1. Start Here: Who Holds What in South Carolina
South Carolina's 46 counties are the starting point for deeds, estate proceedings, local tax records and many court searches. A statewide agency handles a different question: SLED maintains the criminal history repository, the Secretary of State holds business filings, and the Department of Public Health maintains registered vital events. Finding a person's name in one of these systems does not establish that every South Carolina record concerning that person has been searched.
For a lawsuit, begin with the county and the court named on the paperwork. For a house, identify the county containing the parcel rather than relying on its mailing city. For a certificate, identify where the birth, death, marriage or divorce occurred. A South Carolina resident's out-of-state birth is not registered with South Carolina Vital Records simply because the person now lives in Charleston or Columbia.
South Carolina also separates information lookup from official proof. A county Public Index entry can help locate a judgment, but a certified judgment comes from its clerk. A property tax account can identify a parcel, but the recorded deed supplies the instrument conveying an interest. Decide which document you actually need before paying for a South Carolina search or certificate.
2. South Carolina's Freedom of Information Act in 2026
The South Carolina Freedom of Information Act, Title 30, Chapter 4, governs access to public-body records subject to exemptions. Section 30-4-30 distinguishes the initial access decision from production. For a written request, the public body normally has ten business days to provide its determination and reasons. That becomes twenty business days when the requested records are more than twenty-four months old. Saturdays, Sundays and legal public holidays are excluded from those determination periods.
Once access is granted, production ordinarily follows within thirty calendar days, or thirty-five calendar days for records more than twenty-four months old. If the body requires a permitted deposit, production runs from receipt of that deposit. A missed determination deadline means approval as to nonexempt material; it does not erase exemptions or make confidential material public. Keep the request date, determination date and deposit date separately when following up.
Charges must reflect the permitted actual costs of search, retrieval, redaction and copying. The statute ties staff charges to the lowest-paid employee qualified to perform the work. It prohibits charging to examine whether a record is disclosable and prohibits a copying charge for records transmitted electronically, although permissible search, redaction or scanning work can still cost money. A reasonable deposit cannot exceed twenty-five percent of the anticipated total. Ask for the posted schedule and an estimate before authorizing a large search.
Agency procedures matter as well. The State Treasurer's FOIA page links its policy and fee schedule and provides separate request forms for its annual unclaimed-property report and uncashed-checks list. That is a different service from claiming your own funds through the Treasurer's public search.
For an unresolved denial, Section 30-4-100 provides a circuit-court route for a South Carolina citizen seeking declaratory or injunctive relief. Its filing limit is generally one year after the violation, or after the related public vote, whichever is later. A request for reconsideration should identify the withheld records and disputed exemption; it should not be assumed to extend a court filing deadline.
3. Court Records: County Public Indexes and Separate Federal Systems
The South Carolina Judicial Branch includes the Supreme Court, Court of Appeals and trial courts. South Carolina's Circuit Court operates in sixteen judicial circuits, with Common Pleas handling civil matters and General Sessions handling criminal matters. Family, probate, magistrate and municipal courts have separate responsibilities. A circuit covering several counties does not turn every county's records into one combined name search.
Start with the Judicial Branch's county case-records search. Select the county, then the appropriate public index or local system. Public case lookup generally does not carry a search charge, but copying and certification are separate clerk services. Search a case number when available; otherwise try the party's name and compare the filing date, court and case type. South Carolina's court-records directory brings the local routes together.
Charleston maintains distinct resources for the Master in Equity and Probate Court. Equity proceedings and estate administration should not be treated as interchangeable docket categories. In the Midlands, Richland County's government directory routes requests to county offices, while its Estate Inquiry specifically serves probate research. Sumter County Family Court provides the local contact route for domestic proceedings. For these records, ask the relevant clerk which documents are publicly accessible rather than assuming that a visible case entry opens every filing.
