Access Hart County Clerk Records

Hart County Clerk Offices

The court-record clerk for Hart County is the Hart County Circuit Court Clerk. The Kentucky Court of Justice lists Kayla Rountree as the Circuit Court Clerk for Hart County. That office keeps the case records for Circuit Court and District Court matters filed in the state court system. Court users who need a felony file, divorce case, civil action, traffic case, misdemeanor file, probate case file, certified court copy, or docket-related court record should begin with the Circuit Court Clerk or with the Kentucky Court of Justice public systems that feed local court access.

Hart County also has a County Clerk, and that office is not the same as the Circuit Court Clerk. The County Clerk website lists Felicia Shelton as County Clerk. That office handles marriage licenses, county records, recording services, motor vehicle work, and open-records requests for records held by the County Clerk. Some older probate-related recordings, will recordings, and land-title records may appear in County Clerk records, but the probate court case itself is filed through the court clerk system.

Hart County Court Records Custodian

The Kentucky Court of Justice says court-record requests should be made to the clerk of the court that heard the case. For Hart County trial-court records, that means the Circuit Court Clerk at the Judicial Center. The Administrative Office of the Courts does not keep the official county case files and cannot provide copies of those local records. A public case search can help identify the case, but a certified copy or file review request still depends on the local clerk and on the public status of the record.

The clerk's office may have the record at the counter, in local storage, at a State Records Center, or no longer available because of a retention rule. If a public record is stored at the State Records Center, the Circuit Court Clerk should provide the case or file locator numbers needed for that records center request. The records center cannot search by a person's name or Social Security number, so the clerk's file detail matters for older or offsite material.

• Maintain Circuit Court and District Court case files for Hart County.
• Support requests for plain copies and certified court copies when the record is public.
• Direct users to online case search, docket search, ePay, or local file review as appropriate.
• Identify offsite case or file locator numbers when public records are held at a State Records Center.

The City of Munfordville official page gives useful county-seat context for the records offices located in Munfordville.

That local context matters because both the court clerk and County Clerk records channels are centered in Munfordville, even though they serve different record systems.

Request Hart County Certified Copies

A certified court copy is a clerk-authenticated copy of a case document. It may be needed for appeal, licensing, personal records, agency review, or proof that a judgment, divorce, conviction, dismissal, or probate order exists. A plain copy is different. It may show the same filed document, but it does not carry the same clerk certification. Hart County users should confirm the copy type before paying because the research did not locate a Hart-specific court-copy fee schedule.

1. Identify the court, division, case number, party names, and document needed. Use KYeCourts public case search or docket search when the case is public and current enough to appear online.
2. Contact the Hart County Circuit Court Clerk at 270-524-5181 to confirm whether the record is public, onsite, offsite, sealed, or subject to a retention limit.
3. Ask whether the clerk needs the request in person, by mail, or by fax. Use the Judicial Center mailing address and fax only after confirming the copy fee and payment method.
4. State whether the request is for a plain copy or certified copy. Include enough detail to avoid a name-only search when an older file may need a locator number.
5. Pay the fee by the method the clerk accepts. KCOJ lists cash, cashier's check, money order, credit or debit card with a fee, local checks at the office's discretion, and ePay for eligible online court payments.

Hart County Request Details

The research did not find a separate Hart Circuit Court Clerk copy-request form with fixed fields. A useful court-copy request should still include the items the clerk needs to locate the file and identify the exact document. County Clerk open-records requests have their own written policy and form. Those County Clerk requests can be delivered by hand, U.S. mail, fax, or email, and the policy lists a five-working-day determination period, excluding weekends and legal holidays.

The Kentucky Historical Society marker for Hart County, 1819 places Hart County's county-seat history on the courthouse lawn in Munfordville.

Historical county records can have different locations and retention paths, so older court-file requests should be framed with as much case detail as possible.

Hart County Clerk Fees

Fee rules depend on which clerk holds the record. The Hart County Clerk open-records policy gives copy fees for that office, while the Circuit Court Clerk copy fee for certified court records was not found in a Hart-specific official table during research. County Clerk will-related recording fees are useful for land and probate-adjacent recordings, but they are not the same as District Court probate case filing fees.

County Clerk Record Channels

County Clerk records are accessed through the Hart County Clerk, not through the Circuit Court Clerk. The County Clerk site lists marriage licenses, county records, recording services, motor vehicle services, and its own open-records process. The open-records policy gives a mailing address of 200 Main Cross Street, P.O. Box 277, Munfordville, KY 42765, fax 270-524-0458, phone 270-524-2751, and email felicia.shelton@ky.gov. The homepage lists feliciaj.shelton@ky.gov. Because the two emails differ by source, requesters should verify the correct address by phone before sending a time-sensitive request.

The Hart County Historical Society and Museum provides local history context separate from the official court-record custodians.

Historical context can help identify old record types, but official copies still come from the office that holds the record.

The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation Hart County page also describes Hart County's local heritage and incorporated communities.

For legal proof, heritage sources should not replace a certified court copy, County Clerk recording, or official state vital record.

Common Hart Clerk Forms

Hart court-record users often need a case number first, then a clerk-directed request. County Clerk users may need the office's open-records request form or a recording document. Kentucky Court of Justice legal forms are statewide court forms and should be used when the case type requires a court filing, such as probate forms. County Clerk open-records forms should be used only for records held by that office.

• Kentucky Court of Justice request court records instructions - explains that county case-record access begins with the clerk of the court that heard the case.
• KYeCourts Public Court Records guest login - public case search for Kentucky court information when available.
• Kentucky docket search - hearing lookup by county, division, date, courtroom, and subdivision.
• Hart County Clerk open-records policy and request form - for County Clerk records, not Circuit Court case files.
• Kentucky Court of Justice legal forms - statewide court forms, including probate-related forms.

Mail Online and Offsite Requests

Online access is useful for finding public case information, hearings, and payment eligibility. It does not replace the Circuit Court Clerk when a certified copy, sealed-record determination, offsite file locator, or complete case file is needed. The KYeCourts guest search is free but protected by a CAPTCHA gate. The docket portal warns that docket information is not the official record and may change. ePay is a payment channel for eligible court fees, fines, costs, and traffic or citation obligations.

For mail or fax requests, use the Hart County Circuit Court Clerk only after confirming the correct fee, copy type, and payment method. For County Clerk records, use the County Clerk open-records channels listed in that office's policy. For appeals, use Kentucky appellate records through the public appellate portal rather than the Hart County trial-court clerk. Matching the channel to the record type prevents a court-file request from being sent to the land-record office or a marriage-license request from being sent to the court clerk.