Q: How could I request court documentation about a case involving me?
As a child, I was a witness/alleged victim in a Michigan court case involving child sexual abuse. I don't have any information as to which court tried the case but I'd like to have access to any documentation I can, especially the results of the test that the prosecution had run to provide evidence and transcripts of the proceedings.
A: The first step is to find out what court the case was in. If you know the defendant's name, and that person is still alive and in prison, you could do an inmate search, which would indicate what county the conviction came out of. It will also list the case number. Then you could contact that county's circuit court and make your request. For transcripts, you'll need to pay a fee (which would be quite expensive, most likely). You could also FOIA the investigating police agency's records, and the prosecutor's records (both subject to restrictions). All that would give you a good bit of knowledge about what happened.
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