South Dakota, court records
Search South Dakota criminal cases and protection orders statewide in the UJS Public Access Record Search (PARS), at $20 per search. Federal cases are in PACER.
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Court records
Home of the South Dakota Unified Judicial System: court information, legal guidance, records search and resources for people going to court.
Open official site South Dakota Unified Judicial SystemCourt records
How to get South Dakota court records: PARS for criminal and protection order summaries at $20 a search, and request forms for civil records.
Open official site South Dakota Court Records SearchCourt records
Public Access Record Search for criminal cases and domestic, stalking and foreign protection orders. Enter a name and date of birth; each search costs $20.
Open official site South Dakota Public Access Record SearchCourt records
Nationwide index of federal district, bankruptcy and appeals court cases, searched by party name or case number. Needs a PACER account; $0.10 per page.
Open official site PACER Case LocatorCourt records
Find the federal district, bankruptcy and appeals courts that serve any location, or look up a federal court by name.
Open official site U.S. Courts, Federal Court FinderGuide
South Dakota divorces are circuit court cases under SDCL 16-6-9, kept by the county Clerk of Courts. The court records rule in SDCL chapter 15-15A opens the court record to the public under 15-15A-5 and closes financial documents under 15-15A-8(2): tax returns, W-2s, wage stubs, credit card and bank statements, check registers and other financial information, which are filed as confidential documents under 15-15A-9 and reached by non-parties only on a good cause motion under 15-15A-10. The Judgment and Decree of Divorce with the property division under 25-4-44 and the filed Stipulation and Settlement Agreement are public; the Financial Statement UJS-023 that the divorce packets require carries the content the statute protects, and any tax returns, wage stubs or account statements filed with it are confidential by name.
Divorce cases are not in the $20 PARS search; civil summaries come by a Statewide Record Search Request, and open records are read on the public access terminals at every courthouse or requested from the Clerk of Courts. The South Dakota asset search page explains what the decree still shows.
Record guide
At a glance
PARS gives a summary of public criminal cases from 1989 on and protection orders for $20 a search; older records and civil records come from the county clerk of courts or a request form.
More South Dakota records on this site: South Dakota public records, Free Background Checks.
Straight answers
Open only the answer you need.
State court records are usually free to view at the courthouse and often free online, with per-page fees for certified copies. PACER charges $0.10 per page (capped at $3.00 per document), waived under $30 per quarter.
No. A sealed case is hidden from the public docket index by court order. Its existence may still be confirmable by number, but documents are not accessible.
Civil cases involve disputes between parties (contracts, torts, family). Criminal cases are brought by the government. Both are indexed by the same court clerks but tracked in separate sub-dockets.
Not in one search. PACER covers all federal courts. Most states have a statewide judiciary portal that covers their state courts, but a few require per-county lookups. This page links to South Dakota's official portal.
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Every state page lists that state's official court record sources, each opened and verified.