Lee County Court Docket Basics
A docket is the running index of events in a court case. Alabama's public trial-court report calls the detailed version a case action summary. An entry may reflect a complaint, indictment, motion, service return, setting, continuance, order, judgment, plea, sentence, payment, or other court act. The date shows when the event was entered or occurred. The description identifies the event, but it may not reproduce the full text of the filed paper.
Lee County docket content depends on venue and case type. Circuit Court dockets cover felony, larger civil, domestic relations, protection-from-abuse, and lower-court appeal matters. District Court dockets include small claims, district civil, unlawful detainers, misdemeanors, preliminary criminal work, and county or state traffic. Auburn and Opelika Municipal Courts keep city traffic, ordinance, municipal misdemeanor, probation, bond, and bench-warrant records. Probate matters are separate.
- Case action summary
- The chronological list of docket events in a case.
- Setting
- A scheduled hearing, appearance, or trial date.
- Continuance
- A postponement of a scheduled court event.
- Disposition
- The current or final outcome of a case or charge.
Search Lee County Court Dockets
AlaCourt Access, also known as Just One Look, is the main paid online route for Circuit and District Court docket information. It offers a name search and a case-number search. A case-detail report lists basic case information, court action, status, setting dates, party data, financial history, and a detailed case action summary. A name or case-number search costs $9.99, and a no-match result still counts as a completed search.
Use a name search when the case identifier is unknown. Use the complete case number from a ticket, pleading, petition, indictment, or clerk notice whenever possible. Before paying, confirm that the case is not municipal, probate, sheriff, or federal. Those records have different keepers. Circuit Clerk Mary B. Roberson at the T.K. Davis Justice Center is the fallback for old, missing, paper-only, or certified docket material.
- Identify whether Circuit Court, District Court, or a city court heard the case.
- Open AlaCourt Access for a Lee County state trial-court matter.
- Choose a name or case-number search and complete the paid path.
- Open the detailed case action summary and review each setting and court act in date order.
- Contact the clerk when an entry refers to a document that the report does not provide.
Note: A future setting is subject to court change, so verify the date with the court before traveling to a hearing.
Lee County Docket Entry Fields
The research did not expose a single rendered sample entry with a fixed field layout. The official AlaCourt description does identify the report inventory. Read that inventory as a set of record areas, not as a promise that every field appears in every case. For example, financial history may be significant in a fine, restitution, support, or judgment matter but sparse in another case.
| Field | What It Shows |
|---|---|
| Case number | The court identifier used to connect all docket acts to one matter. |
| Court and category | The venue, division, and broad kind of case. |
| Case status | A pending, disposed, closed, or other status supplied by the report. |
| Setting date | A scheduled hearing, appearance, or trial. |
| Court action | A filing, ruling, event, or other chronological docket act. |
| Party information | People or entities tied to the case. |
| Financial history | Costs, fees, fines, restitution, payments, or balances when available. |
| Document image | A separately priced image or attachment when the system offers one. |
The case action summary is the best area for sequence. It shows the flow of docket acts, but an entry label alone may not explain the judge's full reasoning. Purchase the document image when offered or request the underlying item from the clerk. The Lee County copy form specifically lists case action summaries, dated orders, last signed orders, judgments, indictments, and warrant copies.
Lee County Docket Venues
One Lee County name can be connected to more than one venue. Circuit and District Court use the same Circuit Clerk as the public-facing clerk, but the jurisdiction and division still matter. Municipal matters should not be assumed to appear completely in AlaCourt. Probate records use the Probate Judge, while custody and recent-arrest records under Sheriff Jay Jones use the Sheriff's Office. This venue check is the most useful way to avoid a no-match search in the wrong system.
- Lee County Circuit Court: felony, larger civil, domestic relations, protection matters, and lower-court appeals.
- Lee County District Court: small claims, district civil, evictions, misdemeanors, preliminary criminal matters, and county or state traffic.
