Access Cherokee County Clerk Records

Cherokee County Clerk of Court

The Cherokee County Clerk of Court is the Honorable Brandy W. McBee. The county biography says McBee was elected in 2003 and has served since January 2003. It also says she was appointed to the South Carolina Access to Justice Commission by Chief Justice Donald W. Beatty in 2019, serves on the Cherokee Children's Home board, delivers Meals on Wheels when not in court, and is a lifelong Cherokee County resident.

The Clerk of Court is a constitutional officer elected for a four-year term. The local Clerk page states that the Clerk has charge of the courthouse, including opening and closing the building. For record users, the key duty is more practical: the Clerk is the official record keeper for Common Pleas, General Sessions, and Family Courts, including payments, docketing, juror management, and filed court records.

Cherokee County is in the Seventh Judicial Circuit with Spartanburg County. Circuit Court is the primary trial court for general civil and criminal matters in South Carolina, with Common Pleas handling civil cases and General Sessions handling criminal cases. Family Court is a separate trial-court category, but the Cherokee County Clerk office supports Family Court records and local family services. Lower courts include Magistrate Court and Municipal Court, which means some summary, bond, traffic, or city matters may begin outside the Clerk's Circuit Court file system.

The Cherokee County Meet the Clerk page profiles Brandy W. McBee and describes the Clerk's courthouse and record duties.

That local profile is the source for the Clerk's name, tenure, constitutional-office role, and record-keeper description.

Cherokee County Clerk Record Duties

The Clerk is the right office for Cherokee County civil Circuit Court records, General Sessions criminal court records, Family Court records, divorce case files, judgments, lis pendens, lower-court appeals filed with the Clerk, expungement-order filing, transcript of judgment matters, court-copy work, and certified copies from the files the Clerk keeps. The office is also tied to juror management and payments.

• Common Pleas civil filings, judgments, lis pendens, motions, and appeals.
• General Sessions criminal case records, dispositions, and certified court copies.
• Family Court records, divorce files, child-support court routing, and family docket support.
• Jury-service routing through the Clerk's jury line.
• Copy, certification, exemplification, and record-retrieval services listed in the Clerk fee schedule.

The Clerk is not the custodian for active jail custody, sheriff incident records, probate estate administration, marriage-license issuance, SLED background checks, or DMV driving records. Those records use the Detention Center, Sheriff's Office, Probate Court, SLED, or SCDMV depending on the request.

This boundary helps avoid wrong-office requests. A divorce decree belongs with the Family Court and Clerk route, while a marriage license belongs with Probate Court. A criminal-history background check belongs with SLED, while the court case disposition belongs with the Clerk if it was filed in General Sessions. A traffic ticket may start in Magistrate Court, and any appeal or later Circuit Court filing should be checked through the court record path that matches the notice or case number.

Request Cherokee County Certified Copies

A certified copy is a copy that the Clerk certifies as an official court record. It may be needed for a divorce decree, disposition, judgment, name-change order, appeal, or agency filing. Online case search can help identify a case number, but it does not replace a certified document from the Clerk's file. If the case involves Family Court or restricted material, call before assuming the document can be released.

1. Search the South Carolina Public Index or use the court notice to identify the case number.
2. Confirm whether the record is Common Pleas, General Sessions, or Family Court.
3. Call the Clerk at 864-487-2571, or Family Court at 864-487-2570 for family matters, to confirm copy and certification needs.
4. Provide party names, document type, case number if known, number of copies, and whether a seal is needed.
5. Pay the copy, certification, record-retrieval, or exemplification charges that apply.
6. Pick up the copy in person or follow the office's mailing instructions.

Note: official sources did not provide a Clerk mail-order copy form, so call before mailing payment for certified records.

Certification can add cost and processing detail. The Clerk fee schedule lists ordinary copies, certification under seal, exemplification, and record retrieval as separate line items. A person who asks only for a plain printout may not receive a document that another agency will accept as official. A person who asks for a certified disposition, certified divorce decree, or exemplified record should say that clearly at the start of the request.

Cherokee County Records Request Fields

The county FOIA form exists for county public-record requests, and routine court copies are best routed through the Clerk or the court office that keeps the file. A complete request gives staff enough information to find the record without turning a copy request into broad legal searching.

Cherokee County Clerk Fees

The Cherokee County Clerk filing-fees page is the source for copy, certification, filing, appeal, expungement, judgment, and record-retrieval amounts. Copy costs are not the same as filing fees. A person ordering a certified decree usually needs copy and certification charges, while a person opening a new civil case faces filing fees.

The fee schedule helps separate ordinary copies from sealed certification, exemplification, appeals, expungement orders, and judgment-related filings.

Cherokee County Family Court Records

Family Court records and child-support routing are part of the Clerk's local workload. The Family Court office is at 125 E. Floyd Baker Boulevard, Gaffney, SC 29340, with mailing through P.O. Box 2289, Gaffney, SC 29342. The Family Court phone number is 864-487-2570, and the fax number is 864-902-1119. The Child Support Office phone is 864-487-2577.

The Cherokee County Family Court and child-support page links the Family Court Public Portal, Family Court Attorney Portal, child-support payment information, and support-payment notes.

Regular child-support payments should be made payable to the South Carolina State Disbursement Unit and mailed to P.O. Box 100302, Columbia, SC 29202-3302. The State Disbursement Unit Customer Service Center is 1-800-768-5858. If a judge orders a purge payment for failure to pay support, the county page says the person may come to the Clerk payment window and use cash or money order for the ordered amount.

Cherokee County Clerk Forms

The Clerk page links several form and service areas, including self-help divorce and visitation packets, jury information, court rosters, Family Court portals, child-support information, filing fees, and name-change materials. Clerk staff must remain neutral and cannot provide legal advice, so forms should be read with that limit in mind.

• Name Change Packet for adult name-change filing materials.
• Cherokee County Court Rosters for docket and roster lookup.
• Cherokee County Public Index for public case search.
• Family Court and Child Support for family portals and payment routing.

The Cherokee County name-change packet page lists instructions, petition forms, affidavits, release forms, cover sheet, records check, hearing request, and proposed order materials.

The name-change packet is a good example of a Clerk filing path where staff can provide forms but cannot tell a filer what answers to choose.

Cherokee County Clerk Access Channels

Online access starts with the South Carolina Judicial Branch case-records search and the direct Cherokee County Public Index. Court Rosters are the docket and roster path linked by the Clerk and state courthouse pages. Family Court has a public portal and an attorney portal, but family records have privacy limits, so portal information may not be the complete file.

For mail, use Cherokee County Clerk of Court, P.O. Box 2289, Gaffney, SC 29342, after confirming the needed fee and copy format. For in-person help, use the Clerk's counter at 125 E. Floyd Baker Boulevard during posted office hours.

County FOIA is still useful for non-judicial county records, but court users should not treat FOIA as the first step for ordinary case copies. Public Index, Court Rosters, the Clerk counter, Family Court, and Rule 610 are the more precise channels for court records. Use the narrowest official channel that matches the record. It saves time and reduces the chance that a request is routed to a county office that does not keep the file.