How to Search Criminal Dockets
Every Craven County criminal docket search starts at the North Carolina eCourts Portal. Smart Search lets you look up eligible public cases. You can search by party name or full file number. The result opens the Case Summary, which some courts call the Register of Actions. Read the case assignment and status first, before the individual events. That one step tells a pending hearing apart from an older filing. It also separates those from a process entry. If you have any court paper, copy the whole Enterprise Justice number. The format runs two-digit year, then a letter for the case type. Six digits in sequence follow, then a three-digit county identifier, like 21CR000003-910 in the Judicial Branch example. No number handy? A party-name search works too. Apply the Craven location filter when results sprawl. Then confirm the court level before trusting a calendar or calling a division.
- Open Portal and choose Smart Search.
- Enter the full file number or a party name, then narrow the result to Craven when needed.
- Open the matching public Case Summary and check Case Information, Assignment Information, and the latest Case Events.
- Use Search Hearings for a current time and location, then compare that result with the appropriate criminal calendar.
- Ask the Craven County Clerk of Superior Court for a copy, certification, or clarification when the public result is incomplete.
Craven Criminal Docket Search Fields
Portal is the public reading channel, while North Carolina eCourts File & Serve is the filing channel for parties and attorneys. Public searching does not require registration. Registration is useful for saved cases, but it does not open sealed files or provide a reason to use the filing system merely to read a public Craven County criminal docket.
The Judicial Branch announced Craven's eCourts go-live in the coastal rollout.
The February 3, 2025 conversion made Portal, Enterprise Justice, and File & Serve part of the county's everyday court-record workflow. Portal shows public case information. It is not the certified official record.
What a Criminal Docket Shows
Online, a Craven County criminal docket usually shows up as a Case Summary or Register of Actions. It is not a scanned docket book. Sections vary. Case Information, Assignment Information, Party Information, Case Events, Hearings, Dispositions, Financial Information, and public documents may all appear. Portal shows only sections with data on file. So a missing financial section does not mean the case has no financial history.
| File Number | The four-part Enterprise Justice identifier, such as 21CR000003-910, used to keep the Craven criminal docket tied to the correct county file. |
|---|---|
| Assignment | Available Case Information and Assignment Information identify the criminal case type and court assignment. |
| Case Events | The dated register can record docketable process and other actions. Read events in order and compare them with newer hearings. |
| Hearings | Current hearing information may be available in the Case Summary and through Search Hearings. |
| Disposition | The Dispositions section, when available, records an outcome or status. A hearing or a process event is not itself a disposition. |
Craven Criminal Docket Events Explained
Portal's own examples make the event list especially useful in a criminal case. Expect a warrant, order for arrest, or criminal summons to appear with a process label. The label may be issued, returned served, unserved, reset to unserved, or recalled. Those words only record process status. They do not reveal whether the criminal case ended. Nor do they show whether a hearing is still open or what the court finally decided.
- Arraignment
- A criminal proceeding where a charge is formally addressed and a plea may be entered.
- Pretrial
- A hearing before trial that can address readiness, motions, or resolution discussions.
- Continuance
- A scheduled proceeding moved to another time. It is a scheduling change, not a final result.
- Recalled
- An earlier order or process has been withdrawn. Check the newest event and hearing for the current posture.
Craven publishes no local key covering every short criminal code. When Portal shows an event label you can't parse, keep the full file number. Then ask the right clerk division what public record or current setting it identifies.
Craven Criminal Docket Timestamp Quirk
Craven joined eCourts on February 3, 2025. Portal moved older events into the Enterprise Justice system. The official FAQ warns that events from before the local go-live can show a time of 12:00 AM. That time is a conversion artifact. Midnight is not proof of anything. Check the event name against the newest Hearing section, the most recent calendar, and any court notice. For a date that is close, use Search Hearings instead of trusting the converted timestamp alone. The clerk division can confirm it too. This is a technology quirk, not a special criminal-case status.
Stages on a Criminal Docket
A criminal Case Summary is a sequence of filings, process, settings, and outcomes. It is not one fixed path. A charge may lead into service events. Then come an arraignment, pretrial setting, plea, trial, disposition, and sentencing where they apply. Give the newest hearing and Case Event more weight than an earlier notice. A continuance moves a scheduled event. It decides nothing.
Docket flow: Filing → Arraignment → Pretrial → Plea or Trial → Disposition → Sentencing
Craven Criminal Docket Calendar Check
Use Craven's official Criminal Calendars after Portal Search Hearings identifies a current setting. The calendar interface selects County and Calendar Type, then provides dated PDF lists. Criminal results distinguish District Court and Superior Court documents. That separation is important because the calendar is a published call list, while Search Hearings connects a current hearing to a particular Craven County criminal docket.