- Auburn Municipal Court: Auburn traffic, ordinance, municipal misdemeanor, bonds, probation, and referral matters.
- Opelika Municipal Court: Opelika tickets, municipal warrants, probation, records requests, and city payments.
- Lee County Probate Court: estates, wills, guardianships, conservatorships, adoptions, commitments, and name changes.
The Circuit Clerk's official directory lists direct staff for circuit criminal, district criminal, traffic, e-warrants, expungements, juvenile, civil, divorce, support, and evictions. The official Circuit Judges page identifies Presiding Judge Christopher J. Hughes in Suite 214, Judge Michael C. Fellows in Suite 138, and Judge Jeffrey Gerald Tickal in Suite 207 at the Justice Center. Judge contacts can help route hearing questions, but record-copy requests still belong with the clerk.
Small-claims docket entries can reflect service, a hearing, judgment, and an appeal into Circuit Court. Lee County limits that division to disputes of $6,000 or less. District civil dockets can include complaints, answers, motions, orders, service returns, executions, garnishments, and subpoenas. An unlawful-detainer docket begins with an eviction filing and can track possession and money-damage claims in the same action. Domestic relations dockets can include a divorce complaint, decree, agreement, modification, enforcement, contempt, child-support act, income withholding order, or protection-from-abuse filing. The docket label tells what occurred, while the underlying document supplies its terms.
Lee Docket Versus Case File
A docket is an index and timeline. The full case record contains the papers behind that timeline, including complaints, answers, motions, orders, judgments, warrants, indictments, agreements, pay histories, and other filed items when applicable. AlaCourt sells a case-detail report and separate document images. The Circuit Clerk can search or copy specifically named items and can certify a copy when an official version is required.
| Docket | Full Case Record | |
|---|---|---|
| Format | List of entries | Full documents |
| Contents | Dates, event labels, settings, status | Filed papers, signed orders, evidence or attachments when public |
| Access | Paid AlaCourt report or clerk copy | Paid images, mail request, or in-person clerk access |
| Use | Track sequence and current posture | Read the exact language and obtain certified proof |
The Circuit Clerk's request form charges $25 for the first 20 pages, $0.50 per added page, and $5 for each certification. Paper, closed-case, archived, register, and history searches cost $25. The search fee applies even if the search finds no information. The office asks for at least seven working days and accepts no credit cards or personal checks for this form.
Copies can be delivered or mailed to the Circuit Clerk at 2311 Gateway Drive, Suite 104, Opelika, Alabama 36801. The form asks for contact details, criminal or civil classification, defendant name, charge, case number, date of birth, requested item, and certification choice. Supplying the case number and a specific order date can narrow a docket-based request.
A reader who needs the wider record inventory can use the Lee County court records overview. Docket tracking and document retrieval are related tasks, but they are not the same purchase or request.
Read Lee County Court Dockets
Start with the case number, court, division, parties, and status. Then read the case action summary from the oldest entry to the newest. A complaint begins many civil matters. An indictment is a formal felony charge returned by a grand jury. A motion asks the judge for an order. An order is the judge's written direction. A judgment is the court's enforceable civil ruling. In criminal cases, a plea is the defendant's formal response and a sentence is the punishment imposed after a conviction or plea.
Do not read a charge as a conviction. Each count can have its own disposition, and a case can contain dismissed, amended, pending, and resolved charges at once. A continuance moves an event to a later date. A setting shows a scheduled court appearance but does not prove it occurred. Financial entries can reflect costs, fines, restitution, alimony, judgments, or other pay histories depending on the case.
Free secondary legal research can help locate opinions or public docket context, but it does not replace the originating court. The manifest assigns an image from CourtListener to this Lee County docket page.
Use that resource as a research aid only. Confirm Lee County trial-court settings and documents with AlaCourt or the Circuit Clerk.
Schedule warning: Verify a court date directly before appearing because a continuance, new order, or late docket entry can change the schedule.