SLED CATCH is the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division's Citizens Access to Criminal Histories service for name-based public South Carolina criminal-history checks.

South Carolina Criminal Records Search: Cases & Public Records

Q: Where can I search South Carolina criminal court cases for free?

Start with the South Carolina Judicial Branch Public Index and select the appropriate county to search qualifying public trial-court records.

Q: How much does a SLED CATCH criminal-history check cost?

The current base fee is $25. SLED also lists an applicable online service fee for online reports.

Q: Does SLED CATCH include the South Carolina Sex Offender Registry?

No. SLED states that CATCH does not search the sex-offender registry. The South Carolina Sex Offender Registry is a separate official public service.

Q: Does the South Carolina Department of Corrections inmate search include county jail inmates?

No. SCDC states that its inmate search does not include people sentenced to county detention facilities.

Q: Can an expunged South Carolina criminal record disappear from public internet searches?

Yes. Qualifying South Carolina criminal records can be removed from public access through the state's expungement procedures.

South Carolina public-records guide

Start with the South Carolina system that holds the record

South Carolina criminal records are spread across several official systems. The South Carolina Judicial Branch Public Index is generally the starting point for public trial-court cases; SLED CATCH provides statewide name-based criminal-history checks; county sheriffs and detention centers handle local jail and booking information; and the South Carolina Department of Corrections maintains records for people currently incarcerated in state prisons. Knowing which record you need first can save a lot of searching in the wrong database.

Coverage: South Carolina statewide Information checked: September 25, 2026 Sources: South Carolina courts and government agencies

Fast answer: Start with the South Carolina Judicial Branch Public Index when looking for a court case. Use SLED CATCH when you specifically need a statewide South Carolina criminal-history check. If the person may currently be in a state prison, use the SCDC Inmate Search. Current county-jail detainees normally require a county sheriff or detention-center search instead.

Find a court case General Sessions, qualifying magistrate and participating municipal court records.

Judicial Public Index →

Run a statewide criminal-history check SLED CATCH name-based South Carolina criminal-record search.

SLED CATCH →

Recent arrest or county jail Search the sheriff or detention center in the county handling custody.

County route →

State prison inmate Search people currently sentenced to and incarcerated in SCDC.

SCDC →

Certified court record Contact the clerk of court in the county where the case was filed.

Copy route →

Which South Carolina criminal record are you actually looking for?

“Criminal record” is a broad phrase. A court docket, SLED criminal-history report, arrest report, jail booking, state-prison record and appellate case can contain different information because they are maintained by different agencies.

Judicial Branch

Court case

Charges filed in court, case number, events, disposition, sentence and other public case information.

SLED

State criminal history

South Carolina criminal-history information retrieved through a name-based CATCH search or qualifying fingerprint procedure.

Sheriff / Police

Arrest or incident record

Arrest, offense, incident and investigative records generally begin with the agency that created them.

Detention center

County jail booking

Current local custody is usually maintained at the county level rather than in the state prison database.

SCDC

State prison record

Information about people currently sentenced to and incarcerated in the South Carolina Department of Corrections.

Appellate Courts

Appeal

South Carolina Supreme Court and Court of Appeals records are searched through the separate appellate C-Track system.

Do not equate arrest with guilt. An arrest, warrant or filed criminal charge is not the same as a conviction. Always review the final case disposition before describing how a case ended.

How South Carolina criminal courts are divided

South Carolina does not route every criminal charge through the same level of court. The court level often determines where the record appears and which clerk can provide a certified copy.

General Sessions

Serious criminal cases

Circuit Court is South Carolina’s court of general jurisdiction. Its criminal division, the Court of General Sessions, handles felony and more serious misdemeanor matters.

Magistrate Court

Summary criminal matters

Magistrates generally hear offenses subject to a fine not exceeding $500 or imprisonment not exceeding 30 days, although statutes provide exceptions and transferred cases can exceed those ordinary limits.

Municipal Court

City cases

Municipal courts generally hear municipal ordinance cases and qualifying offenses arising within the municipality. Not every municipal court participates in the statewide Public Index.

Why this matters: if a city or summary-court case does not appear in the statewide Public Index, the next step may be the local municipal or magistrate court—not SLED and not the county General Sessions clerk.

