Searching Idaho's iCourt Portal

The iCourt Portal is where almost every Idaho court search starts, and where many end too early. It answers "is there a case, and what happened in it?" quickly and free. It does not hand over the papers, and its gaps are easy to mistake for facts. This lesson covers how the system came to be, what it shows, how to search it well and where to go when it runs out.

From 45 systems to one

Before 2013, Idaho's courts ran 45 separate, independent case systems, according to the Supreme Court's 2019 award nomination for the iCourt project. A statewide search meant the Supreme Court's Data Repository website, which pulled register information from the counties. The courts chose Odyssey, by Tyler Technologies, through a request for proposals and rolled it out county by county. The project's overview page and the nomination document give the schedule:

Phase	Go-live date	Courts
Pilot	June 22, 2015	Twin Falls County
Early adopter	August 8, 2016	Ada County, which handled more than a quarter of the state's court filings
Wave 1	October 10, 2017	12 counties, including Canyon, Blaine, Boise, Cassia, Elmore, Owyhee and Valley
Wave 2	April 9, 2018	14 northern and western counties: Adams, Benewah, Bonner, Boundary, Clearwater, Gem, Idaho, Kootenai, Latah, Lewis, Nez Perce, Payette, Shoshone, Washington
Appellate courts	June 4, 2018	Supreme Court and Court of Appeals
Wave 3	October 9, 2018	16 eastern and southeastern counties, including Bannock, Bingham, Bonneville, Madison and Teton, "completing the statewide implementation"

The rollout left marks that researchers still trip over. Case numbers changed format when each county went live, so an older case may carry a pre-Odyssey number while newer filings in the same county use the Odyssey format explained in lesson 04. And during the rollout, counties that had not yet converted were still searched through the old Data Repository, so a statewide search meant checking both systems; the iCourt FAQ still links a presentation on the "transition from Data Repository to iCourt Portal." Some web pages and older guides still describe the Data Repository. Since Wave 3, the iCourt Portal is the statewide public search.

Mandatory electronic filing came with the rollout. Ada County attorneys had to file electronically starting October 3, 2016, and the iCourt site says today that "electronic filing is required in most situations." That matters for records: nearly every document filed since the rollout exists as an electronic image, which is why courthouse kiosks can show documents the public website does not.

What is changing now

The system is not standing still. The Supreme Court's 2026 Annual Report technology page says an Attorney of Record Portal launched in early 2025 for lawyers to see their own cases, and that in 2026 the judicial branch anticipated an Extended Access Portal for justice partners and agencies "as well as a revamped public portal," as part of a multi-year modernization. The iCourt home page says the state is "developing the next evolution of the iCourt system." Screens, labels and search options may change. The rules about what is public, in I.C.A.R. 32, do not change with the software.

The iCourt family of sites

Site	Address (as of October 2026)	Who uses it	What it does
iCourt home	icourt.idaho.gov	Everyone	Links to every tool, FAQs, extended access application
iCourt Portal	mycourts.idaho.gov, which opens the Odyssey Portal at portal-idaho.tylertech.cloud	Public, media, parties	Search cases and hearings, pay fines and fees
File and Serve	Linked from icourt.idaho.gov (Tyler's eFile system; the iCourt page also links a newer, updated File and Serve site)	Attorneys and self-represented filers	Electronic filing and service of documents
Guide and File	guideandfile.idaho.gov	People without a lawyer	Plain-language interviews that build court forms, which can be printed and filed
Extended Access Portal	ea.icourt.idaho.gov	Approved government agencies and their agents	Access to records beyond the public view, for official duties
Attorney of Record Portal	Linked from icourt.idaho.gov	Attorneys	Records in their own cases
Cases of Interest	coi.isc.idaho.gov	Public and media	Documents in a few high-demand cases, posted by the courts
Idaho Court Data	courtdata.idaho.gov	Public	Dashboards of case, charge and financial data
Court Assistance Office	courtselfhelp.idaho.gov	Self-represented people	Forms, publications and local office contacts

What the portal shows

The iCourt Portal FAQ answers the core questions directly:

• Coverage: electronic records are available for all 44 counties.
• How far back: electronic records go back to 1995, and "some information for older cases may be available."
• Freshness: the FAQ does not say how often entries are refreshed, so treat any result as a snapshot of the moment you searched.
• What the public sees: the categories that I.C.A.R. 32(d) lists for remote access: litigant and party indexes, listings of new filings including party names, the chronological case summary of events, and calendars or dockets with case numbers, captions, hearing dates, times and locations. The status of pending and closed cases is also shown.
• What is withheld: Social Security numbers, addresses, telephone numbers and personal identification numbers such as driver's license and financial account numbers.

The portal's opening page adds more, as of October 2026. It offers three tiles: Smart Search ("Search for court records"), Search Hearings ("Search for court hearings for a specified date range") and Make Payments for criminal and traffic cases. A notice says sealed cases and certain exempt information will not appear, that event entries for sealed records are being hidden from search results, and that orders to seal remain public. Another notice warns that a recent update makes a CAPTCHA check run every five minutes. The page recommends Microsoft Edge or Mozilla Firefox and suggests a desktop or laptop for payments.

Why documents are not online for the public

I.C.A.R. 32(d) says the Supreme Court "may" provide access to public records through terminals at judicial branch facilities or online "subject to the limitations of the case management system." It does not require that every public document be posted on the internet. The Supreme Court has chosen to put register information online and to offer documents at courthouse kiosks and through the clerk. So a complaint, an order or a judgment that is fully public under Rule 32 may still require a trip or a request. The Supreme Court's records page puts it plainly: for general case information, search the portal; for records from a case, use a computer kiosk at a county courthouse or submit a request to the clerk's office where the case was filed.

