View Rush County Trial Courts

Rush County Trial Court Structure

Indiana's trial courts include circuit courts, superior courts, and city or town courts where locally created. Official Rush County and Indiana Judicial Branch sources identify two county trial courts of record: Rush Circuit Court and Rush Superior Court. The state court structure map for this project resolves the primary trial-court name as Circuit Court and Superior Court, while the filename remains district-court.html because the template started from a generic district-court page.

The practical result is simple. A person searching for Rush County District Court should use Rush Circuit Court and Rush Superior Court instead. Both courts sit in the Rush County Courthouse at 101 East Second Street in Rushville, both are supported by the Clerk of the Circuit and Superior Courts, and both use MyCase for public case-search access when a case is public and available online.

Rush County Circuit and Superior Courts

Rush Circuit Court and Rush Superior Court are both on the third floor of the Rush County Courthouse. The county pages list Monday-Friday, 8 AM-4 PM office hours for each court. The Circuit Court page lists Judge Brian D. Hill, Court Administrator Stacy Miller, and Court Reporter Tonya Smith. The Superior Court page lists Judge Leigh Morning, Court Administrator Melanie Jarman, and Court Reporter Ashley Sebastian. Both county pages state that jurisdiction includes criminal and civil cases originating in Rush County.

The official Rush Circuit Court page identifies Judge Brian D. Hill and the Circuit Court contact details.

Those Circuit Court details are the local contact point for cases assigned to the Circuit Court docket.

The official Rush Superior Court page identifies Judge Leigh Morning and the Superior Court contact details.

Those Superior Court details are the matching local contact point for cases assigned to the Superior Court docket.

Rush County Case Assignment Rules

The 2026 local rules explain which trial-court docket receives certain Rush County cases. Infractions opened during odd-numbered months go to Superior Court, while infractions opened during even-numbered months go to Circuit Court. Unless another rule applies, other cases are assigned on an equal random basis. Criminal cases with material elements or separate counts involving drugs or alcohol go to Superior Court. Other criminal cases go to Circuit Court.

Family-law cases are assigned equally at random unless related to a pending case, in which case the new matter is filed in the same court. CHINS cases go to Circuit Court, termination of parental rights cases go to Superior Court, and other juvenile cases are equal random unless a later delinquency case is tied to an open delinquency case. Small claims for Atlas Collections and schools go to Circuit Court, while other small claims go to Superior Court. Probate rules apply in both courts.

Rush County Judicial District 18

The Indiana Judicial Branch places Rush County in Judicial District 18 with Fayette, Franklin, Union, and Wayne counties. The state Rush County court page links court contacts, MyCase, e-filing, statistics, local rules, and the district governance plan. Judicial District 18 is an Indiana state-court administrative grouping. It should not be confused with a federal district court, and it does not mean Rush County has a county-level court named District Court.

A basic local case path is: filing or charge in Rush Circuit/Superior system › assignment under local rules › CCS and hearings in MyCase when public › judgment, dismissal, or other disposition › appeal to the Indiana appellate system when a party files a proper appeal.

Rush County Court Services

Rush County Court Services is tied to the trial courts through probation, community corrections, pretrial release, electronic monitoring, and Addictions Intervention Court. The county restructured community supervision in 2016 into an umbrella agency known as Court Services, combining Community Corrections and the Probation Department while keeping them distinct entities. Probation remains led by the Rush County Courts, while Community Corrections remains under the Community Corrections Advisory Board.

Services listed by Court Services include Addictions Intervention Court, Adult and Juvenile Probation, Community Service, Community Transition Program, Day Reporting, Electronic Monitoring, and Pretrial Release Program. The local rules refer to Rush County Addictions Intervention Court, or A.I.C., and state that participants may be assessed a $100 Drug Court administration fee and a $50 monthly user fee after the first month.

The Rush County Court Services page describes the local probation and community-corrections structure connected to trial-court orders.

Court Services matters can appear in criminal, juvenile, pretrial, probation, and problem-solving court docket entries.

Rush County Appeals Path

Ordinary appeals from Rush County trial-court judgments go into Indiana's appellate system, principally the Court of Appeals of Indiana. The Indiana Supreme Court is the court of last resort and supervises the judiciary. The Indiana Tax Court handles tax matters. A Rush County litigant does not appeal from Circuit Court or Superior Court to a county District Court because no such county-level court sits above them in Indiana's trial structure.

The appeal path is separate from a clerk copy request. A person who needs the record for an appeal should identify the trial-court cause number, obtain docket and document information from MyCase when public, and work through the clerk and court reporter for official records or transcript issues. Local rules include transcript charges for non-indigent requests, including up to $4.25 per page for an original transcript, up to $1.25 per page for a copy, and a $35 small transcript minimum.

Rush County Federal Court Distinction

Federal district court is different from Rush County's trial courts. Rush County is served by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, Indianapolis division. The federal court locations page lists the Birch Bayh Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse, 46 East Ohio Street, Indianapolis, IN 46204, phone 317-229-3700. Federal cases use PACER and CM/ECF, not Indiana MyCase. Federal criminal prosecutions, federal civil-rights suits, federal habeas matters, federal-question cases, diversity cases, Social Security appeals, and bankruptcy-related matters are not county clerk records unless a separate state case exists.

The Southern District of Indiana locations page lists the federal court serving Rush County from Indianapolis.

Use this federal route only for federal records, not ordinary Rush County Circuit or Superior Court cases.

The Bureau of Prisons inmate locator is another federal system and is separate from Rush County jail or Indiana state custody.

Federal custody searches should not be used as a substitute for Rush County trial-court or county jail records.

The BOP name search provides a federal inmate-by-name path for federal custody records.

That federal name search covers federal inmates from 1982 forward, not Rush County court dockets.

Rush County Courthouse History

Rush County was established in 1822 and named after Dr. Benjamin Rush, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. The county seat is Rushville. The National Park Service National Register record identifies the Rush County Courthouse in Rushville's courthouse square as a historic property published October 10, 1975, with NRIS number 75000048. The nomination describes the courthouse as a well-preserved Richardsonian Romanesque example constructed in 1896, sheathed in rock-faced stone, and marked by a clock tower and courthouse-square setting.

The modern court system still runs from that historic courthouse. The clerk is in Room 209, Circuit Court and Superior Court are on the third floor, the prosecutor is in Room 317, the public defender is in Room 315, and Court Services probation is also on the third floor. The sheriff and jail sit one block away at 131 East First Street, which matters when a court record task is different from a custody, warrant, or law-enforcement task.