Search South Carolina criminal court cases with the Judicial Branch Public Index

The South Carolina Judicial Branch maintains county Public Index systems that provide remote access to qualifying trial-court case information.

Open South Carolina Public Index

The statewide entry point lets you choose the appropriate county and then search available records. Depending on the county and court, useful search fields can include party name, case number and date-related criteria.

Best first step: if you know the county where the charge was filed, select that county first. A statewide court system does not mean every county or municipal record is displayed in one flat results list.

How to search a South Carolina criminal case step by step

Identify the county

Use the county where the criminal case was filed—not necessarily the person’s current residence.

Open the Judicial Branch Public Index

Choose the appropriate county from the official South Carolina Judicial Branch public-record system.

Search by name or case number

A case number is usually the strongest identifier. When searching by name, use the full legal name and test sensible spelling or middle-name variations if needed.

Confirm the court

Check whether the matter is General Sessions, Magistrate, Municipal or another case type.

Read the charge and disposition separately

The original offense shows what was alleged. The disposition tells you whether the charge resulted in conviction, dismissal, acquittal, plea or another outcome.

Contact the clerk if the online file is incomplete

For certified copies, older records or information that is not remotely displayed, contact the clerk of court in the county maintaining the case.

Important limitations of South Carolina’s Public Index

Record	Best official starting point	Important limitation
General Sessions criminal case	Judicial Branch Public Index	Availability depends on public-access rules and the county record.
Magistrate criminal case	Public Index / local magistrate court	Older or locally handled information may require direct court contact.
Municipal criminal case	Public Index if participating; otherwise municipal court	Not every municipal court is included in the statewide system.
South Carolina criminal-history report	SLED CATCH	This is different from a court docket search.
Current county jail booking	County sheriff / detention center	SCDC inmate search does not cover county-jail detainees.
Current state prison inmate	SCDC Inmate Search	Released people and community supervision are excluded.
Sex-offender registry record	SLED Sex Offender Registry	CATCH does not include registry searches.
Supreme Court / Court of Appeals case	C-Track Public Access	Separate from trial-court Public Index.
Federal criminal case	PACER	Not part of South Carolina state-court databases.

How to read a South Carolina criminal case result

Court-record terminology can make a case look more conclusive than it really is. A useful search should answer both what was charged? and what happened to the charge?

Charge

What was alleged

This identifies the criminal offense or statutory allegation filed in the case. It does not itself establish guilt.

Disposition

How the charge ended

Look for dismissal, nolle prosequi, conviction, guilty plea, not guilty, transfer or another disposition.

Sentence

What the court ordered

If there was a conviction, the record may show imprisonment, probation, fine or other sentencing information.

South Carolina term to recognize: nolle prosequi or “nolle prossed” generally means the prosecution elected not to continue prosecuting that charge at that time. It should not be described as a conviction.

South Carolina SLED CATCH criminal-history search

The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division operates Citizens Access to Criminal Histories (CATCH), the state’s official public name-based criminal-history search.

CATCH allows a user to search and print qualifying South Carolina criminal-history information.

1 Enter the person’s name CATCH requires a starts-with match on last name and first name.

2 Add date of birth DOB is part of the identifying search criteria.

3 Provide SSN if appropriate If supplied, CATCH can use it as an additional identifier.

4 Review the match carefully Name-based checks can produce false positives or false negatives.

Current CATCH fee

The current SLED CATCH base fee is $25 per South Carolina criminal-record check. SLED’s September 2026 online notice states that, effective July 1, 2026, a $1.43 service fee applies to each $25 online CATCH report. Service charges are collected by the payment processor rather than retained by SLED.

Name-search limitation: if the person’s criminal-history record uses a different name, alias or date of birth, CATCH can miss the record or match another person. SLED expressly warns that fingerprints may be the only way to establish identity in some situations.

Multiple possible matches

When CATCH identifies more than one potential record subject, SLED can return a Special Processing Required message rather than an immediate result.

Open official SLED CATCH

Request a South Carolina criminal-history check by mail

SLED also accepts criminal-history requests by mail. Mail requests avoid the online convenience/service charge, although the underlying criminal-record check fee still applies.

