Browse Lamar County Court Dockets

What a Lamar County Court Docket Shows

A docket is a chronological list of everything that has happened in a case. Each line records one event and the date it occurred. A docket entry might note that a complaint was filed, a summons issued, a motion entered, a hearing set, or a judgment ordered. Read together, the entries tell the story of a case from opening to disposition without reproducing the underlying paperwork.

The docket is not the full case file. The full file holds the actual documents, including pleadings, exhibits, orders, decrees, and signed judgments. The docket points to those documents and shows when each was filed, but it rarely contains the text itself. A person tracking a court date usually needs only the docket. Someone preparing for a legal review, an appeal, or evidence usually needs the complete record from the clerk who keeps it.

Court level matters in Lamar County. Circuit Court and County Court calendars run through the statewide electronic system, while Chancery Court keeps its own dockets and minute books and Justice Court and the municipal courts run separate calendars. There is no single combined docket that pulls every court together, so the first step is identifying which court holds the case.

Lamar County Circuit and County Court Dockets in MEC

Felony criminal cases, major civil actions, and County Court matters are tracked through Mississippi Electronic Courts, the statewide e-filing and docket system known as MEC. Lamar County Circuit Court moved to mandatory electronic filing on May 30, 2017, after voluntary e-filing opened on May 22, 2017. The Circuit and County Court MEC location went live on November 4, 2019, at 203 Main Street in Purvis. Since then, attorneys file documents electronically and the clerk records each event as a docket entry.

For a closer look at how the statewide platform is organized, the Mississippi Electronic Courts information page describes the system and its electronic access context.

Public document access through MEC can depend on the user account, subscription, and document type, so a member of the public may see less than a registered attorney. When the online system does not show what is needed, the fallback is the Circuit Clerk counter at 203 Main Street or a direct request to the office holding the file. Martin Hankins serves as Circuit Clerk and keeps the Circuit Court record and the court seal.

Reading Lamar County Case-Type Codes

Every Lamar County case number carries a code that signals the type of matter. The Circuit Clerk publishes these codes, and they appear throughout dockets and indexes. Knowing the code helps a searcher confirm a case is the right one before reading the entries. The table below lists the codes most useful for docket review across the criminal and civil divisions.

The Circuit Clerk list also includes Juvenile Abuse (JA), Juvenile Delinquency (JD), Juvenile (J), Eminent Domain (ED), Family (F), Law Minor (LM), Miscellaneous Remedy (MR), Municipal Corporation (MC), Small Claims (SC), and Tax (TX). Juvenile codes point to restricted Youth Court matters, which do not appear in ordinary public dockets.

Lamar County Chancery Court Dockets and Minute Books

Chancery Court is the equity court, and its dockets follow a different path than the MEC criminal and civil calendars. Divorce, estates, guardianships, conservatorships, paternity, child support, land matters, and civil commitments are filed here. Jamie Aultman serves as Chancery Clerk and is responsible for attending court, maintaining minutes, creating and maintaining chancery suits, issuing process, and recording court activity in dockets and minute books.

Chancery Court in Lamar County is held two weeks out of each month and convenes at 9:00 a.m. Because the clerk records each session in the minute books, older or non-digitized docket information may require a counter visit or a mailed request to the Chancery Clerk at 403 Main Street in Purvis. The separate Chancery Clerk records office is the practical access point for divorce, probate, and land-record dockets that the Circuit Clerk does not handle.

The online Chancery records portal indexes land instruments rather than full case dockets, and the portal itself warns that the online index is not the official index. Only the Land Records Index maintained at the Lamar County Courthouse is treated as official. For an estate or guardianship docket, contacting the Chancery Clerk directly remains the reliable route.

The Lamar County Justice Court Criminal Calendar

Justice Court carries a heavy local docket. The court reports roughly 7,100 criminal cases and about 6,000 civil cases each year, so its calendar is one of the busiest record sources in the county. The criminal division handles misdemeanors, DUI, preliminary hearings, initial appearances, bond hearings on felony cases, and traffic tickets written by the Sheriff's Department, the Mississippi Highway Patrol, constables, the Department of Wildlife, the Motor Carrier Division, and the Department of Transportation.

