How to Find Mississippi Court Records (2026)

Mississippi court records at a glance
Statewide case search	Mississippi Electronic Courts / PAMEC (Public Access to Mississippi Electronic Courts)
Criminal history check	Mississippi DPS Criminal Information Center — Personal Background Check
Appellate opinions	Mississippi Supreme Court and Court of Appeals General Docket
Federal cases	PACER (2 districts)
Plain copy fee	Circuit clerk: $1.00 per page if the clerk's office makes the copy, $0.25 per page if you make it yourself (Miss. Code Ann. § 25-7-13). Chancery clerk: $0.50 per page by the clerk's staff, $0.25 per page self-service (§ 25-7-9)
Certified copy fee	Circuit clerk: $2.00 per page for copies the clerk makes and certifies (§ 25-7-13). Chancery clerk: $1.00 per complete document for certification, added to the per-page copy charge (§ 25-7-9)
Who keeps trial records	Clerk of the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals (searchable through the appellate docket); Chancery Clerk of the county

Mississippi keeps trial-court records with the clerk of the court that heard the case, in the county where it was filed. The Circuit Clerk is the clerk of the Circuit Court (felonies, larger civil suits, and appeals from justice and municipal court) and of the County Court where one exists. The Chancery Clerk is a separate elected office that clerks the Chancery Court, Mississippi's court of equity, which hears divorce, child custody, adoption, guardianship, probate, and land-title disputes. With 82 counties, that is 82 circuit clerks and 82 chancery clerks, each keeping different case types on different systems.

Mississippi's statewide tool is Mississippi Electronic Courts (MEC), the Administrative Office of Courts' e-filing and case-management system. Members of the public search and view documents through its companion public-access application, commonly called PAMEC; it is not a free lookup — a PAMEC account carries an annual registration fee plus a per-page charge for any search result, billed monthly. Appellate dockets, briefs, and opinions of the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals are searched separately and for free on the judiciary's website. Coverage of trial courts inside MEC depends on whether that county's circuit or chancery court has adopted MEC by local rule, so an empty MEC result does not mean no case exists — check the county clerk directly.

The most common mistake is searching the wrong clerk. A divorce, guardianship, or estate is a Chancery Court matter and will not appear in the circuit clerk's felony or civil index. A misdemeanor written up by city police goes to Municipal Court, a city system the county does not index at all. Use the court table below to identify the right office before you search.

How Mississippi courts are organized

Which court heard a case decides who keeps the file. Use this table to pick the right clerk before you search, and see the guides to criminal, civil, family, and probate records for what each court's file contains.

Court	Handles	Who holds the records
Supreme Court of Mississippi	Civil and criminal appeals of last resort Death-penalty direct appeals Attorney discipline and bar admission	Clerk of the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals (searchable through the appellate docket) The Supreme Court assigns most appeals to the Court of Appeals and retains cases by rule or by pulling a case back for review.
Court of Appeals of the State of Mississippi	Civil and criminal appeals assigned by the Supreme Court Appeals from Circuit and Chancery Court	Clerk of the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals (searchable through the appellate docket)
Chancery Court	Divorce, child custody, and support Adoption and guardianship Probate of wills and estate administration Land title and boundary disputes	Chancery Clerk of the county Mississippi's court of equity. The chancery clerk is also the county's land-records custodian and, in most counties, the county administrator.
Circuit Court	Felony criminal cases Civil suits above the county court's jurisdictional limit Appeals from county, justice, and municipal court Eminent domain	Circuit Clerk of the county Circuit Court is Mississippi's trial court of general jurisdiction for law (as opposed to equity).
County Court	Civil cases within a set dollar limit Misdemeanors referred from circuit or justice court Eminent domain and some youth court matters	Circuit Clerk of the county (County Court is a division the circuit clerk also serves) Only counties that meet a population threshold have a separate County Court; smaller counties route those cases through Circuit Court.
Justice Court	Misdemeanors Small claims and civil cases up to the justice-court limit Traffic citations issued by the sheriff's office Initial appearances and preliminary hearings	Clerk of the Justice Court Each county has one Justice Court with multiple judges; records are kept separately from the circuit and chancery clerks.
Municipal Court	Misdemeanors within city limits City ordinance violations Traffic tickets issued by city police	Municipal court clerk for that city Not covered by county portals; contact the city that issued the citation.

