How to Search Criminal Dockets
ARCourts is the free public gateway. Use Search ARCourts to reach the records. Marion County criminal docket entries live in the state's Contexte system. Enter the defendant's exact name, or a case number you already have. From there, filter by Marion County, the right court, and criminal case type. A statewide name match alone proves nothing. Before trusting a hit, confirm the court, case number, judge, status, charges, and dated entries.
The online record is free but not certified. A linked filing may not open. In that case, call the Marion County Circuit Clerk at 870-449-6226 for a felony file. Misdemeanor and preliminary felony questions go to the District Court clerk handling that case. You can also inspect a public Circuit Court file at 300 E. Old Main St. Ask about a mailed copy at P.O. Box 385, Yellville, AR 72687. Call ahead for the copy charge and the accepted payment method.
- Identify whether the matter is in Circuit Court or a District Court department.
- Search by exact participant name or case number in Search ARCourts.
- Filter to Marion County and confirm the court and case type.
- Read charges, dated filings, future events, and each charge-level disposition.
- Ask the filing clerk for the public file or a certified disposition when needed.
Marion County Criminal Docket Search Fields
The official portal shows where a Marion County criminal docket search starts. Participant fields accept a person's name. An organization or case-description field covers caption terms, and case-number searching works as well. Advanced filters let you narrow the court. Required fields carry no marking in the official material. Enter as much verified detail as you can. The Search ARCourts public interface lays out these search options.
This is the public case-information channel. It is not Arkansas Judiciary eFlex, the portal attorneys and parties use to submit filings.
| Search input | Use | Best check |
|---|---|---|
| First, middle, last name | Find a participant | Verify spelling and court |
| Organization or case description | Find caption terms | Compare case type |
| Case number | Direct retrieval | Copy it exactly |
| County and court filters | Narrow statewide results | Select Marion and the correct level |
What a Criminal Docket Shows
A Marion County criminal docket is a timeline, not the whole court file. The header holds the basics. Case number, court, judge, status, case type, and filing data all appear there. Participant roles separate the State from the defendant. Charges may carry an offense description, a code reference, a classification, and a disposition where the clerk filled in those fields.
Later entries can show counsel appearances, motions, orders, pleas, hearings, trial events, sentencing, or an appeal. Future events signal upcoming settings. Linked images appear for only some eligible public documents. No current Marion County case-number mask is published. Copy the identifier exactly as printed instead of repairing its punctuation.
| Case number | The unique identifier, copied exactly, such as the number shown on the filed notice. |
|---|---|
| Charge | The alleged offense and any code or class entered by the court. |
| Filings | Dated items accepted into the court chronology. |
| Future events | Upcoming settings, with details that vary by court entry. |
| Disposition | The recorded result of each charge or the case. |
Marion County Criminal Docket Courts
Felonies land in Marion County Circuit Court after filing or bind-over. District Court takes misdemeanors, preliminary felony matters, traffic, and ordinance cases. That split can leave two useful chronologies. An arrest, complaint, appearance, or bind-over may sit at the district level first. The felony information, plea, trial, or sentence then shows up in the Circuit Court file. The Arkansas circuit-judge directory lists the judges serving the county. It identifies four Fourteenth Judicial Circuit divisions. All serve Marion County.
The judges' chambers sit across the regional circuit. Even so, the Marion County criminal file stays with the Marion County Circuit Clerk.
Stages on a Criminal Docket
Event order gives a Marion County criminal docket its meaning. A district preliminary stage may come first. The Circuit Court case then opens with an information, indictment, or another charging entry. Arraignment records the formal answer to the charges. Pretrial entries cover motions, orders, discovery activity, continuances, and settings. None of them alone settles the outcome.
Cases end by plea, trial, dismissal, or another disposition. Read each charge's result, because counts in one case can finish differently. Sentencing follows a guilty plea or conviction. A notice of appeal links the trial chronology to the appellate docket.
Docket flow: District preliminary event › Circuit filing › Arraignment › Pretrial › Plea or trial › Disposition › Sentencing or appeal
Note: A filed charge is only an allegation. The later disposition records how that charge actually ended.
Marion County Criminal Docket Terms
Marion County publishes no abbreviation sheet for its criminal docket. Read the full live wording instead. Never import codes from another state. These common terms help separate an allegation, a procedural event, and a final result.
- Dismissed
- The charge ended without a conviction as entered.
- Nolle prosequi
- The prosecution declines or ends the charge, subject to Arkansas law.
- Transferred or bound over
- The matter moves to another court, often from a preliminary district stage.
- Failure to appear
- A required setting was missed and added court process may follow.
- Bond forfeiture
- A bond consequence, not a ruling on whether the charge was proved.