Appeals have their own appellate case-search system. Published opinions and docket entries answer different questions: an opinion states the court's reasoning, while a docket records activity in the case. Neither should be substituted for a certified trial-court order required by another agency.
Federal cases use PACER. The supplied South Carolina Bankruptcy Court electronic records link is specifically a bankruptcy system, not the general federal district-court search. The bankruptcy CM/ECF entrance likewise belongs to the bankruptcy court. For federal appeals, use the Fourth Circuit's PACER information. Identify the federal court before signing in so that a bankruptcy search is not mistaken for a search of all South Carolina federal civil and criminal cases.
4. Criminal History: What SLED CATCH Supplies
The SLED CATCH service searches South Carolina criminal history by name and identifying information. Its standard state search fee is $25. Effective July 1, 2026, SLED lists a $1.43 online service charge, making the ordinary online total $26.43. Approved charitable organizations have an $8 search rate plus the listed $1.14 online service charge. Eligible school-district checks for prospective teachers and substitutes have separate treatment; the general public should not select those categories merely to obtain a lower price.
CATCH searches the South Carolina repository. It does not supply a nationwide criminal history, a wanted-person check or a sex-offender registry search. The underlying repository uses arrest fingerprint submissions, but the public transaction is still a name-based search. Similar names, incomplete identifying information and reporting gaps can affect results. A match needs careful comparison before anyone concludes that it belongs to the person being researched.
South Carolina's criminal-records directory connects repository searches with the court and agency records that may explain an entry. When a report shows an arrest without a clear outcome, locate the criminal case in the county where it was prosecuted. A dismissal, conviction or other disposition belongs in the court record; a bare arrest entry cannot establish the outcome by itself.
The CATCH instructions also provide a mail-request route. Follow the current form, payment and return-envelope requirements, and specify if certification or notarization is needed. Mailing avoids the online convenience transaction but does not waive the state search charge. If an organization requires a fingerprint-based check under a particular licensing or employment program, ask that organization for its approved process before purchasing the public name search.
For a common surname, record the exact name and date of birth submitted to CATCH and retain the response identifier. If SLED directs a result to special processing, complete that process instead of buying repeated searches with small spelling changes. A county court result can help distinguish cases, but it cannot expand CATCH into a federal or multistate criminal-history report.
5. Arrest Reports, County Jails, Prison Custody and Warrants
A South Carolina arrest can generate records in several offices. The arresting department holds its incident and arrest documentation, the detention facility holds booking and custody information, and the court records the filed charge and its disposition. SLED's repository is another system, not an immediate mirror of every local booking. Ask for the agency's report number when trying to connect these records.
For current local detention, the supplied resources include Beaufort County's inmate inquiry, Newberry County's detention-center search and Richland County's jail system. A person awaiting a hearing in one of these county facilities may not appear in the state prison search. Conversely, an old county booking can remain searchable after the person has moved to a different institution or left custody. Read the booking and release fields together.
The South Carolina Department of Corrections search covers its sentenced prison population. The Department's search disclaimer describes information current as of midnight the previous day and excludes county detainees, juveniles, community-supervision cases and other categories outside that search. It also excludes released inmates and current fugitives from the current incarcerated population. A blank SCDC result therefore does not answer every custody question.
Community supervision belongs with the Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services. Its offender search and parole, pardon and release-services information serve different purposes from a prison roster. Use the hearing or decision information for the specific proceeding rather than reading eligibility for consideration as a promise of release.
For warrants, consult the Charleston County Sheriff's warrant search or the Department's wanted-supervision cases, as applicable. The wants-and-warrants directory covers additional local sources. Aiken's public document system is another route for available public-safety documents, not a substitute for confirming a current warrant with the responsible agency. Online warrant coverage is not a statewide clearance certificate, and a similarly named person should never be treated as the wanted individual without corroboration.