The criminal calendar runs on a set weekly schedule. Misdemeanor pleas are heard at 10:00 a.m. on Tuesdays, and misdemeanor trials begin at 1:30 p.m. the same day. Knowing those times helps anyone trying to confirm when a Justice Court matter is set. The civil division handles declarations, past-due accounts, evictions, and replevins with a jurisdictional limit of $3,500.

Note: Justice Court calendars are not part of the Chancery land-record portal, so calendar confirmation comes through the Justice Court office at 205 Main Street, Suite A.

Municipal courts keep their own dockets for city ordinance, city traffic, and city misdemeanor cases. For the Hattiesburg portion of Lamar County, the Hattiesburg Municipal Court at 701 James Street maintains those calendars and offers an online violations search and payment portal.

Common Lamar County Docket Events

Docket entries use short labels for routine court actions. The same labels appear across Circuit, County, Chancery, and Justice Court records, with criminal and civil matters sharing much of the same vocabulary. The reference table below explains the entries a searcher is most likely to meet when reading a Lamar County docket.

Other entries note continuances, verdicts, sentencing, bond hearings, preliminary hearings, and warrants issued or recalled. A capias or bench warrant entry signals an order to take a person into custody, often after a missed appearance. Financial lines may show fines, costs, restitution, filing fees, and bond amounts tied to the case.

How to Find a Lamar County Court Docket

Finding a docket starts with matching the case to the right court, then choosing the access channel that court uses. The 15th Circuit MEC location page is a useful reference for confirming where Circuit and County Court records live. The steps below walk through a typical docket search from start to finish.

The 15th Circuit MEC court information page lists the Lamar Circuit Court and Lamar County Court location, phone, hours, and go-live date.

1. Identify the court level from the case number or case-type code: Circuit for felonies and major civil, Chancery for divorce, probate, and equity, Justice for misdemeanors, traffic, and small claims, and municipal for city citations.
2. For Circuit and County Court matters, use Mississippi Electronic Courts or contact the Circuit Clerk at 203 Main Street in Purvis.
3. For Chancery dockets, contact the Chancery Clerk at 403 Main Street for case files, minute-book entries, and certified copies.
4. For Justice Court or municipal matters, call or visit the Justice Court office, or use the city court portal for Hattiesburg citations.
5. Enter a name or case number, then review the docket entries in date order and request the full file if the underlying documents are needed.

For older or non-digitized matters, counter access or a mailed request to the office of record is often the only route. The Mississippi Public Records Act supports a general fallback, but court records also follow court rules and confidentiality statutes.

When Lamar County Docket Records Are Not Official

Online docket information is convenient, but it is not always official or certified. The Chancery records portal states plainly that its online index is informational and that only the index kept at the courthouse is official. Electronic court data may also be unavailable at times after normal business hours because of maintenance. A docket pulled from a screen is best treated as a starting point.

When a record must be relied on for a legal filing, an employer requirement, or a court matter, a certified copy from the clerk is the dependable form. The clerk authenticates certified copies, and only the office that keeps the record can issue them. Sealed, expunged, juvenile, and adoption matters are restricted by law and will not appear in ordinary public dockets at all.

The historical milestone behind Lamar County's electronic dockets can be traced to the judiciary's own announcements.

The Mississippi Judiciary's notice on Lamar County Circuit Court e-filing confirms electronic filing became mandatory on May 30, 2017.

That move toward electronic filing is why Circuit and County dockets are searchable through MEC today, while Chancery, Justice, and municipal calendars still run on their own systems. Matching the record to the right court remains the key to a reliable docket search.

Questions About Lamar County Court Dockets

A few questions come up often when people first work with these calendars. Short answers help clear up the most common points of confusion before a search begins.

For routing across every record type, the broader Lamar County court records overview explains which office holds which file and how the courts divide their work.