Overview

The office of the clerk of the First District Court is the processing center through which virtually all the court and case documents flow.

These documents are issued, recorded and filed in accordance with New Mexico statutes and rules of the courts. The efficiency of the Clerk’s office is maintained to insure that documents are processed accurately and on a timely basis.

The Clerk’s office is also responsible for receiving and accounting for filing fees, fines, forfeitures, bonds, and other matters.

View our contact information in the Location, Hours & Contact section under the “Other Contact Information” tab.

Case Numbers

Although staff can help you find a case by the name of one of the parties in the case, it is often helpful to have the exact number for the case you need information on. Every case is given a distinct number when it is opened. An example of a case number is D-101-CV-9801525.

The numbers is comprised of four parts, each with a different significance:

• The first part if one letter, either a “D” for District Court, or an “M” for Magistrate Court.
• The second part of the number is a 3-digit county code.  The codes for the First Judicial District are “101” for Santa Fe, “117” for Rio Arriba, or “132” for Los Alamos.​
• The third part of the number is a 2-letter code denoting the case category.
• The fourth part of the number is a 7-digit number (9-digit beginning in 2000).  The first 2-digits are the year in which the case is filed, e.g. “98” for 1998, or a 4-digit number beginning in the year 2000.  The last 5 digits are sequential numbers for each case category.​

For example, the number D-101-CV-9801525 is a District Court case (“D”), filed in Santa Fe County (“101”), it’s a civil case (“CV”), and it is the 1525th case within the civil category filed in 1998.  There is also an old numbering convention which you may find on some, particularly older, documents.  Using the case example above, the number would be SF 98-1525(C).