MN Trial Court Public Access
You can now access MN state trial court records via the internet through the Minnesota Trial Court Public Access Remote view (MPA): http://www.mncourts.gov/publicaccess
Please note that the information accessible via MPA is NOT exactly the same as what you get when you search MNCIS at the courthouses.
From the www.mncourts.gov website:
"Courthouse public access terminals provide the most complete access to electronic district court case records, because they are not restricted by the remote access provisions of the Rules of Public Access (see Rule 8, subd. 2). For example, street addresses and name searches for pre-conviction criminal case records are available at courthouse public access terminals, but not through the online case inquiry, as described above."
Attorney searches cannot be completed via MPA, but are available via the courthouse terminals.
Additionally, the MPA system is based on the MNCIS system (MN Court Information System). Dakota County records and Ramsey criminal records are not yet part of this system. Dakota records move to MNCIS at the end of February and Ramsey criminal records move the weekend of April 11, 2008. Those records are currently only available at their respective courthouses.
Source: MN Association of Law Libraries