6. Birth, Death, Marriage and Divorce Records
South Carolina vital-record services now belong to the Department of Public Health. Use its current instructions rather than an old DHEC application page. The vital-records directory links state and local routes, but the type of event determines both eligibility and the document available.
For birth certificates, DPH's statewide records begin in 1915. A standard mail search costs $12 and includes one copy when the record is found; additional copies of the same certificate are $3 each. Expedited service has a $17 state search charge. Online vendors add their own processing and possible delivery charges, so $17 is not an all-inclusive online price. DPH lists an average of four weeks for mail service and thirty to forty-five minutes for ordinary in-person requests, rather than guaranteeing every application will finish within those periods.
Access to recent birth records is restricted. The registrant, an eligible parent, guardian or qualifying legal representative must satisfy the applicable requirements. Being a distant relative or knowing the birth date is not enough. Under Sections 44-63-80 and 44-63-84, birth records become available for public viewing after one hundred years, while death records become public after fifty years. South Carolina does not apply the same hundred-year closure to both.
For death certificates, DPH describes family and legal-representative access. The statute also recognizes a qualifying direct and tangible interest involving a personal or property right. Other applicants may receive a statement of the death, date and county rather than the full certificate. The DPH death indexes for 1915 through 1967 help historical research, but an index entry and an eligible applicant's certified certificate are different products. DPH's standard mail search is $12, with $3 additional copies of the same record.
The current marriage-certificate page lists state coverage from July 1950 through December 2025. For events outside that range, contact the probate court that issued the license. Richland County's certified marriage-license service illustrates the local route. DPH currently directs in-person marriage requests to mail instead; its $12 mail search should not be confused with a county probate court's own copy charge.
DPH's divorce reports cover decrees from July 1962 through December 2025. A report confirms the registered event; the full divorce decree comes from the court that entered it. DPH lists $12 for a mail search and currently does not offer in-person divorce-report requests. Its online option adds the stated vendor charge to the expedited state fee. Request the decree from the family-court clerk when an agency needs the court's actual orders concerning property, support or other terms.
7. Property Assessments, Tax Accounts and Recorded Deeds
South Carolina property research usually involves three separate records: the assessor's parcel information, the tax account, and instruments recorded with the register of deeds or other recording office. Start with the county parcel number and carry it through the search. A mailing address can describe a location without identifying the exact legal parcel or every interest affecting it.
For recorded instruments, the Charleston County Register of Deeds and Beaufort County document search are coastal starting points. Dorchester's deed-search page, Pickens County's recording search and the Spartanburg County Register of Deeds provide county-specific routes. Sumter's recorded-document system and the Jasper County Register of Deeds serve their own jurisdictions. Jasper cautions that its online collection is incomplete, particularly for older instruments, and that paper records may be more legible or complete. A failed online search does not prove that an older deed was never recorded.
Use the Lexington County Register of Deeds for recorded land instruments. That office should not be labeled a statewide death-certificate source. For another county, the recorded-documents directory helps identify the office before requesting a deed, mortgage, satisfaction, easement or plat. Ask for the instrument number or book and page and specify whether a certified copy is required. Recording fees for a new instrument are different from charges for copying an existing one.
Assessment research can begin with Berkeley County GIS and its comparable-sales search. Dorchester County maps, Greenwood County GIS and Horry County Land Records provide other local entry points. The Laurens County government site routes visitors to county offices, while Lexington's GIS page and property-tax search separate mapping from the tax account. South Carolina's property-records directory connects these assessment and tax resources.
Check payment information in the relevant tax system: Greenwood's Tax Collector, Pickens County tax records or Richland County's Treasurer tax search. Richland also maintains GIS information, Spartanburg maintains geographic information services, and Sumter separates its property portal from mapping information. Compare the tax year and parcel number before assuming that a displayed balance concerns the current owner or current assessment.
City boundaries create an additional distinction. North Augusta's property-tax service is municipal, while Orangeburg's city government site should not be confused with the county's tax-search service. The Aiken County government directory is the county-level route for offices serving property within that county. Search the jurisdiction that issued the bill, not simply the place name printed in the mailing address.
