Pull Hale County arrest records from the Hale County Circuit Clerk’s Office — Circuit Clerk Catrinna Perry maintains the court-side docket. The Hale County Courthouse operates Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. For a statewide paid case search, Alacourt indexes all 67 Alabama counties’ trial courts — note that the free state appellate portal is a separate system and will not show county criminal cases. Bring government-issued ID if visiting in person.
If someone you know was just booked tonight, our Hale County inmate-search page has phone-first contact info.
Searching for records beyond Alabama
A nationwide background search may surface records from neighboring counties — Perry, Greene, Bibb, Tuscaloosa, or Marengo — that Hale County’s own portals won’t show, along with federal cases and records predating the online window. The preliminary scan is free; a full report requires creating an account. This tool may help fill gaps that local portals often leave, but treat it as one source among several rather than a definitive check.
Sponsored: Nationwide Criminal Background Check (we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you).
This tool is not a consumer reporting agency under the FCRA and may not be used to screen anyone for employment, housing, credit, or any other purpose covered by that law.
How to look up arrest records in Hale County
“Public records shall be open for inspection” — that’s the operative language under Alabama’s Open Records Act, and it applies directly to how you retrieve a Hale County arrest record. The practical path runs through four distinct systems, each holding a different slice of the record.
Hale County Circuit Clerk — Catrinna Perry. Court-side records for felony and misdemeanor cases filed in Hale County’s Fourth Circuit sit with Circuit Clerk Catrinna Perry. Her office page at the Hale County Fourth Circuit Court portal is the county-official access point for docket entries, case numbers, and dispositions. The Hale County Courthouse is open Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Bring government-issued ID. For mailed records requests, call the Clerk’s Office to confirm the current mailing address and records-request fee before sending anything — those details are not posted online. Traffic court matters have a separate entry point at the Hale County Traffic Court portal; traffic payments in person or by mail require a money order or cashier’s check (personal checks and cash are not accepted).
Alacourt statewide paid index. Alacourt covers all 67 Alabama trial courts in a single name search — useful if you need to check whether a record exists in any county, not just Hale. This is a paid service that charges a per-search fee. The free state portal covers appellate courts only and will not return a Hale County criminal case. Some municipal court charges may sit outside the Alacourt index entirely; confirm those directly with the relevant city court.
Hale County Sheriff — booking records. Alabama law requires the county sheriff’s jail register to be open to public inspection. A recent booking — someone arrested and held at the Hale County Jail — is a Sheriff-side record, not a court-side record. The Hale County Sheriff’s Office handles the jail register. The Sheriff’s Office hours run 8:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on weekdays; no testing or processing occurs after 2:00 p.m. Payment for any in-person or mailed transactions is by money order or cashier’s check only. Confirm numbers and hours before visiting or calling.
Alabama Department of Corrections — state prison sentences. Once a person is transferred from county custody to serve a state sentence, the record moves to the Alabama Department of Corrections. Use the ADOC inmate search to locate someone serving a state prison term. That tool will not show a person still held in the Hale County Jail awaiting trial or sentencing.
Magistrate warrants. Active magistrate warrants issued through the Hale County Fourth Circuit are searchable at the Hale County magistrates warrants portal. This is a county-official resource and the most direct way to check whether an active warrant is on file in Hale County.
Are Hale County arrest records public?
Court filings in Hale County carry a default-public status — arrest records and conviction records alike are presumptively open under Alabama law. The distinction worth knowing is that arrest records and conviction records live in different systems and are maintained by different offices.
Ala. Code §§ 36-12-40 to 36-12-46 — Alabama’s Open Records Act — establishes the general right of public access to government records. Booking records and the jail register held by the Hale County Sheriff fall squarely within that framework. Alabama law specifically requires the sheriff’s jail register to be open to inspection, so a booking entry is public from the moment it’s created.
Conviction records are maintained on the court side by Circuit Clerk Catrinna Perry. They are also public, but they live in the Alacourt docket system rather than the Sheriff’s booking log. A person researching a name may need to check both systems to get the full picture — a booking entry at the Sheriff’s Office and a case disposition at the Clerk’s Office are separate documents.
