Access Grant County Clerk Records

Grant County Court Clerk

The court-records clerk for Grant County is the Clerk of the District Court. The office is listed on the Grant County District Court page with Reid Borchetta as clerk and Mary Nieto as deputy. It sits on the second level of the Grant County Courthouse in Ulysses and supports the District Court, the trial court where local civil, criminal, domestic, probate, guardianship, conservatorship, juvenile, mental-health, and small-claims matters are filed.

The title matters because Grant County also has a County Clerk and a Register of Deeds. Those offices are in the same courthouse, but they do not serve the same record set. Court filings, certified court copies, divorce decrees, probate files, and case questions route to the Clerk of the District Court. County open-records coordination, elections, commission minutes, budgets, tax levies, payroll, personnel records, and county administrative records route to the County Clerk. Land records, deeds, mortgages, plats, military discharge records, cemetery records, and oil and gas documents route to the Register of Deeds.

Which Grant County Clerk

Grant County uses a split practical workflow even though court records are centralized through the Clerk of the District Court. A person looking for a District Court case should not start with the County Clerk just because that office is named "clerk." The County Clerk is the county Freedom of Information Officer and is the better contact for county-government records that are not judicial case files. The County Clerk page identifies Anita Lane as County Clerk and places the office on the courthouse main level at 108 S. Glenn.

The Register of Deeds, Julie K. Widder, is a third records office. That office records and preserves land and title documents, including deeds, mortgages, mortgage releases, contracts, financing statements, tax liens, powers of attorney, easements, assignments, oil and gas records, affidavits, plats for additions to Ulysses, corporation records, cemetery records, and certain military discharge records. Its records are mostly open for public inspection during regular business hours, and the office notes that microfilm copies are stored in the salt mines at Hutchinson, Kansas for safekeeping.

Use the Clerk of the District Court first when the record has a case number, judge, party caption, hearing, filed pleading, court order, or court seal. Use the County Clerk when the record concerns county board business or a Kansas Open Records Act request to county government. Use the Register of Deeds when the record affects real property or recorded instruments.

Grant County Clerk Sources

The county's detailed clerk responsibilities are shown in the Grant County Clerk's Responsibilities source, which is useful when a request is about county administration rather than a District Court case file.

That source helps separate the County Clerk's commission, finance, election, and FOI duties from the Clerk of the District Court's judicial records role.

The county also provides a Grant County Clerk contact form for administrative county questions that do not belong with the District Court clerk.

The form is not a substitute for a court filing, but it shows the county's standard contact-field pattern for routing questions to a local office.

Kansas open-records policy is grounded in K.S.A. 45-215, which states the public-policy basis for open public records in Kansas.

That Kansas policy supports county open-records requests, while court records still follow Kansas Judicial Branch access rules and the Clerk of the District Court's custody of case files.

Grant County Certified Copies

A certified copy is a copy that carries the court's certification that it is a true copy of a record held by the court. Certified copies are commonly needed for divorce decrees, probate orders, name-change orders, judgments, and other court documents that must be used with another agency, court, lender, school, or government office. A printout from a search result is not the same thing.

For Grant County District Court records, start with the Clerk of the District Court. The copy request should give the clerk enough detail to locate the file without guessing. If the requester does not know the case number, party names, filing date range, case type, and document name become more important. Kansas Judicial Branch guidance indicates that public court records may be searched through online CaseSearch or courthouse terminals, but certified documents still require the clerk or records custodian to prepare the official copy.

1. Identify the Grant County District Court case number if known. If not, gather party names, filing year, case type, and the document needed.
2. Confirm whether the document is public, restricted, sealed, or available only to a party or attorney. Juvenile, adoption, expunged, protected personal, and some domestic materials may be limited.
3. Call the Clerk of the District Court at (620) 356-1526 or use the Grant County District Court contact form for request questions.
4. Ask for the copy total before paying. The Kansas court-copy fee notes in the research identify per-page, certification, and mailing charges.
5. Pick up the certified copy or request mailing when allowed by the clerk. Bring photo identification if access depends on party status.

Note: A certified divorce decree comes from the Clerk of the District Court, while a basic divorce certificate comes from KDHE.

Grant County Request Fields

The District Court contact form is a two-step CivicPlus form. It is best used for court questions and copy-request communication, not for filing pleadings or sending sensitive court evidence. The form asks for contact information first, then allows a short comments or questions box. Its visible comment limit is 250 characters, so a detailed copy request may still require a phone call or follow-up from the clerk.

For a court-copy request, put the case number, party names, document name, number of copies, certification need, and mailing or pickup preference in the message if space allows. When the message is too short, use the form to open contact and then provide the full detail when the clerk responds.

Grant County Clerk Fees

The local Freedom of Information page says fees may be requested in advance and may include staff time plus copying or reproduction costs. Kansas court-copy guidance captured in the research identifies 25 cents per page for copies, $10 per certified document, and mailing charges of 50 cents for the first five pages plus 25 cents for each additional five pages. Confirm the total with the clerk before mailing payment because the final amount depends on page count, certification, mailing, and whether staff time applies.

Grant County Open Records

When the requested record is not a District Court case file, Grant County's Freedom of Information process points requesters to the County Clerk/Freedom of Information Officer. The county asks requesters to check with that officer to determine whether the information is available, then submit the county open-records request form with enough detail for staff to locate the material quickly and completely.

Requests may be mailed, emailed, or faxed to the County Clerk, Freedom of Information Officer, 108 S. Glenn, Ulysses, KS 67880, fax 620-356-3081. The research notes that most records are produced within three business days after receipt. If the request is denied or delayed, the requester should receive a written explanation. Kansas law also recognizes exemptions, including confidential personal information, criminal-investigation material in some settings, and records restricted by statute, court rule, or court order.

For Grant County court records, the open-records fallback should not replace the court clerk. Use the Clerk of the District Court for judicial case files, the County Clerk for county administrative records, and the Register of Deeds for recorded land instruments.

Grant County Clerk Access

Grant County does not publish a county-built court-record database in the research materials. The official court-record search path is local clerk access plus Kansas Judicial Branch systems. Kansas CaseSearch is the statewide public district-court portal, and Kansas Courts also says public case records may be searched through terminals at courthouses. For Grant County, that courthouse terminal path means the District Court and Clerk of the District Court on the second level at 108 S. Glenn in Ulysses.

Mail and online access depend on the record type. Court copy requests should give enough detail for the clerk to find the case and calculate fees. County open-records requests use the County Clerk/Freedom of Information Officer process. Recorded-property questions go to the Register of Deeds on the lower level of the courthouse. Traffic matters should be checked by court: tickets outside Ulysses city limits go to Grant County District Court, while city ordinance and city traffic matters go to Ulysses Municipal Court.