

The criminal court ledger of the Ministère de la Justice provides certain information about a person’s court record.

It only contains information on offences committed in Québec.

It does not contain information about:

• persons who have obtained a suspension of their record (pardon);
• persons who have been granted a request to make certain information in the ledger inaccessible, usually due to:
  • acquittal,
  • dismissal, withdrawal or cancellation of charges,
  • a stay of proceedings,
  • release at the time of the preliminary inquiry,
  • unconditional or conditional discharge,
  • recognizance to keep the peace;
• municipal court convictions.

In some cases, you may request that information in your file be made inaccessible to the public. To do so, complete the form Application for no-disclosure of information contained in computerized records in criminal matters (SJ-788A) (PDF 82 Kb).

Some people, for example a potential employer, may ask you to provide proof that you do not have a criminal record. To do this, contact a police department for a criminal record check (police certificate) . Extracting or printing information from the criminal court ledger does not provide certainty or confirmation that a person does not have a criminal record. 

Information on municipal court cases cannot be consulted from courthouses in Québec. To access municipal court ledgers, you must contact the municipal court.

Free consultations:

• Self-serve access is provided at consultation workstations in all Québec courthouses;
• Information desks at courthouse offices can provide some information and official copies of documents (fees may apply);
• The Community Justice Centers  offer a court ledger access and interpretation service;
• Court archives are kept by the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ) .

Fees apply for the following:

• Use of the online court ledgers  of the Société québécoise d'information juridique;
• Use of a legal professional to do a search and interpret the results.