How to Search Civil Dockets
For an online case lookup, start with Kansas CaseSearch. Pick the District option first. From there you can hunt a civil matter by case number, party name, business name, or party-as-business name. Tell the form the case sits in Coffey County. Set Case Type to Civil, and you are set. File-date fields help when a common name returns too many hits. An optional date-of-birth field plus a few extra filters sit there too. Finish the human check and submit.
Before you open a Coffey County civil docket from the results, compare the caption, filing date, status, court, and case type. That way you pull the right case. When a business is a party, a company search often beats a person search. If the remote results look thin, go to the courthouse public terminal or ask the Clerk of the District Court. The local calendar, the hearing-results file, and the civil-rules page add helpful context, yet none of them stands in for the official case record itself.
- Open CaseSearch and choose District.
- Select a name, business, or case-number search.
- Apply Coffey County and Civil filters.
- Read the header and events in date order.
- Request a needed order from the district clerk.
Coffey Civil Case Number Format
A modern Coffey County civil case number can look like CF-2024-CV-000123. The CF tag marks Coffey County. CV marks the civil case type. The rest carry the filing year and the case's place in line. Treat that string as a format sample only. It names no real lawsuit. Coffey moved to the Odyssey numbering model in 2020, so older filings may carry a form with no CF prefix at all.
Type the whole number when you can. In structured searches, the dashes and leading zeros are not decoration. If the full modern form fails, double-check the filing year and try the older form that fits the record. A party or business-name search works as a solid fallback, and the courthouse terminal or the clerk can sort out a number printed on an old order, calendar, or notice that no longer matches the public format.
What a Civil Docket Shows
Open a Coffey County civil docket. The header carries the basics: case number, filing date, civil category, status, caption, judge, and court. Party roles show up as plaintiff, petitioner, defendant, or respondent. Attorney names appear when they are public. Below that, the events index lists what happened in order, and any linked documents depend on access rules and what the court has made available.
| Case number | Coffey prefix, year, CV code, and sequence. |
|---|---|
| Parties | Public party roles and counsel when shown. |
| Filings | Petition, summons, service return, answer, and later papers. |
| Motions | Request, response, hearing, and ruling as separate events. |
| Settings | Date, time, judge, location, type, and reset history. |
| Result | Judgment, dismissal, settlement entry, appeal, or satisfaction. |
Dollar amounts, costs, payments, and balances may show up, but the public portal does not promise every financial field. Read the order or judgment itself for its actual terms. A bare last-event label, with no context, may not tell you how far the court's decision really reaches.
Coffey Civil Events in Order
Read a Coffey County civil docket from the top and you can watch a case grow. It usually opens with a petition or complaint. Then come the steps that get everyone into court: a summons issued, service, a return, maybe an answer, a waiver, or an appearance. From there the docket fills with pretrial work. That means a scheduling order, discovery filings, motions, notices of setting, status conferences, mediation notices, and continuances. The tail end records what finally happened. It might be a motion ruling, trial, journal entry, judgment, costs, appeal, satisfaction, or some other post-judgment step.
Petition: the paper that starts the claim.
Service: the record that required papers were delivered by an authorized method.
Motion: a request for the court to act.
Journal entry: the written record of the court's ruling or action.
Entries in a civil docket are steps, not verdicts. A filed motion is only a request. A scheduled hearing does not prove the hearing ever took place. And a judgment date means one thing while a later satisfaction date means another. Read the Coffey County civil court docket in order. That keeps a procedural entry from being mistaken for a conclusion.
Types of Civil Cases
Coffey County District Court hears Chapter 60 civil cases. The Fourth Judicial District's own material assigns Chapter 60 civil work to Judge Eric W. Godderz. It also posts a civil rules page. Within the civil and limited-civil categories you will find contract disputes, debt claims, tort claims, property fights, and requests for other relief. Small claims sit in the district-court clerk's record structure too.