Narrow exceptions apply. Sealed or expunged records are removed from public view after a court order — law enforcement retains access, but the public does not. Juvenile records are not public in Alabama. Certain victim-identifying information may be redacted from documents before release. Records involving ongoing investigations may be withheld under law-enforcement exemptions.
Municipal court charges — for city ordinance violations in Greensboro or other Hale County municipalities — may not appear in the Alacourt index. Confirm those directly with the relevant city court.
What’s in a Hale County arrest record?
Pull the booking entry and the court docket side by side — they contain different fields and come from different offices at the Hale County Courthouse.
A Sheriff-side booking entry typically contains: the arrested person’s full name and date of birth, booking date and time, the charge or charges as written at arrest, the arresting agency, bond amount set at first appearance, and — if the official record includes it — a booking photograph. Alabama uses money bail with judicial discretion; a judge may release someone on recognizance or, for a defined list of violent offenses under a 2022 constitutional amendment, deny bail entirely after a hearing. Bond amounts are not fixed by offense and vary case by case.
A court-side docket entry maintained by Circuit Clerk Catrinna Perry contains: the case number assigned by the Fourth Circuit, the formal charge or charges as filed by the prosecutor, all hearing dates and continuances, motions filed by either party, the disposition (guilty plea, verdict, dismissal, nolle prosequi), and — critically — the attorney of record. Defense attorney information appears in the docket, not in the booking entry. If you need to identify current counsel for a pending case, search the docket at the Hale County Fourth Circuit Court portal or use the paid Alacourt name search. The attorney of record field updates as counsel changes; if a public defender was assigned, the Alabama indigent defense locator can help identify the relevant office.
Traffic matters — speeding, DUI, license violations — have their own docket accessible through the Hale County Traffic Court portal and the statewide Alabama Traffic Court records system. These records are separate from the criminal docket even when the underlying conduct is also a criminal charge.
For the Hale County Sheriff’s mugshot release policy, call the Sheriff’s Office directly — the policy isn’t posted online.
How to expunge an arrest record in Hale County
A petition sitting on a judge’s desk in Greensboro — that’s where the expungement process ends up for a Hale County arrest record. Getting there takes a few deliberate steps, and the path depends on whether the case ended in a conviction or not.
The controlling statute is Ala. Code § 15-27-1. Since 2021, Alabama’s expungement law reaches convictions, not only charges that were dismissed or ended in acquittal. A significant amount of older guidance — including some published before 2021 — still says otherwise. If you’re relying on pre-2021 information, verify against the current statute text.
Non-conviction cases — charges that were dismissed, nolle prossed, or resulted in acquittal — often have a more direct path to sealing. The statute provides a mechanism to petition without the waiting period that applies to convictions. These are the most straightforward expungement petitions filed in Hale County.
Conviction cases — where a guilty plea or verdict was entered — are also reachable under the 2021 expansion of the statute. A waiting period applies after a conviction before you can petition; the exact duration is set by Ala. Code § 15-27-1. AL law sets the timing requirements in that statute — check the current statute text or ask the Clerk of Court for the specific waiting period applicable to your charge class, because the number varies by offense type and is not supplied here.
Where to file. Petitions go to the Circuit Court in the county where the charge was brought — for a Hale County arrest, that means filing with Circuit Clerk Catrinna Perry at the Hale County Courthouse. The District Attorney’s Office and the arresting agency are both entitled to object to the petition, and the court schedules a hearing if an objection is filed.
Filing fee and indigency waiver. A filing fee applies. Call the Clerk to confirm the current filing fee before submitting your petition — the amount is not posted online. If you cannot afford the fee, an indigency waiver path exists; ask the Clerk’s Office about the process for requesting a fee waiver at the time of filing.
Self-petition vs. attorney-assisted. Alabama’s Administrative Office of Courts publishes self-help forms at the Alabama Courts e-forms portal. A self-represented petitioner can use those forms to file in Hale County without an attorney. That said, if the DA or arresting agency objects, having counsel at the hearing is worth considering. The Alabama State Bar Lawyer Referral Service can connect you with an attorney who handles expungement matters.