Who sees more

Parties and their lawyers see their own case files, and agencies with extended access see more than the public does. The FAQ explains that the Supreme Court may authorize extended access for federal, state and local officials or their agents performing official duties, under I.C.A.R. 32(c)(1) and the Supreme Court's Extended Access Order. Applying is a two-step process: register on the portal, then request greater access, with approval from both the Supreme Court and the agency's leadership. The general public and the media do not register and cannot get extended access by asking.

What the portal does not show

Not in the public portal	Why	Where it might be
Images of filed documents	Court's choice under I.C.A.R. 32(d); kiosks and clerks provide them	Courthouse kiosk; clerk's office copy request
Sealed cases and sealed documents	Sealed by written order under I.C.A.R. 32(i)	Nowhere public; the sealing order itself is public
Child protection, adoption, termination of parental rights, mental health commitment cases	Exempt under I.C.A.R. 32(g)	Not public unless a court orders release
Most juvenile delinquency cases filed since July 1, 2017	Exempt under I.C.A.R. 32(g)(9)(C) unless a court orders release	Clerk, after a motion and order
Criminal cases shielded under Idaho Code 67-3004(11)	Shielded under I.C.A.R. 32(j)(1)	Not public while the shielding order stands
Dismissed eviction cases filed on or after January 1, 2025, after three years or on stipulation	Shielded under I.C.A.R. 32(j)(2)	Parties and court staff only
Addresses, phone numbers, Social Security and ID numbers	Withheld from the portal by policy and redacted from filings under court rules	Generally nowhere public
Cases before 1995	Pre-electronic	County clerk's paper or microfilm records
Federal cases	Different court system	PACER, RECAP, the federal clerk's office
Police reports, jail records, prosecutor files not filed in court	Not court records	The agency, under the Public Records Act

How to search well

Smart Search is a single search box. Odyssey portals in general accept a person's or business's name or a case number in that box, and the results can be narrowed. Expect the on-screen hint text and filter labels to guide you; they can change as the courts update the portal, so read them each time rather than relying on memory.

Names

• Use the form "Last, First." Most court indexes store individuals as last name, first name, middle. Try the name with and without the middle name or initial.
• Try spellings. Clerks type what the charging officer or the filer wrote. Hyphenated names, Mc and Mac, apostrophes, Jr. and Sr., and names with spaces get entered several ways. Search each plausible version.
• Businesses: search the core name without "Inc." or "LLC," then check the exact party name in each result. A business may be sued under an old name, a trade name or a misspelling.
• Government bodies appear under many names: "Ada County," "Ada County Board of Commissioners," "County of Ada." Try several.
• Common names will return dozens of people. Do not pick one by guesswork. Lesson 10 covers how to confirm identity with more than a name.

Case numbers

A case number search is exact and avoids same-name confusion. Idaho Odyssey case numbers follow a pattern such as CR01-24-31665: case type letters, a two-digit county code, a two-digit year and a sequence number. Lesson 04 decodes each part. Type the number exactly, with hyphens. If a case was transferred to another county, it gets a new number; the Supreme Court's Cases of Interest site, for example, shows a Canyon County case number with the note "Formerly CR38-25-1295," a Payette County number.

Hearings

Search Hearings lets you pick a date range and see scheduled hearings, which is the closest thing Idaho has to a public online court calendar. Use it to find arraignments, sentencings, motion hearings and trials before they happen. Hearing calendars are public under I.C.A.R. 32(d)(4), which lists "calendars or dockets of court proceedings, including case numbers and captions, date and time of hearings, and location of hearings." Schedules change often; check the morning of the hearing, and call the clerk if the hearing matters.

Reading the results

Each result shows a case number, a case style (the parties' names), a filing date, a court location, a case type and a status. Open the case to see its detail page, which typically includes case information, the parties and their attorneys, charges in a criminal case, the list of events and hearings with outcomes, and dispositions. Lesson 04 walks through every field.

Cases of Interest

When a case draws heavy public demand, the Supreme Court may post its documents on the Idaho Cases of Interest site so clerks are not answering the same request hundreds of times. As of October 2026 the site listed three Supreme Court cases (by docket numbers such as 54406-2026, Idahoans United v. McGrane/Labrador, a 2026 case naming the Secretary of State and the Attorney General) and three trial court cases with their case numbers and counties. Posted documents are the same public records the clerk would provide, free. The site also links to livestreams of Supreme Court hearings.

Party verification and background checks

The portal is not a criminal background check. It shows court cases, not arrests that never became cases, and not convictions from other states. Idaho State Police keeps the state's criminal history repository, a separate system covered in lesson 05. The Supreme Court's records page sends people who need party verification for background checks to a separate request site, idcourts.service-now.com/public. Background reports used for decisions about employment or housing can also fall under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act; lesson 10 covers those rules and the errors that follow from careless matching.

Help for people in their own cases

The Court Assistance Office in each judicial district provides forms, document review and legal information for people representing themselves; staff cannot give legal advice or represent anyone. Its website, courtselfhelp.idaho.gov, lists forms by subject (divorce, custody, small claims, name change, protection orders, housing and more) and local office contacts. Guide and File asks plain-language questions and generates the forms. Those tools are built for filing. They still show researchers what a standard form looks like, which makes it easier to read one in a case file.