The current SLED instructions require:

completed Criminal Records Check Form
proper payment
self-addressed stamped envelope
request for certification/notarization if required

Accepted mail-payment methods currently include business check, certified check, cashier’s check or money order. SLED states that cash and personal checks are not accepted for these mailed requests.

SLED Records Department
P.O. Box 21398
Columbia, SC 29221-1398

Need a certified or notarized result? Say so explicitly in the mailed request. Do not assume the ordinary search result will automatically arrive certified.

When South Carolina uses fingerprint-based criminal-history checks

SLED CATCH is a name-based public search. SLED states that it conducts fingerprint-based background checks when a statute requires that type of check.

For example, South Carolina Family Court name-change matters require a fingerprint-based criminal background check through SLED. Fingerprints can be obtained from some local law-enforcement agencies or commercial fingerprint providers such as IdentoGO.

Name based

CATCH

Useful for an ordinary public South Carolina criminal-history search, but identity mistakes remain possible.

Fingerprint based

Statutorily required checks

Used for specific legally required purposes and generally more reliable for matching a record to a particular individual.

What if a SLED criminal record is wrong?

SLED’s CATCH terms specifically recognize a record subject’s right to correct erroneous criminal-history information.

If the record concerns you and appears to belong to another person, contains a wrong disposition, or has another material error, contact SLED’s Public Dissemination Unit and be prepared to identify the specific record and the information believed to be incorrect.

CATCH assistance

SLED Public Dissemination Unit

Phone: 803-896-1443
Published support hours: Monday–Friday, 9:00 a.m.–4:30 p.m.

Useful documents

Keep proof of the correct disposition

A certified court disposition, case number, arresting agency and identifying information can make it easier to explain what portion of the record is disputed.

South Carolina arrest, booking and county-jail records

South Carolina does not use the SCDC inmate search as a universal county-jail database. A person arrested recently may be in a county detention facility rather than a state prison.

For recent custody, identify:

county where the arrest occurred
arresting police or sheriff’s agency
county detention center
municipal jail where applicable
court handling the charge
booking or inmate identifier if known

Practical search order: sheriff/detention center → court Public Index → SLED CATCH. This sequence is often more useful for a very recent arrest because a person may appear in custody before the final court disposition or statewide criminal-history record is available.

If you do not know the correct county courthouse, use the South Carolina Judicial Branch Courthouse Search to locate county court contact information.

South Carolina arrest and search warrants

There is no single unrestricted statewide public warrant database that should be treated as a complete list of every active South Carolina warrant.

Magistrates are responsible for issuing arrest and search warrants within their jurisdiction, and warrant information may be maintained by the issuing court and law-enforcement agency.

Known county

Contact the sheriff or court

Search official county resources or contact the court that issued the warrant.

Known criminal case

Check the court file

The Public Index may help identify the case and court, but it should not be treated as a complete active-warrant verification system.

If a warrant may concern you personally: verify directly with the responsible court or law-enforcement agency rather than relying on an unofficial people-search site.

South Carolina Department of Corrections inmate search

The South Carolina Department of Corrections Inmate Search provides photographs and public information on people currently sentenced to and incarcerated in SCDC.

SCDC says the data reflects custody information as of midnight of the previous day.

What the SCDC search does not include

people already released from SCDC
people sentenced to county detention facilities
people on parole
people on probation
other community-supervision records
juvenile offenders housed by the agency
current SCDC fugitives

County jail vs. state prison: if the arrest was recent and the person is awaiting court, search the county detention center first. SCDC is for people under the state corrections system, not every person jailed in South Carolina.

SCDC also provides an inmate-information line at 1-866-727-2846.

South Carolina Sex Offender Registry is a separate search

SLED expressly states that a CATCH criminal-history check does not include a South Carolina Sex Offender Registry search.

The official South Carolina Sex Offender Registry is maintained by SLED in coordination with county sheriffs.

The public registry can include information such as:

photographs
reported address information
aliases
registry offenses
geographic map information
community-notification options

Registry information has limits. SLED cautions that registry details can change quickly and some information is supplied by the registrant. Registry inclusion is based on legal registration requirements and should not be represented as a prediction that a particular person will commit another offense.

Search South Carolina criminal appeals with C-Track

A trial-court Public Index search does not replace the separate South Carolina appellate system. Criminal appeals can reach the South Carolina Court of Appeals or Supreme Court.

