Frequently Asked Questions

Electronic certified court documents can be purchased online anytime, anywhere, 24-hours a day. It is fast, easy and convenient. Electronic certified court documents are more secure and environmentally friendly in comparison to paper certified court documents.

The signing authority is the County Clerk. The digital signature bearing the identity and authority of the Clerk is used to sign the document electronically.

Yes. Only unsealed, non-confidential, and redacted documents are available for online viewing. Documents containing sensitive or protected information are not accessible online. After the purchase is completed, you will receive an email with links to the certified court documents. The email will typically be sent within minutes of purchase.

The cost is $5.00 for certification and $1.00 per page in accordance with Texas Local Government Code Sections 118.060 and 118.052(3)(B). An additional $6.00 service fee applies for electronic copies obtained through e-Certify.

Example:

Document contains 20 pages:

  • $5.00 - Certification fee
  • $20.00 - Copy fee (20 pages @ $1.00 each page)
  • $6.00 - e-Certify service fee

Total: $31.00

No, electronic certified court documents do not have a wet seal. Instead, a digitally-signed certificate from the County Clerk is used on each electronic certified court document.

Yes, however you should check with the agency to confirm whether they will accept an electronic version of the document or if a paper copy is required. If so, you can print a paper copy of the electronic certified court document.

Yes, one of the benefits of using electronically certified court documents is you can re-print and re-use them as many times as you would like.

It is recommended you download and save the electronic certified court documents as soon as possible after purchasing. However, the document will be available to download for 30 days after the purchase date.

No. Electronic certified court documents are valid from the time they are created and do not expire. Each electronic certified court document has a unique tracking number and is digitally signed by the County Clerk. Electronic certified court documents can be verified at any time.

If you are not a party to the case, the document will not be available electronically. You may submit a Copy Request Form and pay for the copies using the payment methods listed on the form:

If you are a Party to the Case or Attorney of Record and the document is not available online, please contact the County Clerk Courts Division at 281-341-8685 or email at cclerkcourts@fortbendcountytx.gov.

If you do not receive an email, check your spam/junk folder. If you are still unable to locate the email, you may view the documents by using the order number you received upon purchase. To do this, enter the receipt number and e-mail address on the Receipt Lookup page and click "Submit".

If you are a walk-in customer at the Clerk's Office, you can ask for a hard copy in addition to receiving the email. A fee will be applied for the additional copy.

There are several ways to verify a certified court document is authentic.

Yes. You can open an electronic certified PDF document in any other compatible software. However, the availability and confirmation of the authenticity and authorship of the document will be subject to the capabilities of the reader software.

Triedata’s Clerk E-Certify is the product of thorough and rigorous engineering processes. Triedata’s Clerk E-Certify uses advanced cryptographic techniques to protect the documents. Its base standard uses the 2048-bit RSA key (a.k.a. asymmetric cryptography) for validating identity (signing) and ensuring that the document content is protected against any tampering. Just how hard is to “break” an 2048-bit RSA key based certificate like those provided by Triedata’s Clerk E-Certify? It is estimated that standard desktop computing power would take 4,294,967,296 x 1.5 million years to break a Triedata’s Clerk E-Certify 2048-bit SSL certificate. The digital signature hardware is an FIPS 140-2 level 2 cryptographic hardware that is in compliance with U.S. government computer security standard used to approve cryptographic modules. When a document is digitally signed using Triedata’s Clerk E-Certify, the system embeds sufficient information within the document to indicate the long-term validity of the document for years to come.