Rankin County Circuit Clerk Office

About the Rankin County Circuit Clerk

Michelle Adcock serves as the Rankin County Circuit Clerk. The office is the clerk for the 20th Circuit Court District and for County Court. Voters elect the Circuit Clerk, so the role answers to the public, not to a single judge. The clerk keeps the files that a working trial court creates each day.

This office is the records hub for the law side of the county courts. Felony cases, large civil suits, and appeals from lower courts all leave a paper trail here. The clerk also issues marriage licenses, draws juries, registers voters, and runs elections. For the equity side of the courthouse, the second clerk handles those files instead.

What the Rankin County Circuit Clerk Does

The Circuit Clerk wears many hats. The core job is to receive and file the papers that move a case forward. That covers lawsuits, indictments, motions, and related filings in civil and criminal cases in Circuit and County Courts. The office also issues the process that puts people on notice, such as summonses and subpoenas.

Beyond the courtroom, the clerk handles services that touch most residents at some point. The list below shows the main duties named on the official office page.

• Files lawsuits, indictments, and motions in Circuit and County Court cases
• Issues process, including summonses and subpoenas
• Draws jurors and qualifies juries for trials
• Keeps the record of judgments and executions
• Issues marriage licenses and keeps marriage records
• Records medical and other professional licenses
• Registers voters, runs elections, and offers free notary service

Court costs, fines, and filing fees move through the office as cases are filed and closed. The clerk does not decide cases. The judges and chancellors do that. The clerk keeps the official record of what the court ordered.

Circuit Clerk or Chancery Clerk

Rankin County splits clerk work between two elected offices. Picking the wrong one means a wasted trip. The Circuit Clerk holds the law-side files: felonies, civil suits in Circuit and County Court, judgments, marriage licenses, juries, and voter rolls. The Chancery Clerk holds the equity-side and land files.

Divorce, child support, custody, and alimony are Chancery matters. So are wills, estates, guardianships, conservatorships, and adoptions. Deeds, liens, plats, delinquent taxes, passports, and the county's official records index all sit with the second office. Route those needs to the Rankin County Chancery Clerk rather than the Circuit Clerk.

The trial courts themselves follow the same split. Circuit Court hears felonies, civil claims of $2,500 and above, and appeals, and its files are described in more detail on the Rankin County Circuit Court page. Chancery Court handles family and probate matters in a separate building.

How to Request a Certified Copy

A certified copy carries the clerk's seal and proves a document is genuine. Courts, lenders, schools, and government offices often demand one. A plain printout will not do for those uses. The steps below outline the request path through the Circuit Clerk.

1. Find the case number and court level. Confirm whether the case is in Circuit Court or County Court using the docket or a call to the office.
2. Decide which document you need and how many certified copies. Common requests include judgments, orders, indictments, and marriage records.
3. Contact the office to get the request form and the current copy and certification fees. Staff can confirm what a specific document will cost.
4. Submit the request with the party names, case number, and document type, and pay the fee. Add a mailing address if you want the copy returned by mail.
5. Pick up the certified copy in person or wait for it to arrive by mail. Older files may take longer to pull.

Note: Bring a photo ID and call ahead when a case is old or sealed, since some records carry access limits set by Mississippi law.

Rankin County Records Request Fields

A clean request moves faster. The clerk needs enough detail to pull the exact file out of thousands. The table lists the fields a records request to the Circuit Clerk should include, which ones are needed, and what each one does.

Mississippi Electronic Courts, known as MEC, is the statewide e-filing route for participating Circuit and County Courts. Availability for a given Rankin case should be confirmed with the Circuit Clerk before relying on it for online access.

Rankin County Marriage Records

The Circuit Clerk issues marriage licenses and keeps the marriage records. The Chancery Clerk does not. Both applicants must come to the office together to apply. No appointment is needed, but the office asks couples to arrive by 4:30 p.m. so there is time to finish.

Each applicant must show proof of age. A driver's license, birth certificate, or other legal document with a name and date of birth will work. An applicant who was divorced or widowed must give the month, day, and year the prior marriage ended. Once the clerk issues the license, it does not expire.

Note: A certified copy of a marriage record from the Circuit Clerk is what most agencies accept for a name change, a benefits claim, or an immigration file.

Rankin County Circuit Clerk Fees

Fees depend on the service and the document. The marriage license amount is published by the office. Copy and certification charges vary by page count and file, so the office confirms those at the counter. The table shows the figures the office lists, with confirmation needed where no fixed amount is published.

Credit-card payments add a small processing fee, which is why the marriage license costs more by card than by cash. The office can quote the total for any service before you pay. Always confirm copy fees by phone or in person, since amounts can change.

Rankin County Jury Service

Juries come from the Circuit Clerk. The office draws jurors and qualifies juries for trials in Circuit and County Court. A felony conviction needs a unanimous vote of all 12 jurors. A civil verdict can stand on the agreement of 9 of the 12.

Not everyone has to serve. People over age 65 do not have to sit on a jury and may call the office to be excused. A person who wants permanent removal because of age or a disability exemption can come by the office and sign a form. Either way, the request goes through the clerk, not the court.

Note: If a call or letter demands money over a missed jury date, treat it as a scam, because the clerk and the sheriff never collect jury fines by phone or gift card.

Voter Registration and Elections

The Circuit Clerk also runs voter registration and election duties for the county. A person must be registered at least 30 days before an election to vote in it. A citizen can register at age 17 and still vote if they turn 18 by election day.

Absentee voting opens early. The clerk's office takes in-person absentee ballots starting 45 days before each election during the week, plus the two Saturdays before the election from 8 a.m. until noon. The deadline to cast an absentee ballot in the office is noon on the Saturday before election day. The office also records professional licenses and offers free notary service to the community.

Expunged Records in Rankin County

An expunction order removes qualifying criminal records from ordinary public access. The clerk plays a key role in the process. Anyone seeking an expunction needs the case number and the disposition, and those come from the clerk or the docket. Mississippi expunction law sits in Miss. Code Section 99-19-71, a statute that covers certain dismissed, dropped, not-guilty, and listed conviction records. A look at the text of that Mississippi expunction statute shows how narrow the eligible categories are.

The clerk does not decide eligibility. A judge signs the order, and the clerk then issues certified copies of the signed expunction order so it can reach the agencies that hold criminal-history data. Until a judge signs and those agencies process the order, the record may still appear in court, jail, and background systems. People starting this path should confirm the current rule with the court that handled the charge and with the Circuit Clerk.

Federal Records Not Filed Here

The Circuit Clerk handles state trial-court files only. Federal cases follow a separate path. Bankruptcy filings for the area run through the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, and the docket of the federal bankruptcy court never reaches this county office. Federal civil and criminal records run through the district court and the PACER system instead.

Knowing this split saves a trip. A request for a bankruptcy record, a federal indictment, or a federal judgment will not be found at the counter in Brandon. The Circuit Clerk can point a visitor toward the right court, but the file itself lives in the federal system. State felony and civil records, by contrast, stay with the Circuit Clerk in Brandon.