How to Get Court Records
Kemper County splits its record keeping among several offices. Circuit criminal and civil files sit with the Circuit Clerk. Divorce, estate, guardianship, land, equity, and youth-court files sit with the Chancery Clerk. Justice Court, plus the DeKalb and Scooba municipal courts, keep their own lower-court records. PAMEC may offer permitted remote access for an electronic Circuit or Chancery file. If a court is not there, call or write the clerk who holds the file.
The documented routes still work. PAMEC remote access is one. Free electronic viewing at the clerk's office during regular hours is another. A counter visit, a phone call for routing, a mail request, and the county public-records process round out the list. Kemper publishes no clear email or fax channel for court-file requests. So ask the receiving clerk how payment should be sent before any money changes hands. Traffic tickets and other lower-court files go back to the issuing court. That is the municipal court or Justice Court.
- Identify the court, case number or caption, document name, and approximate date.
- Choose the custodian: Circuit Clerk, Chancery Clerk, Justice Court, or the municipal court that issued the matter.
- Use PAMEC for a permitted electronic Circuit or Chancery record, or ask the clerk about in-office viewing.
- For mail or a formal county request, describe the record precisely and state whether a plain or certified copy is needed.
- Request a current fee estimate and payment method, then retain the request and any clerk response.
Kemper Court Record Requests
The county Forms page links the January 2026 Kemper County Public Records Policy. The policy PDF is where the current request procedure itself lives. The policy sets the local rules for how a written request should reach the county.
A written request works best when it is specific. State the court and the case number or caption. Add the document title, the date range, the format you want, and whether certification is required. Ask the custodian whether the county policy route fits a judicial file at all. Keep whatever response or denial you receive.
The Kemper County Forms page is where the county posts its current policy document. Start there.
The forms route gives you a formal path. Use it when a clerk cannot finish a simple copy request at the counter.
Kemper Circuit Clerk Records
Shirley Steele Jackson is the Kemper County Circuit Clerk. Her office holds the Circuit Court's criminal and civil filings. That includes indictments, motions, judgments, executions, and the related case papers. The county's Circuit Clerk page describes the office's filing and recordkeeping duties. The county FAQ also points here. It sends criminal history, civil litigation, and tax-lien questions to this office.
Before requesting a Circuit record, ask where it lives. The file may be in MEC, a legacy system, paper storage, or an archive. The Tenth Circuit MEC page lists an April 14, 2025 go-live date. Earlier files may carry no online image.
Types of Court Records
A court record is not one product. The docket sheet is the dated register of actions. Behind each entry sits a filed document, such as a pleading, order, judgment, notice, or exhibit. A certified copy is different again: the clerk issues and authenticates it for a court, agency, or other formal use. Availability can even vary within one Kemper County case.
- Circuit criminal case papers, indictments, motions, orders, judgments, and executions.
- Circuit civil pleadings, docket sheets, judgments, and filed notices.
- Chancery domestic, estate, guardianship, land, and equity case materials.
- Justice Court and municipal case records held by the issuing lower court.
- Electronic docket sheets and permitted documents in adopted MEC cases.
- Older paper or archived files that need a custodian or retention inquiry.
The Kemper County FAQ sorts Circuit Clerk records from Chancery Clerk records before you make a request.
That routing distinction saves a divorce or estate request from landing on the Circuit Clerk's desk by mistake.
Kemper Chancery Court Records
Sherline D. Watkins, the Kemper County Chancery Clerk, keeps the county's Chancery records. The Chancery Clerk page covers these matters. So does the county courts page. Divorce, estates, land, guardianship, equity, and similar matters all route to her office. Kemper has no county court. Youth-court matters therefore follow the Chancery Court structure rather than a separate County Court clerk.
The Sixth Chancery MEC page shows a Kemper go-live date of November 3, 2017. That remote layer still has limits. Child, DHS, adoption, guardianship, and similar files can hold confidential or redacted material. A docket entry may still be public.
What a Court Record Contains
What a Kemper County court file contains depends on the case and your access level. A case view can show the court and caption. It may also show the filed date, status, and docket history. The papers underneath add motions, orders, judgments, notices, and attachments. Financial, personal, child-related, or protected material may be withheld. It may also be redacted.
| Case number | The unique court identifier, best copied exactly from the notice or docket. |
|---|---|
| Caption and parties | The formal case style and party roles when public display permits. |
| Docket sheet | A chronological register of filings, notices, settings, orders, and outcomes. |
| Pleadings and motions | Papers asking the court to start, answer, manage, or decide an issue. |
| Orders and judgments | Signed court actions that resolve or direct part of the case. |
| Restrictions | Sealed, expunged, youth, DHS, or redacted material may be unavailable. |
Kemper Docket Documents
A docket sheet, a filed document, and a certified copy each answer a different question. The docket tells you what happened and when. The filed document is the item behind the entry. A certified copy is an authenticated copy straight from the originating clerk. When you request a paper, give the entry date and document title if you know them. That way the clerk is not left guessing.
| Record type | What it provides | Usual source |
|---|---|---|
| Docket sheet | Dated case activity and setting history | PAMEC or the originating clerk |
| Filed document | The actual pleading, order, judgment, notice, or allowed exhibit | Originating clerk, subject to access limits |
| Certified copy | Clerk-authenticated official copy | Originating clerk after a certification request |
PAMEC remote access can be handy for permitted records. Just remember that a screen display or plain printout is not automatically certified.
