How to Search the Madison Court Docket
The state's free Search ARCourts service carries public Madison case information. A full case or citation number works best. A participant search needs first and last name. Add a middle name only if you know it. Filter the results to St. Francis County and District Court. Then confirm Madison as the department. Never pick a hit just because a party name looks right.
- Take the case number and court name from the citation or notice.
- Open Search ARCourts and select Cases or Participants.
- Enter the number or name, then narrow the county and court level.
- Read the case header, event history, and newest scheduled event.
- Call the Madison clerk to confirm the date and physical setting.
Getting nothing back does not mean the case is closed. Widen the filters or switch to the other search mode. The clerk can also explain entry timing or help with older records. A public image may be missing. Even so, the underlying filing may still be open to inspection at the office.
Madison Docket May Sit Elsewhere
The Madison Department's official physical address is 302 MLK Street, Madison, Arkansas 72359. The administrative plan also lets Madison court convene in Forrest City. So a caption can still read "Madison Department." The hearing may happen at 615 East Cross Street in Forrest City.
Treat the department and the setting location as two separate docket fields. One points to the court record and its clerk. The other tells you where to show up. If notices conflict or two locations appear, call Chief District Court Clerk Margarette Winfrey at 870-633-2172. Have the case number ready. The clerk's mailing address is P.O. Box 109, Madison, AR 72340, and the published fax is 870-630-0935.
Madison location rule: Never infer the hearing site from the department name alone.
The Madison Municipal Court
The court here is the Madison Department of St. Francis County District Court. It is part of the 25th State District. It hears the district-level matters Arkansas law assigns it: local traffic and ordinance cases, misdemeanors, small claims, and district civil matters. It is not a separate general-jurisdiction court.
Felonies, general civil litigation, domestic relations, probate, and juvenile cases all belong to St. Francis County Circuit Court. Need the current Madison department and clerk details? The Arkansas district-court directory is the official source. The department posts no separate web docket, daily calendar, or city-specific caseload report.
Madison Department
302 MLK Street
Madison, AR 72359
870-633-2172
Mail: P.O. Box 109, Madison, AR 72340
Madison Court Location Cross-Check
Two places on the paperwork? Compare the latest notice, the newest scheduled event, and the clerk's current instruction. An old event stays in the case history after a reset. It is not necessarily your next appearance. A docket can also name the court location while leaving out room details.
| Source | What to verify | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Citation or filed notice | Department and first stated date | Starts the search |
| Search ARCourts | Newest event and court field | Shows later changes |
| Madison clerk | Current site and time | Resolves conflicting locations |
| Posted court list | Room or docket call | Directs arrival on hearing day |
Madison has no standing remote-hearing link. An online setting alone does not permit a remote appearance.
Location matters for copies, too. A hearing held at the Forrest City building can still produce an order filed in the Madison Department case. Do not send a record request to a building just because the hearing happened there. Ask the Madison clerk which office holds the filed order, and whether to mail the request to the published P.O. Box 109 address.
Madison Court Dates and Settings
Read Madison settings in order. Find the newest future event, then check for a continuance, reset, cancellation, amended notice, or disposition entered after it. Call 870-633-2172 if a hearing is close, if travel depends on the location, or if the portal and the paper notice disagree.
| Date | The newest active hearing date rather than an old event. |
|---|---|
| Time | The docket-call or individual start time to confirm. |
| Location | Madison or the authorized Forrest City sitting site. |
| Judge | The assigned or presiding district judge. |
| Setting Type | Arraignment, pretrial, trial, motion, sentencing, or review. |
A reset does not erase the old entry; it adds a later event. That is the trap. Reading only the first date on a Madison docket can send you to the wrong courthouse on the wrong day.
Madison Population and Docket Scale
Madison counted 759 residents in the 2020 Census. That figure comes straight from the Census incorporated-place table. The table ranks where the city sits in the county. It says nothing about court jurisdiction or how many cases come through. A headcount can't predict a local filing total. No official Madison caseload number exists to lean on.
The Census incorporated-place table backs up the local scale you see here.
A town this size makes a shared district structure practical. Still, the administrative plan, not the population, decides where the Madison docket is heard.
Madison Traffic Tickets
Start a Madison ticket search with the department and number printed on the citation. Search ARCourts may then display the case header, the charge, events, the setting, the disposition, and public images when they are authorized. A new citation may not show up yet. Or a deadline may be bearing down. The Madison clerk can confirm where things stand.
The Arkansas Online Court Payment tool is not a full Madison docket. Madison was absent from the official participating-court list checked August 13, 2026. So call before you assume online payment works there. Where a court does take part, paying can count as a guilty plea. It can also waive your appearance or trial. To fight the ticket, you must contact the court in time. Follow its plea or appearance process. Deferred disposition or a driving course depends on the specific court. Madison has published no fees or eligibility rules for either. The county traffic record page walks through the wider process.
