Title 14, Courts

Clerks may act as attorneys and solicitors in all the courts in the State, except in the courts of their respective counties, provided they shall have complied with the requirements of law regulating the admission of persons to practice as attorneys, solicitors and counselors in …

Clerks shall not act as sheriffs or deputy sheriffs, except as provided by Section 23-11-100.

Clerks may administer oaths and take depositions, affidavits and renunciations of dower. The clerk of any county in which the office of master does not exist may, by consent of parties, sign orders of reference in vacation and may also, upon proper proceedings filed, grant orders…

The clerk shall (a) issue every execution, bench warrant or other process issuable or directed to be issued by the courts of sessions, in the name of the Attorney General or solicitor of the circuit, (b) issue all rules and notices ordered in the common pleas, (c) attest in his o…

Whenever security for costs may be ordered to be given or may be tendered by any plaintiff in vacation or in term time the clerk shall witness the signature of the surety and shall, in the first instance, judge of the sufficiency of the security. The form of the undertaking shall…

The clerk or the register of deeds, as the case may be, in whose office any judgment or mortgage may be of record, on the receipt of the fees, shall permit any judgment creditor or his or her attorney or any mortgagee, as the case may be, to enter satisfaction thereof. Or if any …

Whenever any execution shall be returned for renewal or as satisfied by any sheriff the clerk shall enter such renewal or satisfaction in the appropriate column of the abstract book and in case of satisfaction shall enter the same on the original record. It shall not be lawful fo…

In the event of any vacancy in the office of clerk the Governor shall have full power to fill it by appointment as provided in Section 4-11-20. Until such vacancy be filled by appointment or election the judge of probate of the county shall take charge of the office and all of th…

The clerk shall diligently and uprightly put in execution the laws in force directing the drawing, balloting, empaneling and summoning of jurors, so far as his cooperation may be required.

Immediately after the adjournment of any court of common pleas and general sessions the clerk thereof shall (a) make out a roll of the grand jurors, petit jurors and constables who shall have attended the same, exhibiting the name, time of service and amount due each juror and co…

(A) Every clerk of court shall report the disposition of each case in the Court of General Sessions to the State Law Enforcement Division within five days of disposition, weekends and holidays excluded. (B) Every clerk of court shall also report to the State Law Enforcement Divis…

Each of the clerks of courts of the various counties in this State shall keep a book in his office in which he shall record the name of each person elected to any office, together with the date of their election whenever such facts are obtainable. Such book shall be furnished by …

The clerk shall administer the oaths of office required to be taken by magistrates appointed within his county, on their application, within ninety days after such appointment. On the first day of November, annually, he shall transmit a list of the names of magistrates who have q…

The clerk shall administer the oaths of office required by law to be taken by a constable, on his entering into bond, as prescribed, to be filed in the office of the clerk, of the sufficiency of the surety to which the clerk shall judge. The constable shall furnish a genuine sign…

When any sheriff, coroner, magistrate or constable shall be required to obtain the official certificate of any clerk to his contingent account, specifying any matters required by law to be certified, the clerk shall furnish such certificates, according to the facts, upon applicat…

The clerk shall furnish, free of charge, to the governing body of the county, when required, an official certificate of all liens that may be of record in his office on the property of any individual who may be offered as surety to the bond of any public officer, whether by judgm…

Before receiving their commissions the several clerks shall enter into bond, to be approved, recorded and filed as prescribed in Sections 8-3-130 to 8-3-150 in the penal sum of ten thousand dollars.

The clerk before entering on the duties of his office shall, in addition to the oath of office prescribed by the Constitution, take the oaths required of such officer by Section 8-3-20. Said oaths must be endorsed upon the commission, subscribed by the officer and attested by a m…

The clerk shall make a full, fair and correct entry and record of the proceedings of the courts and other matters pertaining to his office in the various books required to be kept, conforming to the mode prescribed by law, order of the court or usage of the office. He shall file …

The office of every clerk shall be furnished with suitable cases with proper partitions for filing papers, under appropriate labels.

The original papers of record in each cause wherein judgment may be signed or confessed or decree may be entered shall be filed according to the number of enrollment in the book of abstracts of judgments or decrees, placing all the papers in each cause together. Original papers i…

The books to be used by the several clerks, which shall be well bound and of good materials, shall be as follows: (1) A "Court of Common Pleas Journal" shall contain (a) a full account of the proceedings of court from the opening to the adjournment, excluding motions refused, (b)…

No cause shall be entered on the calendar except by the clerk or his deputy, nor by him until the pleadings are made up. The calendars for the court shall be regularly preserved as a record of the court.

The books mentioned in Section 14-17-540 shall be of the following sizes, respectively: (1) Court of common pleas journal, general sessions journal, rules and fines and forfeitures, each of the size denominated "Demi," the journals containing not less than six quires each and the…

The clerk shall not in any case permit either the books or records to be removed from his office, though he shall at all times permit either party to a suit, or his agent or attorney, to inspect or copy, during the pendency of suit, any papers pertaining thereto without charge or…

Every clerk shall be held responsible for the books, papers and furniture in his office. Upon his retiring from office or upon his death, he or his representative shall be bound to transfer the same to his successor immediately after such successor has entered upon the duties of …

Before surrendering such books, papers and furniture, the clerk so retiring from office or his representative shall be entitled to require from such successor, who, under like penalty, shall be bound to execute the same, a receipt in writing therefor which shall specify the numbe…

Notwithstanding the provisions of this article or any other provision of law, a public record required to be kept by a clerk of court including, but not limited to, a book, journal, index, paper, writing, written record, and written findings may be maintained in a computer system…

The clerk may appoint a deputy or deputies to be approved by the court of common pleas, a record of whose appointment shall be made in the clerk's office. Before entering on the duties of his appointment such deputy must take the oath prescribed by the Constitution. When so quali…

The circuit judge shall require the clerks of court to comply with the requirements of Sections 14-17-540 and 14-17-550.

Each clerk's office shall be furnished with a seal of office and such blank books for the various records as may be needed from time to time, to be procured by the clerk and the expenses thereof defrayed by the governing body of the county.

In all cases the clerk shall render his account against the county for fees in State cases under oath, to be taken and subscribed before the judge, magistrate or other office authorized to administer an oath. In such statement the nature of the services shall be fully set forth a…

All fines and penalties imposed and collected by the circuit court of general sessions in criminal causes shall be forthwith turned over by the clerk of such court to the county treasurer of the county wherein the same are imposed; provided, that when, by law, any person is entit…

Where criminal fines, assessments, or restitution payments are paid through installments, a collection cost charge of three percent of the payment also must be collected by the clerk of court, magistrate, or municipal court from the defendant and transferred to the county treasur…

If any clerk fail to pay over fines and forfeitures received by him or any moneys paid to him by order or permission of the court within five days after demand of the person entitled to receive the same, he shall forfeit and pay five per cent per month until the same shall be pai…

The clerk shall return to the governing body of the county, on or before the last day of October in every year, an account, upon oath, in duplicate, of all fines and forfeitures inflicted in his court during the preceding year and of the amounts had and received by him and of the…

Every clerk of the court is required, on the first Wednesday in each month or within ten days thereafter, to make in writing to the auditor and treasurer of his county a full and accurate statement of all moneys collected on account of licenses, fines, penalties and forfeitures d…

At each stated session of the court of common pleas the clerk thereof shall present an account to the court of all moneys remaining therein or subject to the order thereof, stating particularly on account of what cause or causes such moneys are deposited, which account and the vo…