Search Butte County Public Records

Butte County Public Records Inventory

Butte County public records are held by the office that creates or maintains each record. The Clerk-Recorder holds official records, vital applications, fictitious business names, and archives. The assessor, GIS office, and tax collector hold the parcel and tax systems. The Superior Court holds case records. The sheriff posts booking logs and maintains law-enforcement records. California agencies hold statewide voter, license, business, inmate, and registry lookups.

Sealed cases, juvenile and adoption records, protected addresses, confidential voter records, and some vital-record copies are closed or restricted by specific California laws. The California Public Records Act does not override those record-specific limits.

Butte County Public Records Office

The Butte County Clerk-Recorder is the central public records office for deeds, liens, maps, vital records, marriage licenses, fictitious business names, notaries, oaths, process-server filings, archives, and election functions. The office is at 155 Nelson Avenue, Oroville, CA 95965. General office hours are Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., closed noon to 1 p.m.; recording hours end at 4 p.m.; the office is also closed 8:30 to 9 a.m. on the first Wednesday of each month.

The Clerk-Recorder overview page shows the local public records divisions.

The page matters because the same elected office points to recording, clerk, archives, elections, and request channels.

Butte County Official Records Fees

Official records include deeds, liens, maps, financing statements, and recorded documents. Butte County's ordering page says online copy requests require a party name and document ID number. Complete documents are provided only, regular mail is the default delivery method, and UPS expedited mail can be requested. That copy channel is distinct from the index search.

Note: Search spelling variants in the recorder portal because its own disclaimer says the index should be checked under all possible name variations.

Butte County Court Records Access

Butte Superior Court publishes public case access through the Tyler Portal and explains the scope on its case information page. Public searches cover non-confidential and non-sealed Civil, Criminal, Family Law, Probate, Small Claims, Traffic, and other case types. The web index includes Butte Superior Court cases from 1988, North County Municipal Court cases from late 1985, South County Municipal Court cases from 1989, and some 1950-forward cases with later activity.

The court's important access split is online versus courthouse terminal. Date of birth is not displayed online under California Rule of Court 2.507. Public computers at the Chico and Oroville courthouses may display public documents that cannot be posted on the internet under Rule 2.503.

Butte County Property Public Records

Property public records are divided across the assessor, GIS, recorder, and tax collector. The assessor search uses ParcelQuest Lite and accepts APN or street address. The county says parcel detail can show APN, property status, situs address, abbreviated legal description, land value, improvement value, exemption amount, and total assessed value. The tax search observed roll years 2019 through 2026 and accepts roll year, fee parcel, assessment, and street address.

ParcelQuest Lite for Butte County is the linked assessor search entry.

ParcelQuest is useful for current parcel detail, while the recorder and GIS help connect the parcel to documents and map layers.

The Butte County tax search portal covers the tax roll search path.

The tax portal gives another access channel when an assessment or fee parcel number is known.

Butte County Vital Public Records

Vital records are public records in a limited sense because California separates index information, informational copies, and authorized certified copies. Butte County issues birth certificates for county births, death certificates for county deaths, and marriage certificates for licenses issued in Butte County. CDPH Vital Records handles statewide mail channels and keeps California births and deaths since July 1905, plus public marriages for indexed years listed by the state.

Health and Safety Code section 103526 controls who can receive an authorized certified copy. Informational certified copies of non-confidential public records are marked as not valid to establish identity. Confidential marriage certificates are available only from the county clerk where issued and only to the parties or by court order.

Request Butte County Public Records

The California Public Records Act, Government Code section 7920.000 et seq., is the fallback when a record is not already online and no special request form controls the record. Government Code section 7922.535 gives an agency 10 days to determine whether it has disclosable public records responsive to a request, with a written extension of up to 14 additional days for unusual circumstances.

1. Identify the custodian, such as the Clerk-Recorder, court, assessor, sheriff, elections office, or a state agency.
2. Check the custodian's posted index, application, or request form before filing a broad request.
3. Describe the record with names, dates, case numbers, document IDs, APNs, or other known identifiers.
4. Use the Butte County GovQA Public Records Act portal or the office's own request channel when no direct application fits.
5. Pay copy, certification, or format fees only through the official custodian channel.

Butte County Booking Public Records

The Butte County Sheriff's Office Records unit maintains incident reports, jail booking records, statistics reported to the California Department of Justice, permits, and registrant duties. The records office phone is 530-552-5200, and the Oroville records office hours are Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Weekly booking logs are posted as PDFs, with recent examples from 2026 listed on the county page.

The BCSO booking logs page is the public jail-log source shown below.

County booking logs are separate from the California CDCR CIRIS state prison locator and the California Megan's Law registry, which have their own display limits.

Butte County Archive Public Records

Butte County Archives is part of the Clerk-Recorder record system, not just a local-history side source. The archives preserves county records from 1850 to the present in the Hall of Records, with documents collected, cataloged, filmed, digitally imaged, and stored in an environmentally appropriate space. That matters when a public records search reaches older deeds, wills, homesteads, patents, vital statistics, oaths, maps, or administrative records that do not appear in a modern web portal.

Archive access is also a reminder that "online index" and "public record" are different ideas. A record can be public but not digitized. It can be indexed in a guide but not searchable by a web form. It can require an archives inquiry, a clerk-copy request, a microfilm search, or a Public Records Act request routed to the office that keeps the original. Butte County's archival channel should be used before assuming an old record is missing.

Examples from the historical guide include assessor rolls and indexes from the 1880s and 1900s, assessor map books from 1887 to 1927, deeds beginning in 1850, homestead records beginning in 1860, wills beginning in 1850, and recorder vital statistics from 1859 forward. Those are public-record leads even when they do not behave like a modern portal.

California License Public Records

State business and license systems can be part of a Butte County public records search when a person appears in a filing, license, or professional profile. California SOS bizfile Online covers business entities and UCC filings. The Department of Consumer Affairs License Search accepts board, license type, license number, business, first name, last name, and registry number. The Medical Board and State Bar maintain separate verification tools for their regulated professions.

The California DCA License Search is one statewide license lookup used for Butte County names.

Professional records are public verification sources, but each board controls its own data fields and disciplinary-history display.

Butte County Records California Closes

California law closes or limits several record types even when a related index is public. Juvenile, adoption, sealed, and confidential court records are not public. Voter registration information is not routinely available to the public under Elections Code section 2194. Driver license numbers, California ID numbers, Social Security numbers, HAVA identifiers, voter signatures, and protected-voter data are confidential. Safe at Home protects substitute address records for qualifying participants.

Recorded documents and court entries can also be incomplete as online evidence. The recorder index is not the document. The court docket may omit documents that are available only at public terminals. A public records request may return a denial, redaction, or referral to a special form when another law controls access. Treat the custodian's response as the authority.

Scams often appear around these same records. Deed-copy solicitations may sell costly copies that the recorder can provide through official fees. Unclaimed-property demands may ask for money even though the California State Controller says there is no fee and no deadline after transfer to the state. Jury-duty and warrant calls should be verified through the court or sheriff using official contact information, not a number supplied by a caller.

When a public records result seems sensitive, verify both the document and the access rule. A public index can point to a restricted image. A case can be public but sealed in part. A record can be available to inspect but not suited for reposting or mass reuse. The custodian's limits control the final answer.

Index

A finding tool that points to a record but may not include the full document.

Certified copy

An official copy issued by the custodian, often with a seal or certification.

Custodian

The agency or office that holds and controls the record.

Exemption

A legal reason an agency may withhold or redact a record.