Access Greene County Circuit Clerk Records

About the Greene County Circuit Clerk

Cecelia Bounds serves as Greene County Circuit Clerk and Registrar. The Circuit Clerk is an elected county official. The role pairs two jobs in one office. As clerk, she keeps the records of the Circuit Court. As registrar, she runs voter rolls and elections for the county.

The office sits at the courthouse in Leakesville and answers the phone Monday through Friday. Staff handle case lookups, certified copies, fine payments, marriage licenses, and jury notices. Most requests can start by phone, by mail, or at the counter. The contact card below lists every way to reach the office.

What the Greene County Circuit Clerk Handles

The Circuit Clerk holds the court records tied to Circuit Court plus several county-wide duties that have nothing to do with court cases. Felony criminal files, civil suits, appeals from Justice Court, circuit fines, and judgment rolls all run through this office. The same clerk also keeps the county on its feet at election time and staffs the jury pool for each court term.

• Circuit Court criminal and civil case records and dockets
• Circuit fines, court costs, and judgment rolls
• Jury administration for Circuit Court terms
• Voter registration, elections, and absentee balloting
• Marriage licenses and historical marriage searches
• Certified copies of documents on file with the court

Greene County Circuit Court terms are held in February, May, August, and November, so the clerk's jury and case calendars move on that quarterly schedule. Voter and election work, by contrast, follows the state election cycle. The point for a record seeker is simple. If the matter is a felony, a circuit civil suit, a marriage license, or a vote, the Circuit Clerk is the office to call.

Which Clerk Holds Which Record

Mississippi splits the clerk function between two offices, and that trips up a lot of first-time requesters. The Circuit Clerk handles Circuit Court records. The Chancery Clerk is a separate elected office that handles Chancery Court records, deeds, and county land and financial functions. Michelle "Shelley" D. Eubanks serves as Greene County Chancery Clerk at P.O. Box 610, Leakesville, MS 39451, phone 601-394-2377.

The two offices share the same courthouse but keep different files. A divorce decree, a probate estate, a guardianship, or a land deed is a Chancery record, not a Circuit record. Those live with the Chancery Clerk, and the county's chancery and probate guidance sits on the Greene County probate records page. Marriage licenses, though, are a Circuit Clerk job in Greene County, which surprises people who expect them on the chancery side.

How to Request a Certified Copy

A certified copy carries the clerk's seal and proves a document is a true record of the court. Courts, employers, and government agencies often demand a certified copy where a plain printout will not do. The Circuit Clerk issues certified copies of documents on file with the office once you can point to the case.

1. Identify the case. Have the case number ready, or the full party names and an approximate filing date so staff can find the file.
2. Confirm the record is a Circuit Court record. Chancery files such as divorces and estates come from the Chancery Clerk instead.
3. Submit the request. Call 601-394-2379, mail Greene County Circuit Clerk at P.O. Box 310, or visit the counter at 400 Main Street with the document details and number of copies.
4. Pay the fee. A certified copy is $2.00 for the first page plus $1.00 for each added page, payable by cash, card, check, or money order.
5. Receive the copy. Pick it up at the office or have it mailed once the seal is applied and the fee clears.

Note: card payments by phone carry a convenience fee, and mailed fine or fee payments should be money orders that list the offender name and case number.

Greene County Records Request Form Fields

When a document is not online or sits in an older file, the written public-records request is the fallback for Circuit Clerk records. The office uses a standard form, and the requester fills out only the top portion. The lower portion is reserved for office staff to log the response, fee, and approval. The form asks the office to answer or refer the request within seven days of receipt.

The blank form lives on the Circuit Clerk's forms page alongside marriage and jury documents. Mail or fax the finished form to the office, or drop it at the counter. The clerk reviews it, sets any fee, and either provides the record or explains in writing why a record is withheld.

Greene County Circuit Clerk Fee Schedule

The Circuit Clerk charges set fees for filings, copies, and searches under a schedule the office keeps current. Copy and clerical charges follow a flat rate: $1.00 per page for copies, $10 per hour for clerical help, and $40 per hour for technical or professional help. The court-filing fees below come from the office fee schedule and cover the most common circuit transactions.

Criminal court costs are not a flat number. They change with the charge and the bond, so the office asks callers to phone in for a figure on a specific case. Civil and criminal appeals from the lower courts also vary, and staff quote those by phone.

