Index to Cases Referred to the Supreme Court Now Available Online
An index to cases sent on appeal from local courts to the Supreme Court is
now available online thanks to the efforts of the Indiana Archives.
The index can be accessed at
http://incite.in.gov/DataEntryApp/Public.aspx
and can be searched by name, county, plaintiff and defendant. As of January
2013, cases from 1817 through 1881 have been indexed and the project is
ongoing.
Often counties have little information about cases referred to the Supreme
Court and typically those cases that are dismissed are even more obscure
because no opinion was issued. However, documents related to every case
noted in the index, regardless of whether or not the case was dismissed,
have been preserved at the Indiana Archives. Consequently, the index is one
of considerable value to genealogists who have reason to believe the subject
of their research ever encountered legal difficulties.
To access the documents in a case file, click on the name as it appears in
the index to reveal a box and record number. With that information, files
can be located at the Indiana Archives in Indianapolis. To review file, it
is recommended that the Archives be given at least 24 hours advance notice.
NOTE: Opinions from those cases heard by the Supreme Court can be found in
volumes titled Report of Cases Argued in the Supreme Court of Judicature of
the State of Indiana, and many of the opinions may be found online with a
Google search. It is approximated, however, that more than one-third of the
cases sent to the Supreme Court are dismissed for one reason or another and,
therefore, no opinion was issued.