Search Mississippi court records online

Statewide case search

Mississippi Electronic Courts / PAMEC (Public Access to Mississippi Electronic Courts)

Official Paid Account required

Cost: $10 annual account registration/renewal fee, plus $0.20 per page for any search result (a no-match search is billed as one page); billed monthly
Coverage: Docket entries, case header information, and filed documents for the circuit, chancery, and county courts that have adopted MEC by local rule; coverage is not statewide for every case type
Records: Civil, Criminal, Family, Probate

This is a paid subscription system, not a free public search. Register as a "non-attorney"/PAMEC user at the MEC site. An empty result may mean the court has not adopted MEC rather than that no case exists.

Criminal history (convictions)

Mississippi DPS Criminal Information Center — Personal Background Check

Official Paid Account required

Cost: $32.00 per request, paid by credit or debit card
Coverage: A search of the individual's own Mississippi criminal history as compiled in the state's central repository, built from arrests and dispositions reported by Mississippi law enforcement and courts
Records: Criminal

This self-service portal is name/identity-based, not a fingerprint submission, and by state policy may only be used to check your own record — businesses and third parties are barred from using it to screen others. Results can take up to 30 days. Separate fingerprint-based background checks exist for certain licensed occupations (health care, child care, and similar) and are handled through the Department of Public Safety's Applicant Processing / fingerprinting program, not this online portal.

Appellate courts

Mississippi Supreme Court and Court of Appeals General Docket

Official Free search

Cost: Free
Coverage: Docket entries, filings, orders, and opinions for the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals, searchable by party name, attorney name, or case number; opinions are available back to 1996
Records: Appeals

A login is offered for attorneys and staff, but the docket and opinion search itself is open to the public without a paid account.

Federal court records in Mississippi

Federal cases (bankruptcy, federal crimes, lawsuits under federal law) are not in state portals. They live in PACER, organized by district. Mississippi has 2 federal judicial districts.

District	Main courthouse	Court website
Northern District of Mississippi	Oxford (also Aberdeen and Greenville)	www.msnd.uscourts.gov
Southern District of Mississippi	Jackson (also Gulfport and Hattiesburg)	www.mssd.uscourts.gov

Read our PACER guide for registration, the per-page fee, and the quarterly fee waiver.

Mississippi county court records

Trial-court records are kept by the clerk in the county where the case was filed. These are the largest counties in Mississippi; each guide covers the circuit clerk and other court offices, their addresses, and what is searchable online.

Request records in person or by mail

In person. Go to the clerk of the court that heard the case: the circuit clerk for circuit- and county-court files, the chancery clerk for divorce, probate, guardianship, and land matters. Bring the case number if you have it, or the party names and an approximate filing year. Most clerks maintain a public counter or terminal for searching the index at no charge; document copies are paid at the counter.

By mail. Write to the clerk with the case number or party names and year, exactly which document you need (for example "the final judgment of divorce" or "the order admitting the will to probate"), whether you need a plain or certified copy, and a check or money order for the fee. Call the clerk's office first to confirm the current per-page charge — clerks bill under different statutes for circuit versus chancery records — and to ask about a self-addressed stamped envelope if you want the copies mailed back.

Online. Where a county's circuit or chancery court has adopted Mississippi Electronic Courts (MEC), you can search and view filed documents yourself through a paid PAMEC account. Coverage varies by county and case type, and some counties also run their own free case-index search on the county website that covers only certain courts (for example civil cases but not criminal, or land records but not chancery case dockets); check the county page for what is actually free there.

Records older than the online index. Many counties' online systems only reach back to when that court adopted electronic filing or indexing, commonly the 2000s or later. Older files are on paper or microfilm at the clerk's office, and the clerk may charge a search fee to locate them.

Fees

Item	Typical cost
Plain copy	Circuit clerk: $1.00 per page if the clerk's office makes the copy, $0.25 per page if you make it yourself (Miss. Code Ann. § 25-7-13). Chancery clerk: $0.50 per page by the clerk's staff, $0.25 per page self-service (§ 25-7-9)
Certified copy	Circuit clerk: $2.00 per page for copies the clerk makes and certifies (§ 25-7-13). Chancery clerk: $1.00 per complete document for certification, added to the per-page copy charge (§ 25-7-9)

Copy fees are set by statute and differ by office: Miss. Code Ann. Section 25-7-13 governs circuit clerks and Section 25-7-9 governs chancery clerks. Some clerks post their own schedules (for example, Madison County's circuit clerk charges $10.00 per name for a staff-run records search and $1.00 per document for certification). Both statutes are amended periodically, so confirm the current amount with the clerk before sending payment.

Need a copy an agency will accept? See how to get certified copies of court records.

