Look Up Simpson County Court Cases

How to Search Simpson County Court Records

Simpson County has no single county-built case search page of its own. Circuit Court and Chancery Court records flow through Mississippi Electronic Courts, the statewide e-filing and case system, with public viewing handled through Public Access to MEC, known as PAMEC. Lower-court matters take a different route. Justice Court and the municipal courts keep their own files and do not post a public online docket. So a Simpson County court records search starts with one question: which court created the record.

Gather a few details before you begin. A full party name, an approximate filing year, and a case number if you have one will speed the process. PAMEC requires a registered account, so first-time users sign up online. For files that never went online, sit sealed or expunged, or are simply old, a direct call or visit to the clerk is the surest path. The steps below outline the practical order for most searches.

1. Identify the court that holds the record. The Circuit Clerk keeps felony and major civil files, the Chancery Clerk keeps divorce, probate, land, and guardianship files, and the Justice Court handles traffic, misdemeanor, and small-claims matters.
2. For a Circuit or Chancery case, open the Mississippi Electronic Courts page or sign in to PAMEC. Existing credentials let you view case information and filed documents.
3. If you have no account, register online through the MEC online registration page before you search.
4. For a lower-court matter, call the Justice Court or the municipal court that issued the citation, since neither posts cases online.
5. For copies, certified copies, or files not visible remotely, contact the clerk who maintains the case.

Note: PAMEC is a restricted system for official court business only, and every login and access attempt is recorded for security.

The Simpson County Judicial System

Mississippi splits its trial courts between law and equity, and Simpson County follows that model. Circuit Court is the law court for felony prosecutions, larger civil disputes, and appeals from the lower courts. Chancery Court is the separate court of equity. It hears divorce, child custody, probate, guardianship, conservatorship, and land-title cases, usually without a jury. Below them sit Justice Court and the municipal courts, which handle the highest volume of everyday cases.

Simpson County belongs to the 13th Circuit Court District. Two Circuit Judges, Matt Sullivan and Stanley Sorey, preside over Circuit Court matters. Chancery cases go before Chancellors David Shoemake and Gerald M. Martin. In Circuit Court a unanimous vote of twelve jurors is needed for a criminal conviction, while nine of twelve will settle a civil case. Simpson County has no separate County Court, so trial-level disputes route to Circuit or Chancery Court depending on the subject.

Case flow: Justice Court / Municipal Court › Circuit Court › Mississippi Court of Appeals › Mississippi Supreme Court

Which Court Holds Your Simpson County Records

The split clerk system is the detail that trips up most searchers. Simpson County has two record-keeping clerks, not one. The Circuit Clerk runs the Circuit Court side, and the Chancery Clerk runs the Chancery Court side. Justice Court keeps its own clerk and its own files. Pick the wrong office and a search stalls before it starts. The comparison below shows how the three main trial venues divide the work.

A simple rule helps. If the matter involves a crime above the misdemeanor level or a large money dispute, think Circuit Court. If it involves family, estates, land, or guardianship, think Chancery Court. If it is a ticket or a small claim, think Justice Court.

Types of Court Records Available in Simpson County

Simpson County court records cover a wide range of cases. Each record type lives with the court that handled the case, and each can include filings, orders, and a final outcome. The categories below are the most common requests at the clerk counters in Mendenhall.

Criminal and civil files come from both Circuit Court and Justice Court, depending on severity. Family and estate files come from Chancery Court. Traffic records start in Justice Court or a municipal court.

• Criminal records - Felony case files held by the Circuit Clerk; misdemeanor matters tried in Justice Court.
• Civil records - Larger lawsuits in Circuit Court and small claims not over $3,500 in Justice Court.
• Family and divorce records - Divorce, custody, and support files kept by the Chancery Clerk.
• Probate records - Wills, estates, guardianships, and conservatorships handled in Chancery Court.
• Traffic records - Citations and fines processed through Justice Court or a city municipal court.

Searching Circuit and Chancery Records Online

Mississippi Electronic Courts is the digital backbone for trial-court records statewide. The 13th Circuit Court District page shows Simpson County Circuit Court at 100 Court Street, Ste. 2, in Mendenhall, with a court phone of 601-847-2474, hours of 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and a MEC go-live date of January 28, 2019. The public CourtInfo page for the district lists the court location, the PAMEC contact, and a glossary of docket flags. The actual case query, though, sits behind a login.

