Search Pleasants County Court Dockets

How to Search the Pleasants County Court Docket

Start your Pleasants County court docket search with the right office. Circuit Clerk Millie Farnsworth holds the Circuit Court files. She also holds any Family Court case filed in Pleasants County. For lower-court work, turn to Magistrate Clerk Pam Cox. Her office keeps misdemeanors, traffic matters, small claims, preliminary examinations, and statutory protective proceedings. Belmont ordinance citations belong to Belmont Municipal Court instead. St. Marys offers no online municipal docket. A city citation means a call to City Hall or the agency that issued it.

A case number beats a name every time. A party name can pull up several records or hit the Magistrate search cap. When you find a match, write it down. Note the court, county, filing date, document title, and current setting.

1. Identify whether Circuit, Family, Magistrate, or Municipal Court holds the matter.
2. Use WVPASS for public Circuit records or MCRSearch for Magistrate case information.
3. Search with the exact case number, or use the party-name fields provided.
4. Read the event list, setting, status, and document names.
5. Ask the proper clerk for a missing, older, plain, or certified document.

WVPASS Opens Pleasants Circuit Dockets

WVPASS is the public gateway to West Virginia Circuit Court records. The 2025 launch notice states that public Circuit documents reach back to 1999. Registering costs nothing. Downloads of public documents carry a small charge. An attorney of record can still pull papers free in any case where that attorney appears. Pick Pleasants County, open the matching case, and scan the docket activity. Pay only after that look.

Work in this order: sign in or create the free account. Choose the public Circuit Court search. Narrow it to Pleasants County. Compare the identifiers the live application displays, and then open the case activity. Note the case number before spending money on a document. The portal serves you well for a pleading, order, judgment, or other public paper. It cannot promise that a sealed file, an older document, or every Family Court item will show up.

Do not confuse WVPASS with CourtPLUS E-File. That system serves approved filers and court staff. CourtPLUS also stamps the alpha-numeric reference code on an e-filed order. Anyone can check that code through Verify an Order. A public user hunting a Circuit case should call Room 201. Opening an e-file account is the wrong move. The state access page confirms the two public search routes available for a Pleasants County docket.

The split layout explains why one portal cannot cover every Pleasants County docket. It separates the public search layer from the filing system that lawyers, agencies, and authorized court staff use.

What a Court Docket Shows

Think of a court docket as a chronological index. Each entry marks an event: a complaint, motion, notice, hearing, order, judgment, transfer, or appeal. An entry may state that an order exists. The signed text may not be shown. WVPASS can supply a public Circuit document, while MCRSearch lists Magistrate documents without their images. For those copies, Pam Cox is the source.

The signed judgment or order is stronger proof than a short status label.

MCRSearch Stops at Case Information

The free Magistrate Case Record Search is easy to enter. It takes a first name, last name, or case number. You must clear a disclaimer and CAPTCHA gate first. No account is needed. It returns up to 30 records. A result can include several details. Expect name, birthdate, filing date, charge, disposition, case number, and a document list. The documents themselves are not online. A common-name search can come back incomplete for that reason.

Too many matches? Use the exact case number from a notice, citation, or prior order. The result cap is a real limit. The first 30 rows are never a complete civil or criminal history. Exact punctuation can matter, and the state publishes nothing about wildcard behavior. A no-result screen calls for a refined search or a call to the clerk. It does not tell you whether a case was filed or how it ended.

Before calling, write down the filing date and document name. The official search warns that results may be incomplete and need clerk review. The entry screen shows that boundary plainly.

The portal finds case information. The paper lives in Room B-6. When the list shows a complaint, judgment, order, or return but no image, ask Pam Cox for the named paper directly.

Which Courts Keep Dockets

Pleasants sits in the Third Judicial Circuit alongside Doddridge, Ritchie, and Wirt Counties. It shares the Third Family Court Circuit with Wood County. Which office holds a court record depends on case type. Circuit Court carries general jurisdiction: felony trials, equity, civil matters within its authority, and appeals. Magistrate Court holds limited civil and criminal jurisdiction. It also runs preliminary examinations in felony cases. Family Court stands apart as its own trial court for domestic relations.

A criminal case can cross court lines. A felony warrant and preliminary examination may surface first through MCRSearch. Then an indictment, plea, trial, or sentencing order appears through WVPASS under a different number. A Magistrate civil appeal can move up to Circuit Court too. When a transfer or appeal connects the records, keep both identifiers.

Civil side questions take some care. Magistrate Court may hear claims not exceeding $20,000. It also handles specified possession matters where title is not disputed. Circuit Court covers matters above $7,500 along with equity and title disputes. The two overlap from $7,500 through $20,000. The claim's nature and posture control. The dollar amount alone cannot tell you which Pleasants County docket holds an existing case.

Pleasants Court Rooms Define Custody

Everything happens at the Pleasants County Courthouse, 301 Court Lane, St. Marys, WV 26170. Doors stay open weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The Circuit Clerk sits in Room 201. Magistrate records are kept in Room B-6, magistrates use Rooms B-7 and B-8, and probation is in Room B-1. One building holds many offices, so a visitor needs the right room before going in.

Bring the case number, caption, document name, and an estimated filing date. The clerk manual supports supervised review and specific requests. A clerk may set aside an inspection area and control removal of originals. Asking for an existing docket, a filed paper, or a date range works far better than asking the office to build a new report. For a special trip, call 304-684-3513 for Circuit records or 304-684-7197 for Magistrate records first.

Remote requests also travel by mail, fax, or email. The Circuit Clerk lists fax 304-684-3514 and millie.farnsworth@courtswv.gov. The Magistrate Clerk lists fax 304-684-3882. State which court holds the case, whether a plain or certified copy is needed, how many copies you want, and where the response should go. Confirm the total and the accepted payment method before mailing any funds.

