About the Fort Bend County Clerk's Office
The Fort Bend County Clerk is the Honorable Laura Richard, sworn into office in 2015 and again in 2019 and 2023. The office serves as clerk and custodian of records for Commissioners Court, the Constitutional County Court, and the statutory county courts at law. It is also the county recorder and local registrar for deeds, vital records, assumed names, and livestock brands.
The County Clerk has opened annex offices in Sienna and Sugar Land, built a user-friendly records search, and digitized about 2.3 million pages of probate and civil files. Appointments are available but not required.
Fort Bend County Clerk
Clerk: Laura Richard
301 Jackson Street, Suite 101
Richmond, TX 77469-3108
281-342-3411
cclerkrecords@fortbendcountytx.gov
Appointments available, not required
The County Clerk background page lists the office duties and the elected clerk.
The office runs two email lines: the Records Division at cclerkrecords@fortbendcountytx.gov and the Courts Division at cclerkcourts@fortbendcountytx.gov.
What the County Clerk Does in Fort Bend County
The County Clerk's record universe is broad. It is far more than court cases. The office records property documents, registers births and deaths that occur in the county, issues marriage licenses, and keeps the files for the county courts at law. The list below covers the main record sets.
- Official Public Records: deeds, mortgages, easements, assumed names, powers of attorney, bills of sale, and liens.
- Marriage licenses and Fort Bend County marriage records.
- Birth and death certificates for events in the county, which are not public record.
- Misdemeanor and county-court civil case records from 1983 forward.
- Probate, guardianship, and trust records from 1987 forward, plus historical probate volumes.
- Commissioners Court minutes, attachments, and videos from 1983 forward.
This breadth is why the County Clerk page is the right starting point for most non-court records. Someone researching a property title needs the recorded deeds and liens. A business owner files an assumed name certificate here. A family ordering a marriage record uses this office, not the District Clerk. The office even keeps livestock brand registrations, a reminder that the County Clerk is the county's general recorder, not only a court clerk.
The court side of the office is real too. The County Clerk is the clerk for the Constitutional County Court and the statutory county courts at law, which means misdemeanor criminal cases, county-level civil suits, and probate all flow through this office. Civil court coverage online includes county-court cases under $325,000 plus condemnation and workers compensation matters from 1983 forward.
How to Request a Certified Copy
A certified copy carries the clerk's seal. For a deed, a marriage license, or a county-court record, the County Clerk issues it. The county launched phase one of a digital e-certification system in December 2025, which provides tamper-evident certified court documents at the counter. Home-printed copies of official public records are watermarked "UNOFFICIAL DOCUMENT."
- Find the record and note the instrument number or case number.
- Choose plain or certified, and count the pages and documents.
- Submit in person, by email, or by mail with the correct fee.
- For certified marriage copies online, order through VitalChek, the clerk's approved partner.
Certified birth and death certificates require proof of identification and are not ordered online. Mail copy requests go to the County Clerk at 301 Jackson Street, Suite 101, Richmond, TX 77469-3108.
There is a difference between viewing and certifying. The online Official Public Records system lets you view and even print a document, but a home-printed copy carries an "UNOFFICIAL DOCUMENT" watermark. Certification is a clerk function with a seal and a fee. For a deed used in a sale, or a record needed for a legal matter, order the certified copy rather than relying on the watermarked print.
Records Request Fields
Official Public Records searches use a few fields. For a name search, the county instructs entering the name as LASTNAME FIRSTNAME. To see every document under one name, fill only the Party Name field. Write down the instrument number when you find the record you want to copy.
| Field | Required | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Party Name | Optional | Enter as LASTNAME FIRSTNAME; leave others blank to see all. |
| Grantor / Grantee | Optional | Name search for the giving or receiving party. |
| Instrument Number | Helpful | Needed to request a copy after locating a record. |
| Document Type | Optional | Search by recorded document type. |
Fort Bend County Clerk Fees
The County Clerk posts clear copy fees. Most plain and certified copies cost the same per page, with certification added per document. Credit and debit payments add a convenience fee through the county's payment processor.
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Plain copy, paper | $1.00 per page |
| Non-certified electronic copy | $1.00 up to 10 pages, then $0.10 per page |
| Certified copy | $1.00 per page plus $5.00 certification per document |
| Certificate of Authentication | $5.00 per certificate |
| Subdivision plat | $10.00 per 24x36 page |
The marriage license fee is set on the County Clerk's vital fee schedule. The marriage and divorce records page covers license and copy steps. Credit and debit payments add a convenience fee charged by the county's payment processor, and bulk data on CD-ROM or by file transfer carries its own posted rates. Confirm the current amount on the fees page before sending payment, since the schedule is updated from time to time.
Common County Clerk Resources
The County Clerk's homepage is a hub for county records beyond the courts. These links cover the searches and services people use most.
- Online Record Search - official public records, civil, misdemeanor, and probate.
- Marriage licenses - formal and informal marriage information.
- County Clerk fees - the full copy and recording fee schedule.
- Vital Records Division - birth, death, and marriage record authority.
The homepage also links appointment and wait-time tools, foreclosure search, legal notices, a property fraud alert, and a self-help video library. The property fraud alert is worth a mention: it lets a property owner sign up to be notified if a document is recorded under their name, which helps catch deed fraud early.
Because the office records so many document types, it helps to know the right starting point. A deed, lien, or DBA starts with the Official Public Records search. A marriage record starts with the marriage page. A misdemeanor or probate case starts with the online record search court categories. Matching the task to the right tool keeps a search short.
Mail and Online Services
The County Clerk added e-commerce for Official Public Records, VitalChek for online vital and marriage copy orders, and a contact center for phone support. For credit-card mail requests, the office asks for the reason for the charge, the date, the amount, the authorization number, and the requester's contact details, sent to the Records or Courts email. Some legacy court documents are being moved into the Odyssey system and are withheld from the public during that project.
The office has modernized steadily. It opened annex offices in Sienna and Sugar Land, rewrote its fee schedules for readability, and digitized about 2.3 million pages of probate and civil files through the Kofile project. In December 2025, it launched phase one of a digital e-certification system for court documents, giving walk-in customers self-validating, tamper-evident certified copies at the counter, with online expansion planned. The office has also earned a state Vital Statistics Five Star Award each year of the current clerk's tenure.
Two email lines keep requests sorted. Records, official public records, and vital requests go to cclerkrecords@fortbendcountytx.gov, while court-records questions go to cclerkcourts@fortbendcountytx.gov. Using the right line, and including the instrument or case number, gets a faster answer than a general inquiry.