PAMEC viewing requires a username and password. People who do not need to file documents may still register for a viewing account. The login screen captures only a few fields, summarized here.

Once signed in, the case query lets a user pick the court and search by case number, name, or date. Exact labels are not visible to the public without credentials, but MEC guides describe these fields.

Note: A statewide report in 2025 said all 82 Mississippi counties had joined the electronic court system, but PAMEC credentials are still needed to view most case detail.

What Simpson County Court Records Show

A Simpson County court record is built from many small fields. The Circuit Clerk keeps a general docket with the names of parties, pleas, indictments, records from inferior courts on appeal, and other papers, plus court orders tied to the minute book and a full record of proceedings. The exact fields differ by case type, but the core set is consistent across courts.

The table below maps the fields a searcher most often sees to the information each one carries.

Public Access Laws for Simpson County Court Records

Mississippi treats court and government records as open unless a law makes them confidential. Access begins with the office that created or holds the record. Court files remain subject to court rules, sealing orders, expungement orders, and statutes that protect certain categories. The key statutes below shape what the public can and cannot view in Simpson County.

Records That Are Restricted or Confidential

Not every Simpson County court file is open to the public. Several categories are sealed by law or by court order, and a clerk will not release them across the counter. Youth-court and juvenile records are confidential under state law. Adoption files, mental-health and drug or alcohol commitment matters, and sealed filings are also shielded. Once a court grants an expungement, that record drops out of ordinary public access, and the MEC system can flag it as EXPUNGED.

Viewing a restricted file usually takes a court order or proof that you are a party with a legal right of access. The first step is to ask the clerk of the court that holds the record which path applies. For an expungement, the petition is filed in the court where the conviction occurred, and a person should know the case number, charge, disposition, and sentence-completion date before filing. A clerk cannot give legal advice, so an attorney is often the right next call for eligibility questions.

Note: Personal identifiers such as Social Security numbers, dates of birth, financial account numbers, and the names of minor children are redacted from public filings.

Simpson County Clerk and Office Contacts

Court offices in Simpson County cluster around the courthouse square in Mendenhall, near Court Street, Court Avenue, and West Pine Avenue. Because the record sets are split, the fastest route is to contact the office that holds the file directly. The cards below list the main court and law-enforcement offices a records searcher will use.

Specialty Courts and the District Attorney

Simpson County's felony cases are prosecuted by the District Attorney for the 13th Circuit District, Chris Hennis. The office handles serious crimes such as murder, manslaughter, sex crimes, aggravated assault, robbery, burglary, grand larceny, fraud, forgery, embezzlement, identity theft, felony DUI, and drug crimes. It also manages grand jury work, victim assistance, bad-check cases, and probation revocations. As a general rule, any crime that can bring one or more years in jail is treated as a felony.

The District Attorney also represents the State in Drug Court and runs a Pre-Trial Intervention program. Drug Court is a treatment-focused track that can shape how a charge ends, and pretrial intervention may divert some cases away from conviction. The local pages do not publish program length, eligibility screens, or graduation rules, so those details should be confirmed with the office. Misdemeanors and speeding tickets are not prosecuted by the District Attorney; those route to Justice Court or a municipal court instead.

Simpson County Sheriff and Jail Records

Sheriff Paul Mullins serves as the county's chief law enforcement officer. The Sheriff's Department keeps the peace, executes court process, takes custody of people committed by court order, and runs the county jail. The official Sheriff's page is written as a duties summary rather than a roster, and no public online jail roster or active warrant list was located for Simpson County. That makes phone and direct-office contact the working channel for custody and warrant questions.

For a current custody check, the admin line at 601-847-2155 and dispatch at 601-847-2921 are the official numbers. Statewide tools cover different populations: the Mississippi Department of Corrections locator tracks state-sentenced inmates, and VINELink offers custody notifications where agencies take part. A county arrest does not place someone in state prison custody, so local detainees are confirmed through the Sheriff's Department. Full booking detail and the custody process appear on the Simpson County inmate records page.

Marriage, Divorce, and Chancery Court Records

Marriage licensing and divorce records live in two different offices in Simpson County. The Circuit Clerk issues marriage licenses, files the Statistical Record of Marriage with the state Office of Vital Records, and collects a fee of $37 per marriage record prepared. Divorce, by contrast, is a Chancery Court matter handled by the Chancery Clerk, along with custody, support, and property division. Probate of wills, estates, guardianships, and conservatorships also run through Chancery Court. Detailed marriage and divorce steps appear on the marriage and divorce records page.

