West Virginia People Search

West Virginia has no statewide court search, so start with the statewide searches for prisons and jails, businesses and the sex offender registry, then go to the circuit clerk, county clerk and assessor of the county.

• WV DCR Offender SearchState prisons and regional jails, including people awaiting trial
• WV Secretary of State business searchCorporations, LLCs, partnerships and trade names
• WV Sex Offender RegistryKept by the West Virginia State Police
• West Virginia JudiciaryCircuit clerk contacts for all 55 counties and the court system
• WV Vital RegistrationBirth, death, marriage and divorce certificates for eligible requesters

Summary: West Virginia has 55 counties, no statewide online case search, and separate offices for land records (county clerks) and court records (circuit clerks), so research goes county by county.

West Virginia split from Virginia in 1863 and kept its county clerk tradition. There is no statewide online court search, so court records stay with each county.

So a search usually starts by finding the county, then searching its circuit clerk, county clerk and assessor separately. Statewide searches exist for corrections, business filings and the sex offender registry.

State agencies keep the few statewide records:

• WV Secretary of StateElections, business registrations, notaries and charities

West Virginia has Circuit Courts (general jurisdiction, one per county or shared by small counties), Family Courts (domestic relations) and Magistrate Courts (misdemeanors, small claims and landlord-tenant cases). The Supreme Court of Appeals is the highest court, and the Intermediate Court of Appeals, which began hearing cases in July 2022, hears civil appeals.

There is no public statewide case search. Contact the circuit clerk of the county, online where the county offers it, or by phone or in person.

• Supreme Court of Appeals of West VirginiaAppellate opinions, calendars and court rules

In West Virginia, real estate information is split between two county offices: the County Clerk (who records deeds and land instruments) and the Assessor (who values property for tax purposes). Property taxes themselves are collected by the Sheriff in most counties.

• WV Tax Division, property taxState property tax rules and links to county assessors

• WV Division of LaborWage enforcement and trade licensing

The Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation (DCR) runs the state prisons and the regional jails, so its offender search, linked in Where to Look, also shows people held before trial. The State Police sex offender registry is linked there too.

Vital Registration, linked in Where to Look, issues birth, death, marriage and divorce certificates; recent records go only to the person named and close family, and older records move to the State Archives.

• WV voter registration statusCheck your own registration and polling place

• West Virginia Archives and HistoryHistoric vital records, newspapers, manuscripts and Civil War records

West Virginia's 55 counties differ a lot in what is online: the Eastern Panhandle counties near Washington, D.C. have modern online records, while some southern coalfield counties have only paper records. The largest areas:

Eastern Panhandle (DC Suburbs)

Berkeley and Jefferson counties are growing fast with commuters to the Washington, D.C. area, and both have online records.

• Berkeley County Circuit ClerkMartinsburg and the Eastern Panhandle
• Berkeley County AssessorProperty values for Berkeley County

Kanawha Valley (Charleston Metro)

Kanawha County, with Charleston, the state capital, is the most populous county.

• Kanawha County Circuit ClerkCharleston, the state capital
• Kanawha County AssessorProperty values for Kanawha County

North Central (Morgantown/WVU Corridor)

Monongalia County is home to West Virginia University and Morgantown. Harrison and Marion counties anchor the Clarksburg-Fairmont metro area.

• Monongalia County ClerkDeeds, marriage licenses and record search for Morgantown
• Monongalia County AssessorProperty values for Monongalia County

Western WV (Ohio River Counties)

Cabell County (Huntington) and Wood County (Parkersburg) are the Ohio River industrial corridor, with significant cross-border research implications for Ohio and Kentucky.

• Cabell County AssessorHuntington
• Wood County AssessorParkersburg

West Virginia records are kept county by county, so plan to search each county separately.

Research Tip: Because West Virginia has no unified case search, cross-reference any statewide data (like DCR inmate records, SOS business filings, or the sex offender registry) with county-level records to build a full picture. If a subject has incorporated businesses in multiple counties, that often reveals residential history.

Common Mistake: Confusing the County Clerk (land records) with the Circuit Clerk (court records). These are two completely separate elected offices in every WV county. A deed search at the Circuit Clerk will return no results, and a criminal record search at the County Clerk is equally fruitless.

West Virginia's public records regime is governed by the West Virginia Freedom of Information Act (W. Va. Code § 29B-1-1 et seq.), which presumes public access to government records unless specifically exempted. The statute has been interpreted broadly by WV courts in favor of transparency.

Privacy Tip: West Virginia has no general consumer privacy law like California's CCPA or Virginia's VCDPA, so residents who want less personal data online must use each data broker's opt-out process.

While public government records remain widely accessible, the state balances this with protections for juvenile records, sealed cases, and certain victim-identifying information in criminal cases.