8. Business Filings, Trade Names and Professional Licenses
The South Carolina Secretary of State's business-entity search identifies entities on file and their recorded status. Search the legal business name before relying on a storefront name. The Secretary's business FAQs explain that the office does not register DBA or trade names and does not require entities to disclose their officers, directors or members in the way many searchers expect. A filing may identify an organizer or registered agent without establishing who owns or manages the business today.
Sole proprietors do not file an entity registration with the Secretary merely by operating a business. A missing business-search result can therefore reflect the form of the business, rather than proof that the operation is fictitious. South Carolina business corporations report director information through their Department of Revenue annual-report process; that does not turn the Secretary's search into an officer directory or make tax filings openly searchable.
For official evidence, the Secretary's document-request service lists a $10 Certificate of Existence or Certificate of Authority and $20 certificates of no record or certificates under seal. Document copies are $3 for the first page and fifty cents for each additional page of each document. Select the certificate required by the receiving organization; a certificate of existence is not a professional license or a local business license.
Professional licensing begins with South Carolina Labor, Licensing and Regulation, but not every profession or business category is regulated there. The Appraisal Subcommittee's appraiser search provides another official verification route. The Department of Consumer Affairs licensee lookup covers its regulated categories, including athlete-agent registration. Check the regulator that actually oversees the service being offered.
Insurance records belong to the Department of Insurance. Its public database searches provide an agency-search route, and its insurance license searches also serve individual-license research. For social workers, use the Board's current public orders page when checking disciplinary orders. The South Carolina licensing directory connects these regulator-specific systems. Read the order and current status together rather than equating an old disciplinary entry with a present prohibition on practice.
9. South Carolina's Sex Offender Registry
The SLED sex offender registry is separate from CATCH and from prison custody. The registry presents information supplied through the registration system, including identifying details and location information. A person may be registered while living in the community, and a person in custody may have no public registry entry. Those systems answer different questions under South Carolina law.
SLED's registry information page explains SORT's community notifications, photographs, aliases and mapped locations. Follow the conditions of use and the community-notification registration process if you want updates. SLED cautions that information can change quickly and may not yet have been verified by local officials when posted. Report a suspected error to SLED or the responsible sheriff instead of treating a map point as conclusive evidence of someone's present location.
South Carolina's registration and removal framework is in Title 23, Chapter 3, Article 7. Registration generally involves the birth month and the sixth month following it, subject to the applicable statutory requirements. Eligibility to seek removal depends on the registrant's tier, conviction and qualifying dates; it is not automatic deletion when a searcher calculates that fifteen or twenty-five years have passed.
SLED's current guidance distinguishes administrative applications from the court route for adult Tier III cases and incorporates changes made in 2025. An application does not itself end registration obligations. Use the applicable guidance and formal decision rather than an older summary of lifetime registration. For public research, the practical point is to check the current registry entry and its identifiers, then use the relevant court record to understand the underlying conviction.
10. Unclaimed Property and Palmetto Payback
South Carolina's State Treasurer operates the Unclaimed Property Program. Its search covers property reported by holders unable to locate owners. Individuals, estates, businesses, churches and charities can appear in the program. This is separate from searching a county deed index for abandoned-looking real estate or reviewing a delinquent property-tax account.
Begin with the Treasurer's linked official property search. Try the name associated with the account when it existed, including an earlier surname or business name. Compare the listed address and holder before starting a claim. A name match identifies a possible account; the claim process establishes entitlement. For an estate or business claim, follow the documentation requirements attached to that claim rather than submitting only personal identification.
Palmetto Payback handles certain qualifying matches automatically. The Treasurer sends a notification letter and then a check, normally a few weeks later, without requiring the recipient to complete the ordinary claim paperwork. That check is valid for ninety days from issue. If it expires, the property remains available through the ordinary claims process; expiration of the check is not forfeiture of the underlying funds.
