Franklin County Civil Docket Searches
Two tools cover most Superior civil work in Franklin County. One is the Odyssey Portal. The other is the statewide Superior Court search. Pick Franklin County, then pull up a case by number or party name. Type names in Last, First Middle format for Odyssey. It also filters by county, location, date, category, status, and judicial officer. Broad searches stop at 200 results, so narrow the terms. For District civil and small-claim matters, use the District/Municipal tab. It sits inside Washington Courts Search Case Records. That form needs a court, a case type, and a range of filing years. Search the exact court named on your notice. A Pasco address does not automatically mean Superior Court.
- Identify the court from the complaint, notice, or case number.
- Choose Superior or District/Municipal in the state search.
- Select Franklin County and the correct civil, domestic, probate, or small-claim category.
- Open the matching case and compare its filing date, parties, status, and hearings.
- Confirm a setting and request documents from the court’s own custodian.
Franklin Odyssey Civil Case Search
For Superior matters open to the public, Odyssey Smart Search shows case information, party entries, events, hearings, dispositions, and the Register of Actions. Search Hearings adds filters for courtroom, hearing type, date range, attorney, or judicial officer. One caution: a document label on the docket does not guarantee the image will open. The clerk still controls restricted documents. Certain case categories stay closed too. The official Odyssey landing page lays out the separate Smart Search and hearing-search routes.
Treat the case view as your activity tracker. When the paper itself matters, get the certified order or full file straight from the Franklin County Clerk.
Civil Dockets: What They Show
A Franklin County civil docket is a timeline, not a story. Each entry marks one step. It might be a complaint filed, a motion entered, a hearing placed on the calendar, or a disposition event recorded. What it will not do is lay out the allegations behind the case. For that, you need the signed order itself. The docket never replaces it.
| Case Information | Case number, filing date, civil category, location, status, and assigned officer when available. |
|---|---|
| Parties | Public party or business names and roles, subject to privacy rules. |
| Events | Filed motions, notices, orders, and other entries in date order. |
| Hearings | Scheduled date, hearing type, courtroom, and judicial officer when posted. |
| Disposition | Recorded outcome events that should be checked against the signed ruling. |
Expect thinner records in some civil dockets. Family matters, protection orders, guardianships, and sealed files often show less online than other cases do. That blank does not mean the case is gone. Ask the Franklin County clerk which portion is public and can be released instead.
Franklin Civil Calendar Categories
The county's current docket hub splits its civil calendars into ten groups, among them civil under ten, civil over ten and summary judgment, protection orders, domestic matters, probate and guardianship, pro se domestic, child-support and parentage, and trial readiness. Keep one limit in mind. These lists are hearing calendars, so a Franklin County case lookup here shows scheduled court dates rather than every pleading or event in the file.
| Calendar label | What to verify |
|---|---|
| Civil under ten | The assigned category, date, and case caption |
| Civil over ten / summary judgment | Whether the entry is a motion setting or another hearing |
| Protection order | Public access and participation instructions |
| Domestic | Whether GR 22 restricts details or documents |
| Trial readiness | Whether it is a readiness call rather than the trial itself |
When a QR-linked calendar stops working, Franklin County still keeps a legacy docket page online. Check any older link with the clerk before you count on it for a court date.
What Cases Fill the Civil Docket
Superior Court carries the wide civil load. Its docket covers general civil matters, property claims, tort and commercial cases, domestic and family cases, probate and guardianship, civil protection orders, and appeals from lower courts. District Court takes limited-jurisdiction civil matters and small claims. Where a case belongs depends on the claim and current law.
Dollar thresholds need care. Pasco's local referral guidance uses $75,000, yet RCW 3.66.020 shows a district-court ceiling of up to $100,000. Pick your court from the current statute, the local court page, and the filing rules. One number alone is not enough.
Pasco Municipal Court, meanwhile, mainly handles city misdemeanors and infractions rather than the broad Superior civil docket. A Pasco address settles nothing on its own. Several courts share that courthouse campus, so the location never tells you which court owns the case.
Franklin Civil Filing Volume
The 2025 Washington Superior civil report counted 1,306 completed Franklin civil cases. That total breaks into reporting categories: 78 tort, 118 commercial, and 156 property-rights cases. Civil protection-order filings made up 198. Smaller groups include 10 administrative-law review, 61 other petitions or complaints, and 685 other matters. These figures track finished cases, not every file in a docket search.
One county budget allocation, working from 2022 AOC data, put Franklin County civil filings at 1,535. That is a filing count, not a completion count. The two measure different things, and state migration warnings mean totals should always be cited by source and year rather than treated as a live docket count.
Hearings on the Civil Docket
Spot your name on the Franklin County civil docket? Look at the setting type first. A setting might be a motion, a trial-readiness call, a status event, or an actual trial. It could also be a protection-order hearing or a summary-judgment hearing. Each type calls for different prep, so the label matters more than the date alone. Where the hearing sits depends on that entry. So does the judicial officer who holds it. Whether you appear in person or by video depends on the entry as well.
Franklin District Court has one change worth noting. Effective May 1, 2026, its 9 a.m. civil docket shifts to an 8:30 a.m. start or check-in time. The District Court notice controls the details. Calendars can shift after posting. When attendance truly matters, call the court the day of your setting.
- Setting
- A scheduled court event, not necessarily a trial.
- Continuance
- An order moving a proceeding to another date.
- Summary judgment
- A request for a ruling under the governing civil standard without a full trial on the issue.
- Trial readiness
- A calendar event used to assess whether the case is ready to proceed.
Franklin Civil Records and Copies
The Franklin County Clerk is the office to contact for Superior Court civil records. The office sits at 1016 N 4th Avenue, Suite B306, in Pasco. The phone is 509-545-3525. The Superior Clerk request wants the case name and number, the document title, the filing or order date, a complete-file choice, a delivery method, and your contact information. Plan on seven days for the county to respond.
Franklin District Court sits in Building B218 and answers 509-545-3593. Its request form covers certified and noncertified copies, judgments, pleadings, dockets, and audio. You can search online or call the clerk. You can also visit the correct counter, ask about terminal access, or send the court-specific form. The county GovQA system handles administrative records only. It expressly excludes ordinary court files.
Custodian rule: Send a Superior civil request to the County Clerk and a District civil request to District Court, even though both offices share a street address.
Who Can See Civil Dockets
Washington opens most court records to the public. General Rule 31 covers indexes, calendars, dockets, registers of actions, orders, and judgments. Access still bends to other rules, privacy law, and court orders. So a docket can list an event. But the pleading behind it may stay restricted.
General Rule 22 matters most for family, domestic, protection, and guardianship records. Sealing and redaction fall under General Rule 15. If a file is restricted, ask the clerk for the portion that remains public. Never hunt through another portal to dodge the limit.
One timing note. The Public Records Act deadline applies to county administrative records, not court copies. Court records follow court rules and the custodian's own process.
Verify a Franklin Civil Court Date
Start with the newest docket event or calendar entry. Match the court name, case number, setting type, date, courtroom, and judicial officer against your notice. Then call the Clerk or District Court if the hearing is near, the record changed, or two sources disagree. Washington's statewide search posts a warning. Its data may be delayed or incomplete.
A missing result has many explanations. The hearing may be continued, posted under another category, restricted, or simply not refreshed yet. The safe rule is simple. A date counts as scheduled according to the latest posted record until the originating court confirms it, and no other source settles the question.
A payment page, filing portal, or county administrative request system is not a complete civil docket.