Marriage License Services in Greene County

Marriage licenses run through the Circuit Clerk, not the Chancery Clerk. Both parties must appear together at the office, show proof of age such as a driver's license or birth certificate, and pay $37.00. The clerk also asks for both parents' full names, including mothers' maiden names, and for proof of the end date of any prior marriage. The license is issued the same day, and a couple may marry that day if an authorized officiant is arranged.

Appointments are preferred. The office encourages couples to call ahead at 601-394-2379 or email to streamline the visit. There is no time limit on holding the ceremony once a license is issued, and the office does not perform ceremonies or supply an officiant. Couples are asked to return the signed license for recording within five days of the wedding.

Historical marriage records reach back to 1874, the year a fire destroyed the older licenses. A historical search costs $17 per marriage and includes a certified copy when the record is found. The office needs the full groom name, the full bride name with maiden name, and an approximate date so a five-year window can be searched. Mississippi vital records sit with a state office, and the Mississippi State Department of Health explains its online and phone vital-record ordering for birth and death copies that the clerk does not issue.

That state portal handles birth, death, and certain vital copies, while the Circuit Clerk stays the source for the county's marriage licenses and marriage searches. Knowing the split keeps a request from bouncing between offices.

Searching Circuit Court Records Through MEC

Greene County Circuit Court takes part in Mississippi Electronic Courts, the state's online case system. The Circuit Clerk says all criminal and civil cases from 2008 to current and judgment enrollments from 2005 to current are available online. To reach them, visit mec.ms.gov and choose Greene Circuit from the court list.

MEC is login-based. People who only want to view filed documents and case information register and log in through PAMEC, the public-access side. PAMEC charges $0.20 per page on the results of a search, billed quarterly, and a no-match search still bills for one page. New users register at the PAMEC registration site before they can view dockets.

When a document is not online, sits in a restricted case, or predates the coverage years, the answer is the same office. Call the Circuit Clerk at 601-394-2379 or file the written records request. Older felony and civil files, especially those before 2008, often have to be pulled by hand at the counter.

Voter, Election, and Jury Duties

The registrar half of the office runs voter registration, elections, and absentee balloting for Greene County. These records and services sit with the same clerk who keeps the court files, which is why a single phone call covers both court and election questions. Voter rolls are public in the ways state law allows, while individual voter detail is handled under election rules.

Jury service is a court duty the clerk also manages. The office summons and tracks jurors for each Circuit Court term. A unanimous vote of 12 is required for a criminal conviction in Circuit Court, while 9 of 12 may decide a civil case, so a full jury pool matters each term. Jurors with questions about service, excusal, or payment reach the clerk through the office jury-duty page and the juror phone line.

Public Access and Closed Records

Mississippi policy favors public inspection of records unless another law makes them confidential. The Mississippi Public Records Act, at Miss. Code Ann. § 25-61-1 and the sections that follow, lets any person inspect and copy public records under reasonable written procedures, and it requires a denial to be in writing and specific. Agencies may charge the actual cost of search, copying, and mailing, which is where the clerk's per-page and hourly fees come from. The full statute text sits with the Mississippi Ethics Commission.

Some records never open to ordinary public access. The Circuit Clerk's request form lists four:

• Personal identifying information
• Grand-jury dockets
• Personnel files
• Expunged files

Expungement itself runs through the Circuit Clerk when the case began in Circuit Court. The fee schedule lists $146.00 for petitions under the non-adjudication statutes §99-15-26 or §41-29-150, and $296.00 for petitions under §99-19-71. Once a court grants an order, the case drops out of ordinary searches, and staff cannot release a file that has been sealed or expunged.

Note: youth court, adoption, and mental-health commitment files are confidential under separate Mississippi statutes and are not available through a routine Circuit Clerk request.

Federal and Related Record Offices

Not every case that touches a Greene County resident lands in the county courthouse. Federal crimes, federal civil suits, and bankruptcy go to the United States District Court rather than the Circuit Clerk. Greene County falls inside the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, which keeps its own clerk and electronic docket separate from the county system.

The federal court groups counties into divisions, and the district publishes a divisional county listing that places Greene County in the Southern Division at Gulfport. That listing tells a filer or record seeker which courthouse and clerk handle a federal matter from this county.

The Gulfport federal courthouse is the assigned divisional seat for Greene County cases in federal court. Its clerk's office handles filings and certified copies for federal records the way the Circuit Clerk does for county records.

The Gulfport courthouse page lists the federal clerk contact and address. For a county case, though, the Circuit Clerk in Leakesville remains the office to call.