Access Chesterfield County Clerk Records

Chesterfield County Clerk of Court

The Chesterfield County Clerk of Court is the local court-record office for Circuit Court and Family Court. The county department page states that the Clerk serves those courts and handles docket management, receipts, fines, and records. The current Clerk is Christy F. Gaddy. Her county biography notes that she began in the office in 1998, worked in General Sessions, later served as Chief Deputy Clerk, and began service as elected Clerk in January 2020.

The official Clerk of Court page is the best county source for hours, copy fees, child-support payment details, traffic-payment routing, and office contacts. The South Carolina Judicial Branch courthouse profile also lists the Clerk as the county court contact for Chesterfield in Judicial Circuit 4.

The county Clerk page shows the office contact block used for Chesterfield County Clerk records and copy questions.

The page is useful because it gives the Clerk's phone, email, public hours, copy charges, and the local distinctions between Clerk files and magistrate matters.

Chesterfield County Clerk Records

The Clerk of Court keeps the filed record for the county's Circuit Court work. In South Carolina, Circuit Court has two major divisions: Common Pleas for civil cases and General Sessions for criminal prosecutions. The Clerk also supports Family Court records, but many domestic and juvenile matters have privacy limits that ordinary civil files do not have.

A user looking for a Chesterfield County Clerk record should separate the record type before calling. Common Pleas files can include complaints, answers, judgments, liens, lis pendens, and rosters. General Sessions files can include indictment numbers, CDR codes, bond entries, hearings, motions, pleas, dispositions, sentence sheets, and restitution entries when public. Family Court files can include divorce, custody, support, visitation, adoption, juvenile, and related domestic orders, but access can be restricted by statute or court rule.

• Common Pleas: larger civil disputes, judgments, liens, lis pendens, and civil rosters.
• General Sessions: felony and serious criminal court files, charges, motions, pleas, and sentence entries.
• Family Court: divorce decrees, support, custody, and domestic-relations filings, with stronger privacy limits.
• Rosters: public court schedules for Common Pleas, General Sessions, and Family Court terms.
• Transcripts: written requests go to the assigned court reporter, not a generic online download.

Search Chesterfield County Clerk Records

Online searching starts with the Chesterfield Public Index. The state case-records page warns that cookies and JavaScript must be enabled and that some browsers may need a pop-up exception for case details. The Public Index is helpful for party-name searches, case numbers, agency filters, case types, action entries, CDR codes, indictment numbers, date filters, and civil index fields.

Public Index results are not a certified-copy service. If a result is needed for court filing, employment of counsel, a title issue, or a personal record packet, contact the Clerk's Office after finding the case number. For recent booking or sheriff reports, use sheriff channels. For prosecution files, use the Fourth Circuit Solicitor. For marriage licenses and probate estates, use Probate Court.

1. Open the Chesterfield Public Index or the SC Judicial Branch case-records county page.
2. Choose the court agency that fits the file, such as Common Pleas, General Sessions, Bond Court, or Central Court.
3. Search by case number first when known. For a name search, enter last name and first name, then narrow by party type or date.
4. Review docket entries, charges tabs, action dates, and disposition fields cautiously because not every document image is available online.
5. Call or visit the Clerk's Office with the case number when a certified copy, staff-made copy, or transcript route is needed.

Request Chesterfield County Copies

Certified-copy requests need enough detail for staff to locate the file. The research did not locate a Chesterfield-specific Clerk records-request PDF, so the practical request fields come from the Public Index, the Clerk FAQ, and court-record routing. Give the case number if available, party names, case type, filing year or date range, document name, copy type, and return contact information.

The Clerk can also provide a criminal-record statement for matters filed in the Clerk's Office. That local statement costs $10, and the requester must appear with photo identification, Social Security number, and date of birth. The Clerk FAQ states that Magistrate Court cases are not included in that statement, so lower-court charges may require Public Index, Magistrate/Central Court, or sheriff channels.

Chesterfield County Clerk Fees

Clerk fees are separate from solicitor FOIA fees, DPH vital-record fees, and federal PACER fees. The Chesterfield County Clerk FAQ gives local copy charges and the cost of a criminal-record statement from files in the Clerk's Office. Transcript charges are not fixed on the county page because the assigned court reporter estimates the cost after receiving a written request.

Family Court and Support Records

Family Court records are not handled the same way as open civil files. The Clerk page directs users to the South Carolina Judicial Department for Family Court and other court forms. Beth Benton is listed as the Family Court Deputy at 843-623-6301. Divorce decrees are Clerk/Family Court records in the county where the final hearing was held, while DPH divorce reports are a separate state vital-record product and are not decrees.

Child-support payment verification is handled through the automated information line at 843-623-5568. The Clerk FAQ says credit cards and online payments are not available locally for child support. Personal checks are accepted unless returned, and returned-check follow-up requires cash or money order. Mailed payments go to the Clerk of Court at P.O. Box 529, Chesterfield, SC 29709, and the case number must be written on the payment.

Chesterfield County Rosters

Common Pleas roster timing is a local detail worth checking before assuming a case is ready for court. The Clerk FAQ says a case must be filed for 120 days before being placed on the non-jury roster and 365 days before being placed on the jury roster. Roster searches are available through the SC Judicial Branch and Public Index roster channel, but online rosters are not official records.

Circuit Court and Family Court are courts of record, so proceedings are recorded by assigned state court reporters. Transcript requests must be made in writing to the court reporter, with the case name and hearing or trial date. Court reporter contact information may come from an attorney or from South Carolina Court Administration at 803-734-1800.

What the Clerk Cannot Do

The Clerk's Office can explain procedures, provide file access where allowed, point users to forms, and process copy requests. It cannot give legal advice, tell a party what to file, or decide whether a record should be sealed, expunged, or released. South Carolina public access is broad, but juvenile records, sealed files, expunged charges, adoption matters, mental-health proceedings, and sensitive personal identifiers are restricted or redacted under state law and court rules.

For prosecutor-held records, contact the Fourth Circuit Solicitor FOIA channel. For sheriff incident reports or booking reports, use the Sheriff's Office request pages. For Probate Court records and marriage licenses, call Probate Court. Keeping those channels separate helps avoid delays and wrong-office requests.