State Resources
South Carolina
SLED will sell anyone a South Carolina criminal history online and hand it back immediately. The court Public Index covers most of the state free. Between the two this is one of the more open states in the southeast.
At a glance
| Record | Held by | Cost | Online |
|---|---|---|---|
| Business and entity search | Secretary of State — Business Entities Online | Free to search | Yes |
| UCC filings | Secretary of State — UCC | Free to search | Yes |
| Professional licenses | Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation | Free | Yes |
| Property and land records | County register of deeds and county assessor | Free online in most counties | By county |
| Court records | Judicial Department — Public Index | Free | Yes |
| Criminal records | SLED — CATCH | Fee per search | Yes |
| Vital records | Department of Public Health | Certified copies carry a fee | Yes |
| Unclaimed property | State Treasurer | Free | Yes |
| Voter and resident records | State Election Commission | Free | Yes |
Worth knowing about South Carolina
CATCH gives you a criminal history in about a minute
The State Law Enforcement Division runs CATCH — Citizens Access to Criminal Histories — and it’s exactly what the name says. Any member of the public can run a South Carolina criminal history online, pay by card, and get the result back on screen.
No consent form, no fingerprints, no permissible purpose. It searches on name and date of birth, and the report covers South Carolina only.
What you get is conviction data and pending charges. As with every repository check, a common name will pull other people, so confirm anything it returns against the actual court record in the Public Index before it goes into a report.
This puts South Carolina alongside Kansas, Missouri, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Washington and Hawaii — the states where the answer is simply for sale.
The Public Index is statewide but county by county in practice
The Judicial Department’s Public Index covers common pleas and general sessions records for the participating counties, which is most of the state.
The catch is in how you use it: the index is organized by county, so a “statewide” search often means running the same name against each county rather than one query returning everything. If your subject has moved around South Carolina, plan for several searches.
Magistrate and municipal courts — which handle landlord-tenant, most misdemeanors and small claims — are largely not in the Public Index. That’s a real gap. An eviction or a minor charge can exist with nothing showing at the county level.
Record by record
Business and entity search
Open business search →- Held by
- Secretary of State — Business Entities Online
- Cost
- Free to search
Free entity search returning status, formation date, registered agent and filed documents.
South Carolina doesn’t require an annual report from LLCs, so an LLC address can be as old as the entity itself. Read the filing date before you trust it.
UCC filings
Open Business Entities Online →- Held by
- Secretary of State — UCC
- Cost
- Free to search
UCC financing statements filed centrally and searchable through the same portal. A UCC-1 names the debtor, the secured party and the collateral, and the secured party is usually a lender.
Professional licenses
Open LLR →- Held by
- Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation
- Cost
- Free
A single department covering most South Carolina professional and occupational boards, with free verification returning name, status and disciplinary history.
Property and land records
- Held by
- County register of deeds and county assessor
- Cost
- Free online in most counties
No statewide property search. Each of the 46 counties runs its own, with the register of deeds (or clerk of court in some counties) holding documents and the assessor holding ownership and value.
Charleston, Greenville and Richland are the deepest online. Watch for the legal residence assessment ratio — South Carolina taxes an owner-occupied home at a much lower rate, and a property assessed at the higher rate is one the owner has told the county they don’t live in.
Court records
Open Public Index →- Held by
- Judicial Department — Public Index
- Cost
- Free
Free case search covering common pleas (civil) and general sessions (criminal) for participating counties.
Run it county by county rather than assuming one search covers the state, and remember the magistrate and municipal gap described above.
Criminal records
Open CATCH →- Held by
- SLED — CATCH
- Cost
- Fee per search
Open to the public, online, results immediate. Name and date of birth. South Carolina records only.
Confirm hits against the Public Index docket. The repository says a charge exists; the docket says what happened to it.
Vital records
Open Public Health →- Held by
- Department of Public Health
- Cost
- Certified copies carry a fee
Births and deaths from the state office. South Carolina restricts certified copies to the subject and immediate family.
Unclaimed property
Open unclaimed property →- Held by
- State Treasurer
- Cost
- Free
Free name search. The holder named on a reported item is a confirmed bank, insurer or employer relationship with a last known address.
Voter and resident records
Open voter services →- Held by
- State Election Commission
- Cost
- Free
Individual registration lookup confirming status and county. South Carolina sells the bulk voter list with restrictions.
Public records requests in South Carolina
- Statute
- S.C. Code §§ 30-4-10 et seq. (Freedom of Information Act)
- Response deadline
- Ten business days to respond; 30 calendar days to produce
- Appeal to
- Circuit court
- Appeal window
- One year
South Carolina tightened its FOIA timelines: ten business days to determine whether records will be released, and production within thirty calendar days of that determination for recent records.
Deposits are allowed — an agency can require up to 25% of the estimated cost up front, so ask for the estimate before you commit.
There’s no ombudsman. The remedy is circuit court, and a prevailing requester may recover attorney fees. You have one year to bring an action, which is generous compared with most states.
No residency requirement, and you don’t have to state a purpose.
What South Carolina will not give you
- Magistrate and municipal court records. Largely absent from the Public Index. Evictions and misdemeanors may be invisible online.
- Expunged records. Removed from both CATCH and the court index.
- Driver and vehicle records. Closed under the federal Driver’s Privacy Protection Act.
- Juvenile records. Not public.
- Family court records. Substantially restricted.
Course
How to Find Out Where Someone Banks
UCC filings, business registrations and lien records all point at the same thing: who holds the money. The course walks the full sequence, including the free sources on this page and the ones that cost.
See the bank locate courseRelated
- North Carolina — next door, fully unified since 2025
- Washington — WATCH returns a criminal history for $11
- Property records: finding the owner
- UCC filings name the lender
- A FOIA request letter that works
Fees and procedures verified August 2026. Clerks change their counter rules more often than the statutes change — call before you drive.