Kemper Court Transcripts
A transcript is the word-for-word record of what was said at a hearing or trial. It is not a clerk copy. The court reporter makes it. Ask the Tenth Circuit or Sixth Chancery court reporter or administrator and give the hearing date and case number first.
Asking for the docket alone will not get you a transcript. The Kemper County court docket shows that a hearing happened. The transcript is a separate product with its own maker, timeline, and price. The reporter will quote that price. Kemper publishes no flat transcript fee.
Certified Copies and Fees
A plain copy works when you just need to read the record. Ask for a certified copy. Do this when a court, agency, or formal proceeding requires the clerk's authentication. An exemplified copy adds yet another layer. State your purpose and let the originating clerk tell you what the Kemper County office requires. No complete local fee schedule for plain copies, certification, exemplification, or record searches is posted.
| Item | Official amount | Current instruction |
|---|---|---|
| PAMEC annual public account | $10 | Required before remote public access |
| PAMEC search results | $0.20 per page | A no-result search is billed as one page |
| In-office electronic viewing | Free viewing | Subject to restrictions under MEC procedures |
| Plain copy | Not located | Ask the custodian for the current fee |
| Certified copy or judgment | Not located | Ask for page and certification components |
| Exemplified copy or search | Not located | Ask the originating clerk before payment |
Kemper County Circuit Clerk
P.O. Box 130
DeKalb, MS 39328
601-743-8179 current county phone sheet
Kemper County Chancery Clerk
280 Veteran Street, P.O. Box 188
De Kalb, MS 39328
601-743-8368 current county phone sheet
Kemper Clerk Record Viewing
Mississippi MEC administrative procedures let the public view civil and criminal documents filed in MEC at the clerk's office. Viewing runs during regular business hours, subject to restrictions. Viewing is one thing. It does not create a right to reproduce every document. It does not open a sealed file. Nor does it grant a certification without the clerk's process and any applicable charge.
Bring a case number, caption, or a precise document request. Ask staff whether the file sits in MEC, a legacy system, paper storage, or archive. Confirm any hearing date with the court itself. A Kemper County docket setting can change after a term calendar is published.
Public Access and Sealed Records
Mississippi's general policy favors public inspection of court records. That starting point bends to judicial confidentiality, a sealing order, expunction, and youth-court protections. A Kemper County clerk may release the public portion of a file. Protected material is redacted. When the governing process requires one, a written denial names the basis for withholding.
Key rules:
Mississippi Code sections 25-61-1 and 25-61-2 state the Public Records Act's general policy while preserving specific exemptions and other controlling law.
Mississippi Code sections 25-61-5 and 25-61-7 address request handling, written explanations, and fees tied to actual search, review, duplication, and mailing costs.
Mississippi Code section 43-21-261 generally protects records involving children unless an exception or court order permits disclosure.
MEC Administrative Procedures section 7 governs permitted remote and clerk-office electronic viewing.
The Mississippi Ethics Commission's Public Records Act page gathers the state's official explanation of the act along with the statutory links.
State law frames the request, but the originating court still controls any court-specific restriction on a Kemper County record.
Kemper Court Record Archives
An old Kemper County file may be a legacy paper record. It may also be a bound docket, microfilm, or an archived series. It may not surface in a remote PAMEC result at all. Ask the clerk first whether the record is held locally. Ask whether an archive or retention inquiry is needed. The Mississippi Department of Archives and History requires appropriate authority and archival review. Court records are not disposed of before that review.
Archive status is not a denial. Give the clerk the case number, caption, court, and approximate year. Then ask which office can identify the record series and what copying or access rules apply. Kemper posts no archive turnaround time or archive-copy fee. The Mississippi Department of Archives and History local-government records page lays out the official retention backdrop.
Retention review is one reason an older Kemper record calls for a clerk or archive inquiry. A web search will not answer it.
Kemper Court Record Costs
The remote amounts listed earlier cover PAMEC only. Do not convert them into a Kemper County copy rate. Plain-copy, certified-copy, exemplification, transcript, archival, and clerk-search costs are not published in official Kemper sources. Before paying, request a written itemization. This matters especially if you need several documents or a certification.
Note: A fee estimate should name the record requested. It should also name the format. Then you can tell remote search billing apart from a clerk's copy or certification charge.