Located outside the Court Administrator's Office is a Self-Help Center and Pro Se Workstation for the public to use if you are handling your own Court case such as criminal expungement; car title problem; divorce; custody; child support; landlord/tenant issues; conciliation court claims or other legal issues.  Print court forms or receive help in filling out the forms by calling the self-help center.  This can also be accessed from your home computer by going to www.mncourts.gov/selfhelp or you can also call the self-help center at 651-259-3888 Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. for assistance.  However, the staff cannot offer legal advice.  If you need legal advice you must contact an attorney.  If you are looking for various other court forms these are available at www.mncourts.gov/forms. 

We also have the Law Library which is available for public use, which is located in the basement of the Law Enforcement Center.  There is also a public terminal located in the Windom Public Library for the public to access Westlaw.

Cottonwood County is part of the fifteen counties which make up the Fifth Judicial District.  This goes from Rock County to Lyon County to Nicollet County and Faribault County.  We are part of the CMNPR Assignment District which consists of Cottonwood, Murray, Nobles, Pipestone and Rock counties.   

Residents of Cottonwood County now have the options of paying their fines by phone, web or mail.  If you pay by IVR/IWR there is a convenience fee of $1.25, as of July 1, 2011 it will increase to $1.50.  By phone call 1-800-657-3611, by web go to www.mncourts.gov or by mail they can mail payments directly to Minnesota Court Payment Center, PO Box 898, Willmar, MN  56201.  If sending a payment to MCPC, please allow 10 days from the date the citation was issued before making payment.

If you wish to contest a citation, you must contact your local court.  Starting October 15, 2010 all of our citations will be scanned and sent to the MCPC to be entered.  In January, 2011 we anticipate being on auto referral, which means that if a citation has not been paid by the due date, and no extension has been requested by the due date, the case will automatically be referred to the Department of Revenue for collection.

The juror qualification questionnaires are now sent out from a centralized location for all jurors in the State of Minnesota to help save on cost.  As the technology has been expanding in the judicial system, jurors may now submit their juror qualification questionnaires online, or return them by mail.