Search Pasco County Clerk Records

About the Pasco County Clerk's Office

Nichole "Nikki" Alvarez-Sowles, Esq., is the Pasco County Clerk of the Circuit Court and County Comptroller. She is the eighth person to hold the post. The Clerk is an elected official, and the role is set by the Florida Constitution, which created the Clerk and Comptroller as a public trustee. The office is unified. That means one elected Clerk runs both court and non-court work instead of splitting those jobs between a county clerk and a district clerk.

The office reaches across nearly every kind of public record the county keeps. It files and stores court cases. It records deeds, mortgages, and other official records. It issues marriage licenses, processes passports, keeps Board of County Commissioners minutes, and handles financial duties as Comptroller. The home base for court operations and mail is the Robert D. Sumner Judicial Center in Dade City.

A good first step is to confirm the office identity and its services. The Clerk lays this out on the About the Office page, which describes the constitutional trustee role and the county's two judicial centers.

That page is the cleanest summary of what the Pasco County Clerk does and where it sits in county government.

What the Pasco County Clerk Does

The Clerk wears two hats. On the court side, the office accepts filings, keeps the case file, issues process, sets up jury duty, and collects fines, court costs, and restitution. It supports felony, misdemeanor, civil, family, probate, guardianship, juvenile, mental health, small claims, and traffic cases. People also start or contest a civil case here, file a domestic violence injunction, or make child support payments through the Clerk.

On the non-court side, the office acts as county recorder and Comptroller. It records deeds and mortgages, runs official-records searches, sells tax deeds, issues marriage licenses, and processes passports. It keeps Board of County Commissioners and Value Adjustment Board records too. Court records and official records are two different systems, and they live with two different divisions.

• File and store court cases across all divisions
• Record official documents like deeds, mortgages, liens, and judgments
• Issue marriage licenses and process passport applications
• Collect court fines, fees, costs, and restitution
• Handle public-records requests as the county's records custodian

Florida law backs the recording role. Under Florida Statutes 28.222, the Clerk serves as the recorder of all instruments required or allowed to be recorded in the county.

The statute is short, but it is the legal hook for the whole official-records side of the office.

Pasco County Clerk Office Locations

The Clerk runs six offices, three in each end of the county. Court matters, records viewing, and recording each have their own building. So the right address depends on what you need. Court hearings, jury duty, fines, and traffic tickets go to the judicial centers. Recording, marriage licenses, official records, and passports go to the government centers. Older court files are pulled at the records retention facilities.

The Dade City judicial center is the office's main mailing address and the East Pasco court seat. New Port Richey covers the busier west side near the Gulf. For details on the courts that sit in these buildings, see the circuit court page.

Pasco County Clerk Department Phone Numbers

Calling the right department saves time. Each major function has its own line in Dade City and New Port Richey. The "All Inquiries" line works as a catch-all if you are not sure where to start. Court records and official records use separate numbers, which matters because those two record systems are kept apart.

The full department list lives on the Clerk's Contact Us page, which also covers felony, misdemeanor, civil, and juvenile lines.

That page is the best way to confirm a number before a visit, since lines do change from time to time.

Note: Court records and official records are two separate systems at the Clerk, so call the matching department rather than the general line for faster help.

Pasco County Clerk Records Services

Court case lookups run through the county's online court records search, while recorded documents run through the official records search. Court records cover the civil, criminal, family, probate, and traffic cases the Clerk keeps. You can look most of these up by party name or by case number. For the full case file walk-through, see the court records page.

Official records are different. These are recorded instruments such as deeds, mortgages, liens, lis pendens, and final judgments. The index runs from 1975 to the present. Images from 1990 forward are viewable online by the public, with a few exceptions. Probate and family law images, military discharges, and death certificates are held back from online view by law. Broader open-records help is on the public records page.

Both systems sit under Florida's public-access framework. Florida Statutes 119.07 sets the duty to allow inspection and copying of public records at reasonable times.

That statute is why the Clerk must let the public see and copy records the law does not protect.

Protected Pasco County Clerk Records

Not every record is open. Some personal data is automatically confidential, and some case types are sealed by statute or court order. The Clerk redacts protected fields before release. Social security numbers, bank and card account numbers, and certain victim and address details are common examples.

Florida law spells out the exemptions. Florida Statutes 119.071 lists general exemptions and automatic confidentiality for protected personal information, and the Clerk applies it before records go out the door.

If a record you expect to find is missing or blanked out, an exemption like this is often the reason.

How to Request a Certified Copy

A certified copy is a copy the Clerk stamps and signs to confirm it matches the official record. Courts, lenders, and other agencies often will not accept a plain printout. For official records, a certified copy must cover the whole document, not just one page.

1. Find the record locator. For a recorded document, that is the instrument number or the book and page. For a court file, use the case number or party name.
2. Get the Official Records Document Order Form from the Clerk's website, or call Official Records at (352) 521-4408 or (727) 847-8086 to request a copy by phone.
3. Fill in the locator, mark whether you want certification, and total the fees. Copies are $1 per page and certification is $2 per document.
4. Submit by mail with a check or money order payable to Nikki Alvarez-Sowles, Clerk and Comptroller, or pay by card with the 3.5% card fee for a phone order.
5. Pick up the copy or wait for it to arrive by mail at the return address you gave.

Mail order forms go to the Official Records Department at 38053 Live Oak Avenue, Dade City, FL 33523. Do not send cash through the mail.

Official Records Copy Request Form Fields

The Official Records Document Order Form is built for ordering plain or certified copies by mail, and it also works for older documents that are not online. Filling it in fully helps the office pull the right record the first time. Here is what the form asks for.

You can pull the current PDF from the Clerk's Official Records Copy Request Form page before you mail it in.

Pasco County Clerk Fees and Payment

Copy and search costs are set and easy to plan for. The card fee applies to debit and credit transactions processed for the Clerk. Court filing fees vary by case type and are separate from these copy charges.

The Clerk takes cash, bank check, business check, money order, in-state personal check with ID, and major cards including Visa, Mastercard, Discover, and American Express. Payments must be in U.S. currency. Checks and money orders are payable to Nikki Alvarez-Sowles, Clerk and Comptroller.

Marriage, Probate, and Traffic Services

The same office handles several record types that have their own pages. Marriage licenses are issued at the government centers, with applications taken until 4:00 p.m. Divorce files sit on the court side as family cases. Probate matters are filed in the Probate Division of the Circuit Court and kept by the Clerk. Traffic tickets, both civil infractions and criminal traffic, are paid and searched through the Clerk as well.

For weddings and divorce files, see marriage and divorce records. For estates, wills, and guardianship, see probate records. Each page covers the fees and forms for that record type in more depth.

Note: Marriage license and passport applications are accepted only until 4:00 p.m., earlier than the 5:00 p.m. close for general Clerk business.

Related Pasco County Clerk Resources

For court case files, see court records. For estates and guardianship, see probate records. For deeds, open-records requests, and recording, see public records. For the courts the Clerk serves, see the circuit court page.