Madison Court File Versus Driver File
A Madison court file and an Arkansas driving record answer two different questions. The district clerk holds the court side. That side covers the citation, plea, setting, judgment, assessments, and every payment posted to the case. The state side lives elsewhere. Arkansas DFA Driver Services maintains the driving record. A court disposition is not the same product as that driver file. For the split between the two, the official Arkansas Driver Services page shows how the state presents its half.
Need proof of a Madison traffic result? That copy comes from the District Court clerk, not the state. Use DFA for the separate driving record, and remember that neither office can edit the other custodian's file.
- Disposition
- The court's result for the case or charge.
- Assessment
- A fine, cost, or fee entered in the court case.
- Driving record
- The separate licensing record held by DFA.
Where Madison Cases End Up
Madison keeps most of its own workload. Traffic, ordinance, misdemeanor, small-claims, and district civil matters stay with the Madison Department unless a case is transferred or appealed. Once an appeal is authorized, a new St. Francis County Circuit Court case opens. Felonies and general civil cases take the opposite path. They begin at Circuit Court. They never pass through the Madison district docket at all.
Docket flow: Madison District Court › St. Francis County Circuit Court › Arkansas appellate courts
After any appeal, search under the new circuit case number. The circuit event history lists filings, settings, rulings, and any later notice of appeal, and the broader St. Francis County court docket explains how the county-level courts stack up. A transfer entry deserves care. Follow it to the receiving case rather than reading it as a final outcome.
Madison Docket Data Has Limits
There is no official count of Madison case filings each year. The Arkansas ORJS publishes state court data resources. Yet its site offers no stable table for individual cities. What can be stated with confidence is concrete. It covers the named department, its address, the clerk channel, and the authorized alternate site. A local caseload figure cannot be one of them, because nobody has published one.
The ORJS statistics office is the office behind what you see here.
The statewide office supplies context for Arkansas courts in general. One Madison case is different. For one setting or one certified disposition, the department clerk remains the best source. A single case should never be routed through a compiled-data form. The clerk can search by case number, participant, and approximate year. Staff can then explain the current inspection and copy process. Compiled requests are built for bulk sets of court information. They carry separate Administrative Order 19 requirements. Keep the two routes apart, and the request stays with the custodian who can identify the actual Madison event. That distinction matters.
Madison Certified Court Dispositions
A Search ARCourts printout is not a certified record. For a certified Madison district disposition, give the clerk the basics. Include the case number, participant name, event or judgment date, and the exact item you need. Ask whether a plain copy or a certified copy is available. No complete local fee schedule is published. Call before mailing payment: confirm the total, accepted payment method, payee, processing time, return-envelope need, and whether a request can go to P.O. Box 109. A document missing from public view is not automatically sealed; it may simply not be digitized or remotely enabled. Circuit Court records belong to the Circuit Clerk. A transcript comes from the official court reporter rather than the Madison docket counter.
Inspection, a plain photocopy, and a certified copy serve three different needs. Ask first whether the unrestricted Madison file can be inspected at the counter. If only one filed order matters, identify it by date and event label. That way staff do not copy the whole case. Certification adds the clerk's formal authentication. The custodian's current quote controls; no assumed county fee should be borrowed for Madison.
The docket itself can frame a precise request. Record the event date and its wording, whether judgment, order, or disposition, and quote that entry to the clerk. When several events carry similar labels, add the hearing date or charge sequence. For a restricted matter, ask what identification or authorization must accompany the request instead of running broader name searches.
A Madison disposition may resolve more than one charge or claim. When the short docket label does not say which count was decided, request the actual judgment or order. If the case later moved to Circuit Court on appeal, the district copy and the circuit record cover different stages. Each clerk holds its own.
Public Access to Madison Court Records
Arkansas Supreme Court Administrative Order 19 sets the framework for court-record access. A companion rule, Administrative Order 19.1, governs redaction of confidential identifiers. Access at a clerk counter can differ from remote access. Juvenile matters, sealed entries, and protected information will not appear the way an unrestricted Madison docket does.
Key Rules:
Administrative Order 19 governs Arkansas court-record access and remote limits.
Administrative Order 19.1 governs public redacted versions.
Arkansas Code ยง 9-27-309 places juvenile records under confidentiality rules.
Missing Madison case data usually has a simple fix. Check the spelling, court level, county, status, and date range. Then ask the clerk about older indexes. A party seeking restricted access should ask what identification or order is required. Online absence alone proves nothing about whether a case is sealed or nonexistent.