South Carolina's courts publish a public index for every county, searched county by county from one page, and since January 1, 2026 those indexes no longer show home addresses for new or existing cases. SLED sells its name based criminal record, CATCH, to anyone for $25, warns that a name search can miss or mismatch where a fingerprint search would not, and runs the registry with community notification by email. The state vital records office holds marriages and divorces as well as births and deaths.
The order to use: the county public index for the county where the person lives, the inmate search and the registry for status, LLR and the business name search for livelihood, CATCH when the criminal record itself is wanted and the birth date is known, then the county offices for deeds and parcels, listed on the South Carolina county pages at SearchSystems, with the Vital Records Office for certificates.
- Courts, by county: the Judicial Branch Case Records Search, a public index for each county and some municipal courts.
- Criminal record, $25: SLED CATCH, Citizens Access to Criminal Histories, a name based search of South Carolina records.
- Registered offenders: the South Carolina Sex Offender Registry, by name or location, with community notifications.
- In custody: the Department of Corrections Incarcerated Inmate Search.
- Licenses, companies, voters, certificates and money: the LLR license lookup, the business name search, MyscVOTES, the Vital Records Office and the Treasurer's unclaimed property program.
Written by SearchSystems.net from South Carolina's own systems: the South Carolina Judicial Branch, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, the South Carolina Department of Corrections, the South Carolina Election Commission, the South Carolina Department of Public Health, the South Carolina State Treasurer, the South Carolina Attorney General, the South Carolina Legislature, each read on October 13, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
The case records search: a public index for every county
The South Carolina Judicial Branch's Case Records Search page lists every county from Abbeville to York with a View Case Records link to that county's public index, Charleston and Greenville split between circuit and magistrate courts and a municipal court, and a lookup by county, city or ZIP code for anyone unsure which county a case is in; some municipal courts are in the public index as well. Cookies and JavaScript are required and some browsers need a pop up exception to see case detail. The page states the change that matters most for a people search: as of January 1, 2026, home address information is no longer displayed on the public index for new or existing cases. The site also offers a traffic ticket search, C-Track public access for the appellate courts, and separate pages on trial court, family court and appellate records and on expungement. A South Carolina case search is run county by county, and it no longer yields an address.
SLED CATCH: the $25 criminal record by name
Citizens Access to Criminal Histories, CATCH, lets anyone view and print South Carolina criminal records using a name based search for a non refundable fee of $25.00, with a $1.00 convenience fee for online searches that does not apply to mailed requests; effective July 1, 2026 online customers also pay a service fee of $1.43 per $25.00 report, or $1.14 per $8.00 report, none of which SLED keeps. Qualifying charitable organizations pay a reduced $8.00, and checks on prospective teachers go to school districts free. The search covers South Carolina only, excludes wanted persons, and is supported by fingerprints taken at arrest under Section 23-3-120, but it is a name based search requiring a starts with match on last name, first name and date of birth, with a Social Security number searched if given; SLED warns that aliases or a differing birth date can produce a false negative or a false positive and that fingerprints may be the only way to identify a subject in that case. Subjects have a right to correct erroneous records. SLED's Criminal Justice Information Services, the central state repository, runs the fingerprint system, processes court dispositions and expungements and keeps the computerized criminal history behind CATCH.
The registry, with community notifications
The South Carolina Sex Offender Registry, maintained by SLED with the county sheriffs, is searched by name or geographic location and shows photographs, aliases, reported addresses, map locations and the offenses behind each registration. Anyone may register for community notifications by agreeing to the conditions of use, entering a verification code and completing the notification form. SLED says the information is of record and may not reflect a registrant's current residence or status, that some of it is reported by the registrants and not independently verified, and that inclusion follows from a qualifying conviction rather than any judgment of current threat; S.C. Code section 23-3-510 attaches penalties to committing an offense with registry information. The division recommends Edge or Chrome for the site.
The inmate search, licenses and companies
The Department of Corrections' Incarcerated Inmate Search answered with its title only, so its fields are on the page. The Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation's license lookup redirected without text and the department's home page gave its motto alone, so the lookup's fields are on the site. The Secretary of State's Business Name Search takes a business name and a type of search behind a captcha, returning entities that contain the search text with a link to each official business profile; it searches by business, not by person.
The voters page and the Vital Records Office
The Election Commission's voters page points to MyscVOTES for checking and updating one's own registration and provisional ballot, and the login requires the county, first name, last name, date of birth and last four digits of the Social Security number as they appear on the voter registration card, so it serves the voter rather than a searcher; the county voter registration and elections office handles registration and absentee requests. The Department of Public Health's Vital Records Office maintains and issues certified copies of births, deaths, marriages and divorces that occurred in South Carolina, with pages on getting each, adoption birth certificates, court ordered amendments, fees, application forms and ID requirements; the divorce record is issued as a divorce report.
The Unclaimed Property Program, the ACP and Title 30
The State Treasurer's Unclaimed Property Program receives millions of dollars a year from companies that cannot locate owners, notes that individuals, estates, businesses, churches and charities can all have unclaimed property, and offers a search, claim status and a search for uncashed savings bonds. The Attorney General's Address Confidentiality Program provides a designated substitute address to qualified applicants to keep their physical address from being located through public records, with enrollment through an application assistant reached at 803-734-4517.
The Freedom of Information Act is Title 30, Chapter 4 of the South Carolina Code, whose findings declare it vital that public business be performed openly so citizens can learn the activities of their officials at minimum cost or delay, and whose definition of public body reaches every state department, board and agency, every county, municipality, school district and special purpose district, and any organization supported by or spending public funds. The Attorney General's FOIA page returned not found, so the statute is the source.
South Carolina: public index, SLED CATCH, registry alerts
In South Carolina the county public index answers the court question, minus the address it used to show, and CATCH answers the criminal question for $25 by name. The registry and the inmate search settle status, LLR and the business search settle livelihood, and the Vital Records Office confirms births, deaths, marriages and divorces. Deeds and parcels are county records, listed on the South Carolina county pages at SearchSystems.
Paid people search reports on South Carolinians resell CATCH and the county indexes; SLED sells the record directly, and the public index is free.
County Starting Points
Questions about finding someone in South Carolina
Every South Carolina Guide
The full set: arrest records, background checks, inmate search, offender registry, birth certificates, unclaimed property, business search, and the South Carolina records law that opens every door on this list.