The marriage-license application is governed by Miss. Code § 93-1-5, which has applicants apply in writing to a circuit clerk and swear to names, ages, and addresses. The fee table below covers the costs that official Simpson County pages publish; several copy fees are not posted and should be confirmed with the clerk.

Probate language can confuse families during an estate. A few common terms are defined here.

Testator

A person who makes a valid will.

Executor

The person named in a will to carry out its terms.

Intestate

Dying without a valid will, so state law decides who inherits.

Conservator

A person appointed to manage another adult's property or financial affairs.

Guardianship

Court-granted authority over a minor or an incapacitated person.

How to Interpret Simpson County Court Records

Court dockets are full of shorthand, and the MEC system uses status flags that tell a reader where a case stands. Knowing the common flags makes a Simpson County court records search far easier to read. A charge is not the same as a conviction, and a flag often signals a step in the case rather than a final result.

The CourtInfo glossary for the 13th Circuit District exposes many of these labels. A handful show up most often.

• Bench Warrant Issued - A judge has ordered an arrest, often after a missed court date.
• Capias Pending - A writ to take a person into custody is outstanding.
• Nolle Pros Pending - The prosecutor is moving to drop the charge.
• Final Judgment Issued - The court has entered its final decision.
• EXPUNGED - The record has been removed from ordinary public access by court order.

Note: A docket flag reflects a moment in the case and can change quickly, so verify current status with the clerk before relying on it.

Accuracy and Record Limitations

Online court information can lag behind the paper file. New filings take time to post, and not every old or lower-court case appears in the electronic system. Justice Court and municipal cases are not indexed in a public portal at all. A name search can also return more than one person, so identity should be confirmed with a case number or date of birth on file before any conclusion is drawn.

History of Simpson County Courts

Simpson County was formed in 1823, and its records reach back that far. The Chancery Clerk's office advertises genealogical studies covering land, probate, and board minutes from the county's formation to the present, which makes it a key stop for historical research. The Justice Court traces its roots to the medieval English justice of the peace system. After the 1981 federal case Brown v. Vance criticized the old fee-based model, Mississippi created the Office of Justice Court Clerk, placed judges on salary, and required training through the Mississippi Judicial College, with reforms effective in 1984.

Population and economic context for the county comes from the U.S. Census QuickFacts page for Simpson County, a reliable source for demographic detail.

That local context helps explain caseloads at the courthouse, since the size and makeup of the population shape how many criminal, civil, and family matters the courts handle each year. The modern milestone is digital: Simpson County Circuit Court went live on Mississippi Electronic Courts on January 28, 2019, and statewide reporting in 2025 marked the completion of the e-filing rollout across all 82 counties.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where do I search Simpson County Circuit Court records?

Circuit Court records run through Mississippi Electronic Courts and its public viewing system, PAMEC. Viewing requires a registered account. For files that are old, sealed, or not posted online, contact the Circuit Clerk in Mendenhall at 601-847-2474 to ask about copies and search options.

Is there a free public case search for Simpson County?

Simpson County does not host its own free case search page. Circuit and Chancery records route through MEC and PAMEC, which need login credentials. Justice Court and municipal cases are not online at all, so those require a phone call or an in-person visit to the right clerk.

Which clerk handles divorce and probate records?

The Chancery Clerk, Tim Gray, keeps divorce, probate, guardianship, conservatorship, and land records. The Circuit Clerk handles felony and major civil files plus marriage licenses. Matching the record type to the correct clerk is the fastest way to find a file.

How do I check for someone in the Simpson County jail?

No public online jail roster was located for Simpson County. Call the Sheriff's Department admin line at 601-847-2155 or dispatch at 601-847-2921 for a custody check. State-sentenced inmates are listed separately through the Mississippi Department of Corrections locator.

How much does a marriage record cost?

The Circuit Clerk collects a $37 filing fee per marriage record prepared. The clerk issues the license and files the Statistical Record of Marriage with the state Office of Vital Records. Certified copy fees were not published on official county pages, so confirm them with the office.

How do I handle a Simpson County traffic ticket?

County traffic tickets go to Justice Court. Defendants may call 601-847-5848 about ten days before the court date to learn the fine amount or set a trial date. Fines are paid by cash in person or by cashier's check or money order by mail; personal checks are not accepted.