- Chapter 60 general civil actions
- Limited civil and debt-related matters
- Property and contract disputes
- Small-claims proceedings
- Family-related cases, with separate access limits
The district clerk keeps probate and family files as well. They do not travel the same path as a normal CV search, though. Feeding a family matter through a general civil filter is a mistake. A blank result there tells you nothing about whether a file exists. The Fourth Judicial District says plainly that divorce, visitation, support, and paternity details are not available through its online search route. So treat those matters as a separate lookup.
Coffey Chapter 60 Settings
For Chapter 60 matters in Coffey County, start with the Judge Godderz civil rules page. It lays out local procedure and settings. The Fourth Judicial District calendar adds judge-specific Coffey web-docket PDFs plus a limited-civil hearing-results file. Pull a judge from either spot. Pull a date, a time, a case style, or a setting type too. Just remember the limits. A results sheet is not a full register of filings.
Treat each calendar entry as a clue, nothing more. Then check it against CaseSearch and the clerk's own file. A civil rules page tells you how a judge runs the docket. It does not tell you what happened in your case. A hearing-results list can't confirm the petition, service, judgment, or a later satisfaction either. That separation between calendar, events index, and complete file is what makes a Coffey County civil docket search hold up.
Settings and Hearings on Civil Dockets
A civil setting on a Coffey County court docket should show the date, time, judge, location, case number or style, and hearing type. Those fields appear when they are public. Scheduling orders can add deadlines. They can also set future hearings. If a continuance or reset moves an event, an older calendar is no longer the court's latest word. So treat stale listings with care.
The district calendar itself warns of this. Recent changes may not be processed before a PDF is generated. When a hearing date is close, or two sources disagree, call the Clerk of the District Court at 620-364-8628. Check the current events index while you are at it. Judge Godderz's office line, 785-448-6889, covers only the questions that office takes. Case files and copies go through the clerk. The Coffey County court calendar page explains how settings appear across local judge lists.
Coffey Family Docket Boundary
Family cases look like other civil matters at first glance. Petitions, settings, orders, and party roles all appear. The access path, though, is different. Kansas Rule 22 keeps divorce, dissolution, child custody and support, parentage, adoption, and several protective categories off the public portal. The Fourth Judicial District also states this plainly. Divorce, visitation, support, and paternity information is unavailable in online search.
That line only governs remote access. It says nothing about whether a given file is fully public or fully closed. Ask the Coffey clerk whether a lawful public events index can be viewed at the courthouse terminal. Ask too whether a redacted document can be requested. A nonpublic record stays unavailable at both the portal and the terminal. A court order, statute, or case category can control access on its own. A family search that returns nothing is not an outcome and not proof of sealing.
Public Access to Civil Dockets
Rule 22 opens public electronic case records and events indices through the portal and the courthouse terminal, subject to its exclusions. Getting documents is a separate step. Poverty affidavits, trial exhibits, protected personal data, sealed pleadings, and other listed materials can be withheld online even when a public event shows that something was filed.
Key access rules:
Kansas Supreme Court Rule 22 controls electronic access and exclusions.
K.S.A. 45-220 provides the request procedure and custodian duties.
K.S.A. 45-221 addresses exemptions and separable public portions.
A KORA request can seek a specific public order. It cannot compel a sealed or nonpublic document. If a request is denied, ask for the legal basis and whether a redacted public portion can be supplied.
Coffey Civil Clerk Channels
The Clerk of the District Court keeps Coffey County civil case files. Visit the public terminal and counter at 110 S. 6th Street, Suite 102, Burlington. Hours are 8 a.m. to noon and 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. The phone is 620-364-8628. Written requests can go to P.O. Box 330, Burlington, KS 66839, by fax to 620-364-8535, or through the published clerk email.
Need a specific public pleading, order, or judgment not supplied online? Use the Kansas court KORA form. Include the case number, party names, filing date if known, and the exact item. Pick a delivery method and ask for an estimate. The clerk may seek clarification, request advance payment, or redact protected information. Rule 1.03 and KORA govern that step. Route a municipal ordinance case to the city clerk. Route a district appeal to the district clerk. Send federal civil matters to the District of Kansas and PACER. Sending a request to the right office prevents delay. It also keeps county-government records distinct from a Coffey County civil court docket.