The official Craven criminal calendar results separate the two criminal court levels.
Search Hearings gives location and time but stays silent on whether the appearance is virtual or in person. Follow any separate court link or instruction. For a close or conflicting date, confirm with the court.
Which Court Holds Criminal Dockets
One office holds every Craven County criminal file. The Clerk of Superior Court keeps the records for both trial divisions, so the felony and misdemeanor court dockets sit under a single roof. Superior Court handles the felony trials. District Court takes the criminal matters below felony grade, which includes traffic infractions and municipal ordinance violations. Separate phone numbers exist for each clerk division, but there is no second elected records office behind them.
Knowing the division tells you where to search next. Some District Court matters begin with the magistrate. Felonies travel the Superior Court criminal stream. And if a case is appealed, remember that a trial-level Case Summary is not the same thing as a North Carolina Court of Appeals docket.
Craven Criminal Docket Court Split
Statutes draw the line between the two courts. Under G.S. 7A-272, criminal actions below felony grade, municipal ordinance violations included, land in District Court. Felony trials sit with Superior Court under G.S. 7A-271. Start any Craven County criminal docket search in Portal either way. Then let the court assignment guide your calendar check or phone call to the clerk.
The District Court jurisdiction statute spells out the lower-grade criminal route in full.
The District Court rule routes traffic tickets and ordinance cases to the right calendar. It does not split the clerk's custody of Craven criminal records, which stays unified. The Superior Court jurisdiction statute supplies the felony side of the split.
A Superior Court assignment is your best clue for finding a felony calendar or the right clerk division.
Craven Criminal Docket Records Counter
Sometimes the Portal Case Summary leaves you short. A missing document or a murky older entry points to the clerk. So does a need for a certified copy. The courthouse sits at 302 Broad Street. The county file and a public self-service terminal live there. Phone routing is easy too. Call Criminal District at 252-639-3009 or Criminal Superior at 252-639-3006. Mail also works: send the Clerk of Superior Court, PO Box 1187, New Bern, NC 28563, the file number, the parties, the document you want, and whether you need certification. The Craven court contact directory lists clerk and magistrate contact routes.
Magistrate matters in New Bern and Havelock are part of the same state-court structure. No separate municipal criminal-docket portal exists for them. For an official file, the clerk counter or terminal is the right fallback.
Craven Criminal Docket Certified Copies
A Portal Case Summary helps with public docket research. It is not a certified record, though. The Craven clerk can copy or certify from the actual case file. The statewide fee chart sets $2 for the first copied page of each document. Each additional page or fraction costs 25 cents. A certificate under seal adds $3. Ask the cashier to confirm the total before you pay.
A certified county criminal-record search works differently from a copy of one known file. The official AOC-CR-314 form requests a county-only search, and the chart lists a $25 fee. It does not replace Smart Search, a current docket, or a case-specific clerk request.
Public Access and Sealed Criminal Dockets
Most public Craven County criminal docket information can be read in Portal or inspected through the clerk during regular office hours. One caution applies. Portal is not the official court record. The clerk is the county case-file custodian, the office to see for a copy, a certification, the paper file, or terminal inspection. Craven County's public-records page sends court-related requests to the Clerk of Court. It skips the county public-information route. The statewide NCAOC public-record process covers administrative records only. That makes it the wrong first stop for a Craven case file, since the county clerk holds and can certify the case document.
Key Rules:
G.S. 7A-109 requires clerks to maintain records, files, dockets, and indexes, and generally opens them to inspection unless access is prohibited.
G.S. 7B-300 makes juvenile records confidential except to people and agencies the statute authorizes.
G.S. 15A-145.5 is an expunction route; a granted order removes the record from ordinary court and Portal availability.
Craven Criminal Docket Portal Limits
Sealed or confidential cases stay invisible to ordinary Portal users. The same goes for their data and documents. Official Portal guidance names juvenile records, unreturned warrants, and some protective-order material as restricted examples. A blank search result can stem from a spelling slip, a wrong file number, an older conversion, a different court assignment, an expunction, or a lawful restriction. It never proves the record did not exist. North Carolina's expunction statute is one source that draws this access boundary.
Start by rechecking the full case number and the Smart Search spelling. If a public access question still hangs open, ask the Craven County Clerk of Superior Court for the authorized route. Do not try to infer restricted information from an empty result.