Use C-Track Public Access to search the South Carolina Appellate Case Management System.

C-Track currently supports fields such as:

case title
appellate case number
court
case type/group
filed-date range
closed/open case filtering

Important limitation: C-Track warns that information and documents shown online should not be relied on as an official record of court action. Some lower-court records and appendices may not be available remotely.

Published opinions can also be searched through the Judicial Branch’s Opinion Search.

How to get copies or certified South Carolina criminal court records

For an official copy, contact the clerk of court in the county where the case was filed. South Carolina court-copy pricing is not necessarily identical in every county, so a statewide article should not invent one universal per-page fee.

1 Find the county Use the Public Index or Judicial Branch Courthouse Search.

2 Identify the case Record the full case number and party name.

3 Contact the clerk Ask whether the document is available online, by mail or in person.

4 Specify certification Tell the clerk if another agency requires a certified copy.

Use the official courthouse directory to find the appropriate county courthouse, clerk address and phone number.

Before ordering: ask the organization requesting the record whether it needs a plain copy, certified copy, sentencing sheet or complete disposition. Ordering the wrong document can mean paying twice.

South Carolina FOIA requests for law-enforcement records

Court records and law-enforcement agency records are different. If you need an agency report rather than a court docket, the request may fall under the South Carolina Freedom of Information Act and should be directed to the agency that maintains the record.

SLED FOIA requests

SLED accepts requests for publicly available agency documents by email or mail. SLED says it generally has 10 business days to inform the requester about availability of responsive public records, or 20 business days for requested records that are more than two years old.

SLED’s current FOIA fee schedule includes:

Service	Current published rate
Scanning / redaction	$20 per hour
Archival retrieval	$25 per box
CD / DVD	$5 per disk
Printed copies	$0.15 per page

SLED may require a deposit of up to 25% of the anticipated cost before processing.

SLED Freedom of Information Office
P.O. Box 21398
Columbia, SC 29221

Email: foi@sled.sc.gov

Ask the agency that created the record. A city police offense report generally should not be requested from SLED merely because SLED maintains the statewide criminal-history system.

South Carolina expungement: when a criminal record may be removed from public access

South Carolina law provides several expungement pathways, but eligibility depends on the exact offense, disposition, criminal history, waiting period and court involved.

For General Sessions cases, the South Carolina Judicial Branch directs an applicant to the solicitor’s office in the judicial circuit where the offense occurred.

General Sessions expungement fees

For cases where the fees apply, the Judicial Branch currently lists:

Fee	Current amount	Paid to
Administrative fee	$250	Solicitor
SLED verification fee	$25	SLED, when applicable
Clerk filing fee	$35	County clerk of court, when applicable

Some dispositions qualify for fee exemptions, so do not assume every expungement request costs the full total.

South Carolina-specific rule: the statutory expungement form must be obtained from the solicitor’s office in the judicial circuit where the charge originated. South Carolina law states that use of the prescribed form is mandatory.

Dismissed / not-guilty summary-court charges

South Carolina has special rules for qualifying Magistrate and Municipal Court charges that end in dismissal, nolle prosequi or not guilty.

State law requires qualifying charges to be removed from internet-based public records within the statutory process, and the Judicial Branch publishes separate instructions for Magistrate/Municipal Court expungements.

View official SC expungement process

South Carolina juvenile records are not ordinary adult criminal records

Juvenile delinquency information is subject to different confidentiality and access rules. South Carolina law restricts disclosure of many juvenile records, fingerprints and identifying information, although exceptions apply for specified serious offenses and cases transferred to Circuit Court.

South Carolina also provides a separate juvenile-record expungement process for qualifying status offenses and nonviolent offenses.

Do not assume a missing juvenile case is proof no case existed. Juvenile confidentiality rules are intentionally different from ordinary public adult court records.

Federal criminal cases in South Carolina are separate

A federal prosecution filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina will not be a South Carolina General Sessions case and should not be expected in SLED’s ordinary court Public Index.

Federal court records are generally searched through PACER.

If you are seeking your own FBI Identity History Summary rather than a court docket, use the FBI’s fingerprint-based Identity History Summary process.