Which Court Holds Criminal Dockets
The Marion County Circuit Clerk keeps filed felony cases. Those sit in the criminal division of the Fourteenth Judicial Circuit. District Judge Jodi Carney serves the Bull Shoals, Flippin, and Yellville departments. The state directory splits Yellville's county docket from its city docket. A rural Marion matter and a Yellville ordinance case do not share a clerk.
Pick the right clerk by the issuing paper, the case header, and the court filter. The Yellville county docket answers at 870-449-6030. Bull Shoals is 870-445-4775. Flippin is 870-453-8300. Yellville city is 870-449-6581. A chambers address in a judicial directory does not fix where a hearing occurs. Confirm future events with the filing court.
| Court layer | Criminal work | Record custodian |
|---|---|---|
| Marion Circuit Court | Filed felonies | Marion County Circuit Clerk |
| County District docket | Rural misdemeanors and felony preliminaries | Yellville county-docket clerk |
| City departments | City misdemeanors and ordinance matters | Bull Shoals, Flippin, or Yellville city clerk |
Marion County Criminal Docket Drug Court
Arkansas specialty courts run on regular judicial review, treatment, supervision, and team decisions. Adult Drug Court is voluntary. Entry typically requires an adult criminal charge and a clinical substance-use need. A high-risk and high-need assessment is also required, along with prosecutor review. Other assessments and team approval factor in as well. Certain serious violent and sex-offense histories are disqualified under the published criteria. The Arkansas Judiciary Adult Drug Court material lays out the statewide program model. Local drug courts follow that model.
No Marion County specialty docket exists under its own name. The underlying criminal case keeps its regular case number, while treatment and team information can stay confidential.
Marion County Criminal Docket Certified Records
Search ARCourts is informational only. It shows a docket chronology and some public filings. It is not an official-use copy. For proof of a disposition, request a certified copy from Dawn Moffet's Marion County Circuit Clerk office. The clerk's county page lists 300 E. Old Main St., Yellville, with office hours of Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Call 870-449-6226 before you visit or mail a request. Marion County publishes no fee schedule for criminal copies or certification, no copy-request form, and no archive cutoff. Include the case number, court, and party name. Add the document or disposition sought, the entry date if known, the number of copies, your delivery method, and whether you need certification. A transcript is a different thing. It sits outside the clerk's file and must be requested through the court or reporting office that serves the judge and hearing date.
Marion County Criminal Docket Appeals
A trial docket may list a notice of appeal and record preparation. The appellate case itself moves to a different court. State criminal appeals go to the Arkansas Court of Appeals. Others go to the Arkansas Supreme Court, depending on jurisdiction. Federal cases never appear in Search ARCourts. Marion County sits inside the federal Western District of Arkansas. Federal appeals from that district go to the Eighth Circuit. The official Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals site covers the court's opinions, calendars, and filing information. That material serves those federal appeals.
That federal route fits federal appeals only. A Marion County state case starts with the originating docket and its notice-of-appeal entries.
Marion County Criminal Docket Technology
Search ARCourts arrived quietly. It soft-launched on January 10, 2024. The AOC announced it on January 19 as the modern replacement for Public CourtConnect. Older search instructions can look wrong as a result. They may describe the legacy service and its documented limits instead. Marion County feeds its court data into the statewide system. It runs no separate county criminal portal. Contexte remains the case-management backbone. The Marion County Circuit Clerk remains the source for a certified criminal record.
Public Access and Sealed Criminal Dockets
Public access to Arkansas court records runs through Arkansas Supreme Court Administrative Order 19. That order bars defined confidential information from internet access. Administrative Order 19.1 covers confidential information and redacted filings. Juvenile matters, sealed records, and protected identifiers may be limited. A blank result can simply mean bad spelling or the wrong court level. Portal participation or file age can cause it too. Arkansas's Comprehensive Criminal Record Sealing Act, Ark. Code §16-90-1401 et seq., sets the legal process for sealing eligible criminal records. Sealing is not an informal deletion request. Verify the case number and court, then ask the proper clerk about lawful access. Never ask staff to disclose restricted material without authority.
Key rules: Administrative Orders 19 and 19.1 govern court-record access and confidential data. The Arkansas General Assembly publishes the statutes for juvenile confidentiality and criminal record sealing.
Missing Marion County Criminal Docket Entries
Check the newest filings and future events first. A missing entry is often just not posted yet. If a felony chronology starts at the preliminary stage, search both District and Circuit Court. When a document is not linked, call the clerk. Do not assume it never existed. For an older file, ask whether it is paper, archived, public at the counter, or restricted. Contexte posts overnight and weekend maintenance windows. No Marion County refresh interval is published, so confirm time-sensitive settings by phone. The AOC takes technical Search ARCourts questions at 501-410-1900 option 1 or 866-823-5778. Questions about a specific Marion County criminal docket belong with the court that filed it.
Best fallback: Match the case number and court, call the filing clerk, then request the exact public entry or certified disposition.