Finding Court Dates and Settings

The court posts no standalone daily Pleasants County calendar on its official pages. A date may still surface in WVPASS. It can also appear in an MCRSearch result and file, or on a signed notice. Clerks, judge offices, and the courthouse terminal serve as fallbacks. Confirm the current setting before trusting it, because an old screen can miss a reset.

Circuit terms begin on the second Monday in January. Terms also begin on the third Monday in May. The fourth Monday in September starts a term as well. A term date is not your hearing date. Pull the current Pleasants County court docket first. Then check it against the latest court notice or the clerk's record.

A Pleasants Order Controls the Date

One Pleasants scheduling order shows what an official entry looks like. It names case CC-37-2018-C-2, plus the court and judge. It gives a date and time, Microsoft Teams access, and a conference ID. An in-person option and an e-file code round it out. A written continuance motion had to land within three business days of entry. The order is a field model. It is not another case's calendar.

Public Access to Dockets

West Virginia leans toward public access. The law still honors limits set by law, rule, or order, and family, juvenile, abuse and neglect, mental-health, domestic-violence, personal-safety, sealed, and personal-identifier material may all be restricted.

A missing result is not a result. Ask whether the file is restricted, old, transferred, or counter-only.

Pleasants Dockets Joined Separate Systems

Pleasants County courts added their electronic systems one at a time. Circuit and Family E-File arrived on April 12, 2021. Free Magistrate case information came in January 2024. Statewide CourtPLUS E-File finished in July 2024. WVPASS opened in March 2025. A daily-refresh statistics dashboard for the lower courts launched in July 2026. Each piece is its own layer. The dashboard is not a case register. CourtPLUS is not public search.

That timeline explains why docket results look different from one another. A newer Circuit filing may carry an e-file stamp plus a verification code. A Magistrate result may list documents with no images attached. WVPASS can hand you a public Circuit download, while the statistics dashboard reports grouped activity rather than named cases. No product turns protected information into a public record.

Because of these layers, the clerk's physical offices still matter. They cover anything outside portal coverage, certified copies, and restricted files. An old saved image of a page is also weak proof of a current setting or status. Recheck the live docket, and confirm any important date with the court notice or the clerk.

The Clerk and Docket Records

A good request gives the clerk the court, the case number or caption, the exact document, the date range, the format, the copy count, and delivery details. Circuit copies run $1 per page. Magistrate photocopies cost $0.25 per page, and fax pages cost $2. Confirm any certified total before paying.

Pleasants Copy Fees Depend on Court

Plain, attested, and certified copies are three different products. A plain copy just reproduces the paper. The clerk manual spells out certification: comparison with the original, a completeness check, a certification stamp, a signature, a seal, and a receipt. An attested copy skips the clerk's seal. Pleasants County publishes no separate certified-copy surcharge, so confirm the final amount before paying.

The online magistrate payment fee attaches to a payment transaction, not to a docket search. Its form demands an exact Citation ID, Case ID, or Payment Plan ID rather than a general name lookup. No identifier means no payment form. Use MCRSearch or call the clerk instead of guessing. Under West Virginia FOIA, the office holding the record may charge actual reproduction cost. Search and retrieval carry no separate labor fee.

Pleasants Property Search Is Different

That "Search Public Records" link on the county site covers land and property data. It has nothing to do with court dockets. County Clerk Jody Davis keeps deeds, vital records, elections, probate, and County Commission files. Court cases live elsewhere: WVPASS or MCRSearch.

The split matters most when a dispute touches land or an estate. A recorded instrument held by the County Clerk and a lawsuit over that instrument are separate records, kept by separate offices. Pulling a deed search tells you nothing about the Circuit pleadings, motions, settings, or judgment. Probate administration is not a Circuit docket either. Both offices sit in the same Pleasants County courthouse.

Start with the document you actually need. Jody Davis holds the deed, vital record, election record, County Commission file, or probate material. Millie Farnsworth handles Circuit and Family Court cases filed in Pleasants County. Pam Cox handles Magistrate cases. Routing the question to the right office saves time. It keeps you from treating an empty property search as proof that no court case exists.

Court Dockets by City in Pleasants County

Pleasants County holds just two incorporated places, per the 2020 Census. St. Marys has 1,831 residents; Belmont has 875. Municipal matters start with the city itself. State-law and county cases go to Magistrate or Circuit Court. The issuing authority named on a citation is a useful first clue about where a Pleasants County court docket will sit. A city ordinance case stays municipal. A county misdemeanor or state traffic matter usually belongs in Magistrate Court.

Belmont holds municipal court on the third Wednesday of each month in the City Hall council chambers, with a vendor payment route linked for fines. St. Marys posts City Hall and Police pages that give local contacts and show municipal-court activity, but neither city publishes a dedicated docket or calendar interface. If an appeal from either city reaches Circuit Court, the search shifts to WVPASS and the Pleasants County Circuit Clerk.

Map and Directions to the Pleasants County Courthouse

Circuit and Family Court files are kept at the Pleasants County Courthouse, 301 Court Lane in St. Marys, a brick Neoclassical-Revival building built in 1924 on a hill overlooking town after the original courthouse was destroyed by lightning-strike damage in 1923. The Circuit Clerk's counter is in Room 201, Circuit Court itself is in Room 202, and the Magistrate Clerk is in Room B-6, with magistrates in Rooms B-7 and B-8 and probation in Room B-1 in the same building.

No official source publishes a parking map, security-screening policy, or ADA entrance location for the courthouse, so call the Circuit Clerk at 304-684-3513 or the Magistrate Clerk at 304-684-7197 before a special trip.