What remains visible after sealing. A sealed record disappears from public-facing systems — Alacourt’s public search, background check databases that draw from court records, and the Sheriff’s public jail register. Law enforcement retains access. The record does not vanish; it becomes non-public. For federal cases or records from other states, sealing a Hale County record has no effect on those separate systems.
Quick-reference contacts
| Resource | What it confirms | What it cannot confirm | Next step |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hale County Circuit Clerk — Catrinna Perry | Case numbers, charges as filed, dispositions, attorney of record, felony and misdemeanor dockets | Booking entries, jail register, active warrants not yet docketed | Visit the Hale County Courthouse weekdays 8 a.m.–4:30 p.m., or search the Fourth Circuit portal online |
| Hale County Sheriff’s Office | Booking entries, jail register (public by Alabama law), recent arrests | Court dispositions, case numbers, attorney assignments | Contact the Sheriff’s Office weekdays 8 a.m.–2:30 p.m.; bring government-issued ID |
| Alacourt statewide trial-court index | All 67 Alabama county trial-court cases in one paid name search | Municipal court cases outside the index; appellate records (separate free portal) | Pay the per-search fee; use for multi-county or historical searches |
| Alabama Department of Corrections inmate search | People currently serving state prison sentences | People held in county jail pre-trial or pre-sentencing | Search by name at the ADOC inmate lookup tool |
| Hale County magistrates warrants portal | Active magistrate warrants issued through the Fourth Circuit | Warrants from municipal courts; warrants in other counties | Search the county-official warrant database directly |
| Nationwide background search | May surface records from neighboring counties, other states, or pre-portal date ranges | Cannot guarantee completeness; not a substitute for official court records | Use as a supplemental check after exhausting official county sources |
Sources used for this page, verified 2026-09-10:
- Hale County Fourth Circuit Court — Circuit Clerk Catrinna Perry — county-official portal for felony and misdemeanor dockets, case search, and Clerk contact information.
- Hale County magistrates warrants portal — county-official active warrant database for the Fourth Circuit.
- Hale County Traffic Court portal — county-official traffic case docket and payment information.
- Alabama statewide traffic court records — statewide traffic case lookup maintained by the Alabama Administrative Office of Courts.
- the statewide court records portal — paid name search covering all 67 Alabama county trial courts.
- Alabama Department of Corrections inmate search — state-official lookup for people serving ADOC sentences.
- Alabama Courts e-forms portal — self-help forms including expungement petition documents, published by the Alabama Administrative Office of Courts.
- Alabama State Bar Lawyer Referral Service — attorney referral for expungement and criminal record matters.
- Alabama indigent defense locator — public defender office locator by county.
- Alabama Law Enforcement Agency — state law enforcement agency; source for statewide criminal justice information.
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Frequently asked questions about Hale County arrest records
How do I find out what’s on my Hale County arrest record?
Pull both the court-side and the booking-side records. For court filings, search the Hale County Fourth Circuit Court portal maintained by Circuit Clerk Catrinna Perry, or run a paid name search through Alacourt to catch any cases across all 67 Alabama counties. For booking entries, contact the Hale County Sheriff’s Office directly — Alabama law requires the jail register to be open to public inspection. The Hale County Courthouse is open Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; bring government-issued ID.
How do I get a Hale County arrest record sealed or expunged?
File a petition with Circuit Clerk Catrinna Perry at the Hale County Courthouse under the Fourth Circuit Court portal. Alabama’s expungement statute, Ala. Code § 15-27-1, covers both non-conviction cases (dismissals, acquittals) and — since 2021 — certain convictions. Non-conviction cases often qualify without a waiting period. Conviction cases require a waiting period set by the statute; check the current statute text or ask the Clerk for the applicable duration. A filing fee applies — call the Clerk to confirm the current amount. If cost is a barrier, ask about the indigency waiver process. The District Attorney and arresting agency may object, triggering a hearing. Self-help petition forms are available at the Alabama Courts e-forms portal. After sealing, the record is removed from public view but remains accessible to law enforcement.
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