Court records online: Lexbase, Krimfup and what you can do

Published 6 October 2026 Checked 6 October 2026

Läs på svenska اقرأ بالعربية به فارسی بخوانید Ku akhri Soomaali

Lexbase and Krimfup collect judgments and police investigation files and make them searchable by name. Here’s what the sites themselves say, what the law says and what you can do.

Why are judgments online?

Judgments are public records. According to the Swedish courts, most documents in the courts’ work are public, and anyone can request them. The court checks for confidentiality every time. Sveriges Domstolar: What becomes public (in Swedish).

The criminal record register (belastningsregistret) is something else. There, entries are deleted after set periods, and you order extracts about yourself. The judgments, though, stay as public records, and the sites that collect them hold publishing certificates and have their own rules for how long they show them.

Lexbase

Lexbase publishes news articles about court cases, based on public records. Searching requires a subscription, and readers are anonymous, according to Lexbase.

• No automatic deletion. Lexbase says articles aren’t deleted automatically, but that articles about minor criminal cases and disputes, so-called småmål, are sometimes removed after five years.
• Errors or no public interest. If an article contains errors, or there’s no public interest in keeping it, you can contact the editors at redaktion@lexbase.se. Lexbase: Contact (in Swedish).

Krimfup

Krimfup sells judgments from 2018 and police investigation files from 2019, searchable by name. Krimfup logs searches, according to its privacy policy.

• Krimfup removes nothing. Krimfup says it doesn’t remove any personal data, and that the GDPR doesn’t apply to the data in its database.
• Deletion after five years. Documents are deleted automatically after five years, according to Krimfup.
• Letters only. Krimfup only accepts matters about personal data by letter: Personuppgiftsansvarig, Fuplex AB, Olskroksgatan 20, 416 66 Göteborg.
• Never click “Begär handling”. If your search gets no hits, Krimfup shows a “Begär handling” (request document) button. It makes Krimfup fetch documents about that name.

Don’t pay for removal

Some services charge to remove you. Krimfup itself says that sites claiming they can remove data from Krimfup are misleading. Use the free routes here.

What does the law say?

In July 2026, the EU Court ruled, in case C-199/24 about Lexbase itself, that a publishing certificate doesn’t by itself exempt a site from the GDPR. A database of judgments only counts as journalism if the material is processed, follows press ethics or an editorial line, and is checked before publication. The Attunda District Court will now decide whether Lexbase is journalism.

Sweden’s data protection authority (IMY) is reviewing Lexbase and Krimfup. The question is whether they break the GDPR by publishing data about crimes. During the review, IMY isn’t investigating individual complaints about them. More about the EU ruling.

What you can do

1. Lexbase: email redaktion@lexbase.se. Explain why the article should be removed, for example that the case is old and minor, that something is wrong, or that there’s no public interest.
2. Krimfup: send an erasure request under the GDPR by letter to the address above. Consider referring to the EU Court’s ruling C-199/24, and keep the reply. Krimfup says the GDPR doesn’t apply to it.
3. Google: if a search result concerns old judgments, you can ask Google to remove it under the right to be forgotten. How to do it with Google.
4. Keep every reply. You may need them if you want to complain later, once IMY’s review is finished.

A simplified explanation, not legal advice.

Questions