Do not mix databases: South Carolina Public Index, SLED CATCH, SCDC and PACER all answer different questions.

SLED headquarters: map and contact information

South Carolina Law Enforcement Division

SLED Headquarters

4400 Broad River Road
Columbia, SC 29210

Main phone: 803-737-9000

Criminal-record mail requests use the separate SLED Records Department P.O. Box address shown earlier in this guide.

Appellate courthouse

South Carolina Supreme Court

1231 Gervais Street
Columbia, SC 29201

Phone: 803-734-1080
Published hours: Monday–Friday, 8:30 a.m.–5:00 p.m., excluding state holidays.

Call ahead before traveling if you need a specific records service. Some criminal-history procedures are handled online or by mail rather than as an ordinary walk-in transaction.

South Carolina criminal-record search tips that save time

Tip 01

Start with county, not statewide name search

If you know where the court case occurred, the county Public Index is usually the fastest way to find the case itself.

Tip 02

Do not confuse Public Index with CATCH

One is a court-record system; the other is a SLED criminal-history product.

Tip 03

Try the local court for missing municipal cases

Not every municipal court participates in the statewide Public Index.

Tip 04

Use DOB when running CATCH

Name-only identity assumptions are risky. SLED itself warns that aliases and differing DOB/name information can produce false matches or misses.

Tip 05

Recent arrest? Check county custody first

A person can appear in a county detention center before a statewide criminal-history result tells the full story.

Tip 06

SCDC is not the county jail system

SCDC specifically excludes people sentenced to county detention facilities.

Tip 07

Search the appellate record when necessary

A trial-court outcome may have been reviewed or changed on appeal.

Tip 08

Check the disposition

A charge entry is not enough. Look for the final result before describing a case.

Tip 09

Missing online does not mean nonexistent

The record could be held locally, restricted, expunged, older than the remote system, filed under another identifier or maintained by another agency.

Using South Carolina criminal records for employment or housing

Public availability of a court record does not automatically make every use of the information lawful. Employment, housing, credit, insurance, licensing and other eligibility decisions can involve federal and state requirements.

Public-record research is not automatically an FCRA-compliant consumer report. Businesses using third-party background reports for employment or tenant screening can have additional obligations under the Fair Credit Reporting Act and other laws.

Regardless of use, do not represent an arrest, dismissed charge or pending prosecution as a conviction.

South Carolina criminal records: frequently asked questions

1. Where can I search South Carolina criminal court cases for free?

Start with the South Carolina Judicial Branch Public Index. Select the appropriate county and search qualifying public trial-court records by the available criteria.

2. What is SLED CATCH?

CATCH stands for Citizens Access to Criminal Histories. It is SLED’s official name-based service for obtaining qualifying South Carolina criminal-history information.

3. How much does a SLED CATCH criminal-history check cost?

The current base fee is $25. SLED’s notice effective July 1, 2026 also lists a $1.43 online service fee for a standard $25 CATCH report.

4. Does SLED CATCH include the South Carolina Sex Offender Registry?

No. SLED specifically states that CATCH does not search the sex-offender registry. The official South Carolina Sex Offender Registry is a separate free search.

5. Where can I search for someone in a South Carolina state prison?

Use the South Carolina Department of Corrections Inmate Search. It covers people currently sentenced to and incarcerated in SCDC.

6. Does the SCDC inmate search include county jail inmates?

No. SCDC specifically says its public inmate search does not include people sentenced to county detention facilities. Search the appropriate county detention center or sheriff instead.

7. How do I get a certified South Carolina criminal court record?

Contact the clerk of court in the county where the case was filed. Use the South Carolina Judicial Branch Courthouse Search to locate the correct office and confirm its copy and certification fees.

8. Can an expunged South Carolina criminal record disappear from public internet searches?

Yes. Qualifying records can be removed from public access through South Carolina’s expungement process. The exact process depends on the court, offense and disposition.

9. Where do I search South Carolina criminal appeals?

Use the South Carolina Judicial Branch C-Track Public Access system for Supreme Court and Court of Appeals cases. Published opinions can also be searched separately.

10. Does a South Carolina state criminal-record search include federal cases?

No. Federal criminal cases are separate from South Carolina state-court records and are generally searched through PACER.