Ellsworth County Court Clerk Contact
The court clerk is Kristy Battershell, Clerk of the District Court. The official Ellsworth County District Court page and the Kansas Judicial Branch 20th Judicial District page identify the same local court office, courthouse address, phone, fax, and clerk. Use this office for District Court case files, certified court copies, docket questions, probate records, divorce case files, criminal case records, small claims files, and traffic cases filed in District Court.
Clerk of the District Court
Clerk: Kristy Battershell
210 N Kansas Ave
Ellsworth, KS 67439
785-472-4052
Fax: 785-472-5712
Email: EW.DCPublic@kscourts.gov
Monday-Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
The Ellsworth County Clerk page is an official county source, but it profiles a separate administrative office.
The county clerk source is useful for open-records routing, while District Court case files stay with the Clerk of the District Court.
Ellsworth County Court Clerk Duties
The Clerk of the District Court is the local court records custodian for District Court files. The office receives filings, maintains case records, helps route public record requests, issues certified copies where allowed, and handles court records that are not visible online. For Ellsworth County, that includes probate files, divorce files, civil lawsuits, criminal cases, small claims, state-law traffic cases, protection orders, and other District Court matters.
- Maintains District Court case files and docket records.
- Receives filings in civil, criminal, probate, domestic, traffic, small claims, and related cases.
- Provides certified court copies when a record is public or the requester is authorized.
- Helps with courthouse access for records not available through CaseSearch.
- Uses court access rules for sealed, juvenile, adoption, care and treatment, and protected information.
Ellsworth County Clerk Role Split
Kansas and Ellsworth County use several clerk-like offices in the same courthouse. The Clerk of the District Court is the court-file office. The Ellsworth County Clerk is a county administrative office at Suite 6, led by Shelly D. Vopat with Deputy Julie Neuman. The County Clerk serves as County Freedom of Information Officer and handles commissioner records, agendas, minutes, elections, tax rolls, budgets, payroll, claims, personnel records, licenses, and county administrative records.
The Register of Deeds is also separate. That office is at Suite 7 and is led by Sue Arensman with Deputy Melissa Taylor. It records deeds, mortgages, oil and gas leases, plats, financing statements, tax liens, powers of attorney, military discharges, corporation papers, and county school records. Its page says records date back to the 1870s. Those are land and recorded-instrument records, not District Court case files.
| Office | Use For | Phone |
|---|---|---|
| Clerk of the District Court | Court case files, dockets, certified court copies, probate, divorce, criminal, civil, small claims | 785-472-4052 |
| County Clerk | County administrative records, commissioner records, elections, county open-records routing | 785-472-4161 |
| Register of Deeds | Deeds, mortgages, liens, plats, UCC records, military discharges, records dating to the 1870s | 785-472-3022 |
Request Ellsworth County Certified Copies
Certified court copies are requested from the Clerk of the District Court when the record is a District Court record. Examples include a divorce decree, probate letters, judgment, criminal disposition, order, or filed document. A certified copy is different from a plain docket printout because the clerk certifies it as a true court copy. For vital records, such as a certified marriage certificate, KDHE may be the right agency instead.
- Identify the case number if known. If not, gather party names, filing year, case type, and the document needed.
- Search Kansas CaseSearch first if public online case information may reveal the case number.
- Contact the Clerk of the District Court by phone, email, mail, or in person to ask whether the record is public and certifiable.
- Give the document name, number of copies, delivery method, and contact information.
- Pay any copy, certification, postage, or staff-time amount the clerk confirms before the copies are released.
- Use KDHE instead if the need is a certified marriage certificate or divorce certificate rather than a court decree.
Ellsworth County Request Fields
The research captured three official request paths: Kansas CaseSearch, the Kansas Judicial Branch court-record request route, and Ellsworth County open-records request materials linked from the County Clerk page. The county PDF fields could not be extracted with the installed tools, so the table uses the reliable field groups a requester should provide to the correct custodian without claiming a hidden form layout.
| Field | Needed For | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Case number | District Court records | Best identifier for certified copies and docket searches. |
| Party names | District Court and county records | Use full names and prior names if known. |
| Record type | All request routes | State whether the need is a decree, order, docket, probate letters, deed, minutes, or other file. |
| Filing year or date range | Older and non-digitized files | Helps separate similar names and narrow manual searches. |
| Copy type | Certified-copy requests | Plain copy, certified copy, emailed copy, mailed copy, or inspection request. |
| Requester contact | All request routes | Phone, email, mailing address, and billing contact if fees apply. |
| Authority or relationship | Restricted records | May be needed for sealed, juvenile, adoption, care and treatment, or protected records. |
Ellsworth County Court Clerk Fees
The assigned research did not provide a local District Court copy-fee table for the Clerk of the District Court. Kansas open-records law allows agencies to charge fees for copies, staff time, and related record-production costs where allowed, and the Judicial Branch request path should be used for court records when online access is not enough. The reliable fee table captured in the research is for the Register of Deeds, so it should be used only for recorded land and lien records.
| Item | Amount or Note | Office |
|---|---|---|
| District Court certified copy | Confirm with Clerk of the District Court | Clerk of the District Court |
| Court-record production cost | Fees may apply under Kansas records rules | Clerk of the District Court or Judicial Branch |
| Recording deeds, mortgages, or other instruments, first page | $21.00 | Register of Deeds |
| Real estate mortgage assignment or release, first page | $20.00 | Register of Deeds |
| Town plats | $32.00 each page | Register of Deeds |
| Certificate certifying instrument of record | $13.00 | Register of Deeds |
| Copy of filed financing statement | $1.00 per page | Register of Deeds |
| Certified copy, in addition to copying expense | $7.50 | Register of Deeds |
Note: Do not use Register of Deeds recording fees as District Court case-copy fees.
Ellsworth County Court Clerk Forms
For court records, use Kansas Judicial Branch Request Court Records if CaseSearch does not provide the needed record. The Judicial Branch says requests are acted on by the end of the third business day after receipt. For county administrative records, use the County Clerk as Freedom of Information Officer and the county open-records guide or request form linked from the county clerk page. For probate and divorce forms, use Kansas Judicial Council form pages.
- Kansas CaseSearch for public District Court case search.
- Judicial Branch Request Court Records for court-record requests.
- Kansas Judicial Council probate forms for probate filings.
- Kansas Judicial Council divorce forms for divorce filings.
- Ellsworth County open-records materials for county administrative records through the County Clerk.
Ellsworth County Register Records
The Ellsworth County Register of Deeds page is important because people often ask the court clerk for land records. Sue Arensman is the Register of Deeds, and Melissa Taylor is the deputy. The office is at 210 N Kansas Ave, Suite 7, Ellsworth, KS 67439-3118, with phone 785-472-3022 and fax 785-472-4912. It records land and lien documents, not District Court case files.
The Register of Deeds image source shows why the office should be named on a clerk page without being mislabeled as the court clerk.
Use the Register of Deeds for deeds, mortgages, oil and gas leases, plats, UCC filings, and records dating to the 1870s.