Keep the claim ID from the form or confirmation email. The Treasurer links a separate claim-status search and a document-upload service, allowing a pending claim to be followed without submitting another claim for the same property. Search again periodically because the program receives additional reported property, including accounts connected to older South Carolina addresses.
11. Driving Records and Voter Registration
The South Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles driving-record service offers three-year and ten-year records for $10. It also provides a free points summary. Choose the full driving record when the receiving employer, insurer or other organization requires it; a points summary is not the same product. For mail requests, DMV identifies Form MV-70 and the $10 payment requirement.
Access to someone else's South Carolina driving information is controlled by privacy and permitted-use rules. An open county court search does not confer unrestricted access to DMV personal information. Use the DMV's stated process for the record and purpose involved, and check the current delivery instructions before ordering. DMV has posted notice that some online-printing problems result in the official copy being mailed, making the mailing address on file especially relevant.
For elections, the State Election Commission's voter portal links personal registration, polling-place and ballot resources. The current voter lookup replaces older inquiry links, and the registration-information entrance should be used for an existing record. To register or update information, follow the Commission's registration instructions. South Carolina generally requires registration at least thirty days before an election; the Commission publishes election-specific dates and procedures.
The Commission's voter FAQs distinguish participation history from a secret ballot. A record can show that someone participated without revealing the choices marked on the ballot. Requests for broader data use the Commission's separate voter-list procedures and restrictions. The voter-records directory helps locate those official election resources without confusing personal registration lookup with a statewide bulk-data request.
12. Writing a South Carolina Records Request That Can Be Processed
Address a South Carolina FOIA request to the body holding the records. A request for Charleston municipal correspondence belongs with the city; a Charleston County deed belongs with the county recording office; a SLED repository search follows SLED's search procedure. Sending every request to the Judicial Branch or the Attorney General does not consolidate these separate custodians.
Describe an existing record with enough detail to find it: the South Carolina agency, date range, subject, case or parcel number, and document type. For an email request, identify the relevant offices and a manageable time period. For a county contract, specify the project or vendor and ask for the agreement and amendments rather than a general explanation of why the county chose that vendor.
A practical request might read: "Under the South Carolina Freedom of Information Act, please provide the executed contract and amendments for [county project], dated [range]. Please send existing electronic copies by email, identify any withheld portions and their legal basis, and provide an itemized estimate before incurring charges above [amount]." Replace the brackets with the particular South Carolina project and a spending limit you choose; the example amount is not a statutory fee waiver.
When following up, refer to the original request and ask whether the agency has made its determination, requires a deposit or has set a production date. Those questions track South Carolina's separate response stages. If the records span more than twenty-four months, clarify which part of the request concerns older material rather than treating every deadline as ten days.
For a DPH certificate, DMV history or SLED CATCH report, use that agency's application and eligibility process. FOIA does not bypass the restrictions on a recent birth certificate or substitute for identity verification in a driving-record request. For a court document, provide the county, court and case number to the clerk and ask specifically for the order or certified copy needed.
13. South Carolina Record Guides on This Site
Use the arrest-records guide to connect a local arrest with the later court record. The background-check guide helps choose the appropriate SLED request route, while the inmate-search guide distinguishes county detention, state imprisonment and supervision.
The birth-certificate guide addresses applicant eligibility and ordering choices. The death-records guide helps separate historical research from a request for a restricted certified record. For a broader search, the people-search guide explains how to connect identifiers across South Carolina's separate public systems.
The business-search guide covers entity filings and the limits of the Secretary's database. The registry guide explains the state's registration framework and search tools. Use the unclaimed-property guide for claims and automatic-payment questions, and the public-records-law guide when an agency request requires closer attention to timing, charges or a denial.
