# Criminal records vs. court records

> Criminal court cases are criminal records and are available now. Civil cases and judgments are court records and are planned.

- **HTML:** https://offendersearch.app/docs/products/criminal-vs-court-records
- **Base URL (live):** https://api.offendersearch.app — live keys (`os_live_…`)
- **Base URL (sandbox):** https://sandbox.offendersearch.app — test keys (`os_test_…`), never billed
- **Authentication:** `X-API-Key` request header
- **OpenAPI:** https://offendersearch.app/openapi.json · https://offendersearch.app/openapi.yaml
- **Docs index for agents:** https://offendersearch.app/llms.txt

## Definitions the APIs use

- **Criminal record**: a record of a person's contact with the criminal justice system — a jail booking, custody in a state or federal prison, a criminal court case with its charges and dispositions, an active warrant, a registry entry or an exclusion-list entry. These are what the [Criminal Records API](/docs/criminal) returns, each labelled with its `recordType`.
- **Court record**: any record a court publishes about a proceeding. Criminal court cases are one kind; civil litigation, judgments, family and probate matters are others. The [Nationwide Full Court Search API](/docs/court-search) is planned to reach the non-criminal kinds.

## What you can search today

The Criminal Records API already returns criminal court cases as `court_case` records from the court sources the platform holds, with `cases[].caseNumber`, `court`, `filedDate`, `status` and `charges[]` carrying `statute`, `description`, `severity`, `disposition`, `dispositionDate` and `offenseDate`. See [Understanding charges](/docs/guides/criminal/charges) and [Understanding dispositions](/docs/guides/criminal/dispositions).

Which courts are held, and how far back, is published in the [criminal coverage catalog](/docs/criminal/coverage) and the [data sources list](/docs/criminal/data-sources).

## What is planned

The Court Search API is intended to broaden the platform beyond strictly criminal information: civil litigation, judgments and other publicly available court proceedings. It is not available, has no published endpoints, and its coverage will be confirmed before anything is advertised as supported. Read the [preview](/docs/court-search).

## Related

- [Criminal Records API](https://offendersearch.app/docs/criminal)
- [Court Search API (coming soon)](https://offendersearch.app/docs/court-search)