Court records in South Carolina: what is automatic and what is by hand
Federal and appellate cases load automatically. County-level South Carolina cases, including tickets and magistrate matters, must be checked by hand. Here is why, and the fastest way to do it.
What loads automatically
Evidentor holds the full CourtListener bulk data: about 45 million federal and appellate dockets, refreshed weekly on the server. For a name search in SC, matching dockets appear as records, and cases that name only the surname are listed as a lead to check.
Why county courts are by hand
The South Carolina Public Index is the only free source for county criminal, civil, family, traffic and magistrate cases. Its terms forbid automated searching, and Rule 610 of the appellate court rules bars bulk distribution of judicial records for commercial purposes. Evidentor does not scrape it; doing so would put the firm at risk.
Attorneys practising in South Carolina can face discipline for violating the Public Index terms. Hand checks are quick and leave an audit trail.
The fast hand check
- On a search result or a subject's Court tab, open Court records to check by hand. Each county in the results has a direct link to its Public Index.
- Search the name on the county site. Open any case that fits.
- Back in Evidentor press Add court record: court, case number, role, filed date, disposition, and where you found it. It now shows in the profile, the graph, and is available to Ask Evidentor and reports.
Full coverage: a licensed provider
Commercial skip-tracing and background tools get statewide criminal, traffic and address history from licensed data vendors under permissible-purpose rules. An admin can connect one in Firm settings; searches then include it automatically for litigation, investigation, claims and due diligence purposes, and every lookup is audited.