14. South Carolina Records by County
The county page is useful when the research crosses several local offices, such as a parcel search followed by a deed and an estate proceeding. Stay within the same county until the document itself points to another jurisdiction; a familiar city name is not enough to choose a recording office.
For Upstate research, begin with Greenville County, Spartanburg County or Anderson County. Each page keeps its own court and property resources together. A case in one Upstate county does not appear simply because a neighboring county's public index was searched.
In the Midlands, Richland County and Lexington County are separate searches even when a record uses a Columbia-area address. For coastal and nearby records, use Charleston County, Berkeley County or Horry County according to the parcel or court location. York County likewise has its own local sources.
Other county entry points include Abbeville, Aiken, Allendale, Bamberg and Barnwell. These pages are particularly useful when a statewide agency result supplies a county name but no local document link. Follow that county to the relevant clerk, recording office or assessor instead of repeating the same statewide search.
15. What Changed in South Carolina Records in 2025 and 2026
The Judicial Branch's case-search notice states that home addresses were removed from Public Index access beginning January 1, 2026, including addresses in existing cases. A missing home address therefore does not mean the case has been sealed or deleted. Use the case number, court and other available identifiers to follow the proceeding.
SLED's July 1, 2026 online CATCH service fee changes the ordinary payment from the $25 base search charge to $26.43 when the $1.43 service fee applies. Older summaries quoting only $25 describe the base charge. Approved charitable searches have a different listed service fee, so the standard total should not be applied to every account category.
DPH's notice effective November 17, 2025 ended same-day amendment processing at its Richland County office. Most in-person amendment requests at regional offices are described as taking one to two business days after central amendment-team review; court-ordered amendments may take up to two weeks. This notice concerns amendments, not a universal waiting period for every ordinary certificate request.
The current DPH coverage notices now extend marriage records through December 2025 and divorce reports through December 2025. They also direct customers away from in-person requests for those two products. Use the current service instructions rather than assuming that the birth-certificate counter procedure applies to marriage and divorce reports.
SLED's registry guidance also incorporates legislation signed in May 2025 concerning tiers and removal criteria. Consult its current guidance for a particular registrant rather than calculating eligibility from an old rule summary. Across these changes, the responsible South Carolina office remains the best place to confirm the exact service available before submitting payment or traveling to a counter.
16. Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Is there one free search for every South Carolina public record? A: No. County case indexes, property systems and state agency searches cover different records. Public lookup may be free, while SLED histories, certified vital records and official document copies have charges. Begin with the South Carolina office responsible for the event or document.
Q: How much is a South Carolina SLED background check in 2026? A: The standard CATCH search has a $25 base charge. From July 1, 2026, the listed $1.43 online service fee makes an ordinary online search $26.43. Approved charitable and eligible school-district searches have separate rules. CATCH does not include a nationwide history or warrant clearance.
Q: How long does South Carolina give an agency to answer a FOIA request? A: The usual written determination period is ten business days, rising to twenty for records more than twenty-four months old. Production ordinarily follows within thirty calendar days, or thirty-five for older records, after approval or receipt of a required deposit. These are separate stages under Section 30-4-30.
Q: Are South Carolina death records closed for one hundred years? A: No. The statutory public-access threshold is fifty years after death. Birth records have a one-hundred-year public-viewing threshold. More recent certified records remain subject to the applicable eligibility rules, and some applicants may receive a limited statement rather than a full certificate.
Q: Where do I obtain a South Carolina divorce decree? A: Request the decree from the clerk of the court that entered it. DPH issues a report of divorce for its covered period, currently July 1962 through December 2025. That report does not reproduce the court's complete orders concerning the divorce.
Q: Does an expired Palmetto Payback check mean I lost the money? A: No. The Treasurer says a Palmetto Payback check is valid for ninety days from issue. If it expires, use South Carolina's ordinary unclaimed-property claim process. Keep the notification and search the official program for the property rather than assuming the check's expiration ended the claim.