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Court Records

South Carolina Court Records

How South Carolina's courts are organized, where their records are kept and how to search them.

South Carolina's circuit courts are divided into the Court of General Sessions for criminal cases and the Court of Common Pleas for civil cases. Each county's clerk of court keeps their records.

Most counties offer a free online Public Index of court cases, reachable from one statewide page.

South Carolina's Public Index is a county-by-county system rather than one combined database, so you may need to search more than one county. Most counties include General Sessions, Common Pleas, Family Court and magistrate court cases, but coverage varies.

How South Carolina's courts are organized

South Carolina has two appellate courts and several kinds of trial courts.

Supreme Court of South Carolina

Five justices hear appeals of major importance, death penalty appeals and review Court of Appeals decisions.

South Carolina Court of Appeals

Hears most appeals from the trial courts.

Circuit courts

General Sessions (criminal) and Common Pleas (civil) courts in 16 judicial circuits.

Family courts

Hear divorce, custody, support, juvenile and adoption cases.

Probate, magistrate and municipal courts

Probate courts handle estates and guardianships; magistrate courts hear minor criminal cases, small claims and evictions; municipal courts handle city cases.

Searching South Carolina court records online

Use the statewide Public Index page to reach each county's search.

Getting records from the clerk's office

The clerk of court in each county keeps the records for General Sessions, Common Pleas and Family Court. Clerks provide copies and certified copies for set fees.

Probate and magistrate court records come from those courts. Deeds are kept by the county register of deeds.

The clerk of court in each county is an elected official who keeps circuit and family court records, and in many counties also acts as register of deeds. Copies and certified copies are available for set fees, and many clerks accept mail requests.

What is public, and what is not

Most South Carolina court records are public, but juvenile, adoption and mental health records are confidential.

South Carolina allows expungement of dismissed charges, many first-time offenses and some other records. Expunged records are destroyed or removed from public view.

South Carolina's Supreme Court rules govern public access to court records and require redaction of personal identifiers. Family Court records involving children and juvenile records are confidential. South Carolina allows expungement of dismissed charges, many first-time offenses and some other records under its expungement statutes.

Older and archived records

Historical court records are held by the South Carolina Department of Archives and History in Columbia.

Older county court records, including Common Pleas and General Sessions journals, are held by county clerks and the South Carolina Department of Archives and History, which has an extensive collection of colonial and early state court records.

Criminal history and background records

A court file tells you what happened in one case in one court. A criminal history record (often called a rap sheet) pulls together arrests, charges and outcomes reported from across the state, so it is a different product kept by a different agency.

The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) keeps the state's criminal history records and sells public name-based searches through CATCH.

Federal court records in South Carolina

Federal cases, including federal crimes, bankruptcies, and lawsuits over federal law or between citizens of different states, are not filed in South Carolina's state courts. South Carolina is a single federal judicial district, and each has its own clerk's office:

Federal case files are searched through PACER, the federal judiciary's records system. PACER charges a small fee per page, but you pay nothing if your charges stay under the quarterly fee-waiver threshold, court opinions are free, and every federal courthouse has public terminals you can use at no cost. Many PACER documents have also been copied into the free RECAP Archive on CourtListener. Appeals from South Carolina's federal courts go to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

Tips for a faster search

  • Criminal cases are in General Sessions; civil cases are in Common Pleas.
  • If a county is not in the Public Index, contact the clerk of court directly.
  • Expunged records will not appear in public searches.
  • Use the Public Index for each county where the person lived or the incident happened; there is no single statewide search.
  • Have the full names of the parties, the county and a rough date range ready. A case number is the fastest way in if you have one.
  • Online indexes are not the official record. If a decision depends on it, get a copy (or a certified copy) from the clerk's office that holds the file.

Legal help and law libraries

Clerks and law librarians can explain how to find a record, but they cannot give legal advice. These organizations can point you in the right direction:

This guide is general information about public records, not legal advice. Court websites, fees and rules change, so confirm details with the court before you rely on them. Civics-Online.org is not affiliated with any court or government agency.