Guide Remove your record from DocketBird

You've found your case on DocketBird, and you want it gone. DocketBird takes it down for free, and the takedown is immediate, but the request page isn't linked from anywhere on the site, and the identity check is a card whose last name matches a word in your case title. If you don't have a card, there's a notarized form you mail in instead. Steps verified live on September 8, 2026.

What you actually get

DocketBird hides the case from public view. It doesn't delete it. Its Terms say the materials stay "fully accessible to persons with DocketBird accounts, including without limitation patrons of public libraries that have DocketBird accounts," so anyone on a free trial still pulls the record.

What you have to hand over

A credit or debit card whose last name matches a word in the case title. That's the entire identity check, and there's no document to upload. DocketBird places a one dollar authorization and cancels it right away, then says to allow about five business days for it to drop off your statement. It's ID, not payment: the Terms say removals are always free.

What stops it working

The name match. Your card surname has to match a word in the case caption, so a maiden name, a name change since the filing, a case captioned under a company or a co-defendant, a misspelled caption, or a name that only appears inside a filed PDF all fail at the same screen. DocketBird's answer to "no card" is a notarized mail-in form, which asks you to describe your role in the case instead.

Get your case ID first

The removal page won't do anything without it. Search for your case on DocketBird, open it, and copy the ID out of the address bar. Federal IDs look like nyed-1:2018-cv-04339. State IDs look like c-lasu-2025-cv-25STCV14372.

Don't hunt for a removal link in the menu or the help page, because there isn't one. DocketBird's help page is a chat widget with no removal instructions, and its knowledge base has no removal article at all. Paste the URL in the next step rather than searching for it.

Open the removal page and confirm your email

Go to https://www.docketbird.com/request_case_removal?case_id= and paste your case ID onto the end. The page renders "Request Removal of" and then your case title, which is how you know the ID is right. If it doesn't, go back and recopy the ID.

Enter an email address you control. DocketBird sends a confirmation code to it, and that code gates every step after it, so keep the tab open while you check your inbox. There's no published turnaround for that email.

Pick your option before you reach for a card

The options screen comes next, ahead of any card. Option one is free removal from DocketBird with no Google removal. Option two is that same free removal plus a paid, expedited submission to Google.

Take the free option and DocketBird's own page tells you your case "will remain on Google indefinitely, even after it is removed from DocketBird," while its success screen says the natural de-index can take several months. Believe the page you're transacting on.

DocketBird doesn't publish what option two costs. The figure appears only inside the flow, so ignore any price you've read on another site and read the screen in front of you.

Pass the card check

The card screen comes after you've chosen, and in DocketBird's own words, "your last name, as it appears on your card, must match part of the case title." The one dollar authorization is placed and immediately canceled, and nothing about the removal itself costs money.

If you have no card to put in, stop here and switch to the mail-in route below. DocketBird's page offers it directly: "You can still remove your case from DocketBird for free. You'll just need to validate your identity using our mail-in form."

No card? Use the mail-in form

Print the case removal request form and fill in your full name, email, telephone, street address, the case name and number, and a description of your role in the case. Enclose a printed copy of the DocketBird page you want removed, showing the full case name and case number.

Page two is an acknowledgement form a notary public has to execute, so book the notary before you fill anything in, and take photo ID with you.

Mail the packet to Mink LLC, Attention: Removals, 5940 S. Rainbow Blvd., Suite 400, PMB 66425, Las Vegas, Nevada 89118-2507. The form says to allow at least 6 to 8 weeks for processing, and this route doesn't include the Google removal service.

Chase Google yourself, and use the guarantee if you paid

If you took option two, DocketBird tells you to wait about five days, then search again. The submission covers only the docket sheet URL, so send any individual filings that rank separately, as a list of URLs, to help@docketbird.com.

DocketBird states plainly that it won't check whether Google actually removed the case, and that periodically checking is your responsibility. Put a reminder in your calendar for a week out.

If you paid and the case is still there, invoke the guarantee. The Terms say the case "will eventually be removed from Google's index" and promise "a full refund upon written request" if you're not satisfied after repeated efforts, so put that request in writing to help@docketbird.com.

Check three things after it comes down

First, look at the old URL. DocketBird's Privacy Policy says it "may display a notice that the case materials are hidden or unavailable because someone requested us to hide them or make them unavailable," so a marker can sit where your case was.

Second, search your name again in about a week, and again a month later. On the free option, the de-index runs on a timeline DocketBird won't commit to.

Third, if a lawyer hid the case through their own DocketBird account rather than through this request, ask them to redo it through the removal page. The Terms say an account-based removal expires if that account is canceled.

What this doesn't fix

This doesn't seal or expunge anything. DocketBird's Terms say it's under no obligation to grant a removal request in the first place, and there's no stated appeal.

It's also one site. DocketBird's state court data is powered by UniCourt, a separate company with its own separate process, so a state case you clear here is still live over there. Mink LLC also reserves the right to make the same docket available through its other products.

Sealing at the source court is the only durable fix. If you're pursuing that, keep a copy of the order and attach it to every request a site isn't obligated to grant.

The same docket is sitting on other sites

Send the DocketBird request yourself with the steps above, free. When the same docket also sits on UniCourt, CourtListener and Justia, the routes are not the same: UniCourt takes a free redaction request from a party, a guardian or an attorney, while CourtListener and Justia each de-index on a written request that lists the URLs, with no ID and no fee. Court Record Removal is $199 and we send those requests for you. PacerMonitor publishes no removal route at all, so there the lever is a court order sealing or restricting the case.

Have us do it.

Everything above, filed for you, chased for you, and reported back. One flat fee.

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Written by Drew Chapin, who ran all of this on his own name first.

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