Sealed, expunged, and restricted records

Mississippi court records are open to the public unless a statute or court order restricts them:

Expunged records. Under Miss. Code Ann. Section 99-19-71, a person may petition the court that handled the case to expunge a first-offense misdemeanor, certain eligible felonies (after a waiting period and completion of the sentence, excluding violent, sexual, and other listed offenses), or any case that ended in dismissal, a no true bill, acquittal, or no disposition. An expunged case is removed from the public record.
Youth Court records. Cases involving minors in Youth Court are confidential by statute, with access limited to the parties, their attorneys, and specified agencies.
Adoption records. Adoption proceedings and the resulting records are sealed under Mississippi law.
Judicial deliberations and jury information. Records reflecting communications among judges, and jury lists and related information, are exempt from the Mississippi Public Records Act under Sections 9-1-38 and 13-5-97.
Personal identifying information of court and law-enforcement personnel. Home addresses and certain private contact information of judges, prosecutors, and law-enforcement officers are exempt from disclosure under Section 25-61-12, separate from the case record itself.

The Mississippi Public Records Act of 1983 (Miss. Code Ann. Section 25-61-1 et seq.) governs public bodies generally; court case files are additionally shaped by court rule and the clerks' own fee statutes, so a records request for a case file goes to the clerk, not through a public-records request to the county board.

To remove your own record from public view, read how to expunge or seal a criminal record.

Frequently asked questions

Are Mississippi court records public?

Yes. Mississippi court records are presumed open under the Mississippi Public Records Act and common law, with specific exceptions such as expunged cases, Youth Court records, adoptions, and jury and judicial-deliberation records.

Is there a free statewide search for Mississippi court records?

No single free statewide case search covers every court. Mississippi Electronic Courts (MEC), through its public-access application, requires a paid account with an annual fee plus a per-page charge. Appellate dockets and opinions are searched for free on the judiciary's website, but trial-court records must generally be searched county by county.

What is the difference between the Circuit Clerk and the Chancery Clerk in Mississippi?

The Circuit Clerk keeps felony criminal, county-court, and general civil records for Circuit Court. The Chancery Clerk is a separate office that keeps divorce, custody, probate, guardianship, adoption, and land records for Chancery Court. Both are elected county officials with separate offices.

How do I find out if someone has a criminal record in Mississippi?

The Department of Public Safety's online background check is a self-check tool only — Mississippi law does not let a business or third party use it to screen someone else. To check whether a specific person has pending or past charges, search the circuit clerk in the counties where that person has lived, since Mississippi has no free public statewide criminal case search.

Which clerk has my Mississippi divorce record?

The Chancery Clerk in the county where the divorce was filed. Ask for the final judgment of divorce, and request a certified copy if you need it for a name change, remarriage, or benefits.

How do I get a certified copy of a Mississippi court record?

Request it from the clerk of the court that handled the case — the circuit clerk or the chancery clerk, depending on the case type — in person or by mail. Certified copies cost more than plain copies and carry the clerk's seal.

Sources

State of Mississippi Judiciary — MEC General Information — https://courts.ms.gov/mec/GeneralInformation.php
Mississippi Electronic Courts (MEC) — https://courts.ms.gov/mec/mec.php
MEC — PAMEC (Non-Attorney) Terms and Conditions — https://courts.ms.gov/mec/Non-attorney%20Terms%20and%20Conditions.pdf
Mississippi Supreme Court and Court of Appeals docket/opinion search — https://courts.ms.gov/appellatecourts/docket/login.php
Mississippi Department of Public Safety — Criminal Information Center — https://www.dps.ms.gov/investigation/criminal-information-center
Mississippi DPS Personal Background Check — https://www.ms.gov/dps/background_check
Miss. Code Ann. Section 99-19-71 — Expunction (via Justia Mississippi Code) — https://law.justia.com/codes/mississippi/title-99/chapter-19/in-general/section-99-19-71/
Miss. Code Ann. Section 25-7-13 — Circuit clerk fees (via Justia Mississippi Code) — https://law.justia.com/codes/mississippi/title-25/chapter-7/section-25-7-13/
Miss. Code Ann. Section 25-7-9 — Chancery clerk fees (via Justia Mississippi Code) — https://law.justia.com/codes/mississippi/title-25/chapter-7/section-25-7-9/
Miss. Code Ann. Section 25-7-13 — Circuit clerk fees (via FindLaw) — https://codes.findlaw.com/ms/title-25-public-officers-and-employees-public-records/ms-code-sect-25-7-13/
Miss. Code Ann. Section 25-7-9 — Chancery clerk fees (via FindLaw) — https://codes.findlaw.com/ms/title-25-public-officers-and-employees-public-records/ms-code-sect-25-7-9/
Mississippi Ethics Commission — The Public Records Act — https://www.ethics.ms.gov/thepublicrecordact