Florence County Clerk of Court Office
The Florence County Clerk of Court is the county office connected to Circuit Court and Family Court records. The Hon. Doris Poulos O'Hara is the Florence County Clerk of Court. The South Carolina Judicial Branch courthouse listing states that Clerk O'Hara is by statute in charge of the courthouse and oversees the General Sessions, Common Pleas, Family Court, and Register of Deeds divisions. Her official biography says she began working in the Florence County Clerk's office in August 1990, moved through Register of Deeds, Family Court, and General Sessions roles, became Chief Deputy Clerk of Court in 2015, and was elected Clerk of Court in 2016.
The Clerk's local page is sparse but important because it routes users to Court Rosters and Public Records through the state public-index system. Florence County does not appear to operate a separate local case-search portal for Circuit Court and Family Court records. Online access starts with the South Carolina Judicial Branch public index, while the clerk counter remains the fallback for certified copies, older files, non-digitized files, and records not available through the public portal.
Florence County Clerk of Court
Clerk: The Hon. Doris Poulos O'Hara
181 N. Irby Street MSC-E
Florence, SC 29501
843-665-3031
Fax: 843-665-3097
Historical Florence County court, probate, marriage, and clerk record series are documented in the South Carolina Department of Archives and History county records guide.
That archives source is useful when an older Florence County record may not be in the modern public index or at the active courthouse counter.
What Florence County Clerk Handles
The Clerk of Court's record role follows South Carolina's court structure. Circuit Court is the general-jurisdiction trial court, with Court of Common Pleas for civil matters and Court of General Sessions for criminal matters. Family Court handles divorce, custody, support, adoption, name-change, juvenile, and related domestic cases. The Clerk of Court is the local record office tied to these case systems, while Probate Court handles estates and marriage licenses, and Magistrate or Municipal Courts handle many traffic, ordinance, lower-level criminal, and small civil matters.
- Maintains General Sessions criminal court records for Florence County Circuit Court.
- Maintains Common Pleas civil court records for Florence County Circuit Court.
- Maintains Family Court records, including divorce decrees when the final hearing was held in Florence County.
- Provides the local fallback for certified copies, older files, and records not visible in the public index.
- Routes public online lookup to the South Carolina public index and Florence court rosters.
The South Carolina Judicial Branch courthouse page is another authority for Florence County court officials, circuit number, courthouse roles, and official court contacts when local pages do not provide enough detail.
Request Florence Certified Copies
A certified court copy is a clerk-issued copy with official certification. It may be needed for a divorce decree, judgment, disposition, appeal, name-change proof, or other legal filing. The public index is useful for finding case information, but a web result is not the same as a certified copy from the clerk. For Florence County, start by identifying the case type and case number if possible, then contact the Clerk of Court to confirm copy availability, current cost, and pickup or mailing instructions.
- Search the South Carolina public index or court rosters for the Florence County case number, party names, court type, and filing date.
- Call or visit the Florence County Clerk of Court to confirm the record can be copied and certified.
- Provide the case number, party names, document type, number of copies, and return contact information.
- Pay the current clerk-approved fee and ask whether pickup, mail, or another delivery method is available.
- For divorce, ask for the decree from the Clerk of Court, not the DPH divorce report, when the actual court order is required.
Florence County's research file did not locate a local Clerk copy-fee schedule. The page therefore does not state a plain-copy or certification fee for Clerk of Court records. Confirm amounts directly with the Clerk before mailing a request or sending payment.
Florence Clerk Request Details
No Florence-specific Clerk of Court records request form field list was located in the official research sources. The safest request is a clear written request that gives the clerk enough information to identify the file without using private facts that are not needed. The table below is a practical field inventory based on the access channels documented for the Clerk and public index, with unsupported items left out.
| Field | Required | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Case number | Helpful when known | Use the public index or roster to locate it before requesting a copy. |
| Party names | Yes | Give full names and any known former names for Family Court or divorce records. |
| Court division | Yes if known | General Sessions, Common Pleas, or Family Court. |
| Document type | Yes | Examples include decree, disposition, judgment, order, filing, or docket entry. |
| Copy type | Yes | State whether a plain copy or certified copy is needed. |
| Requester contact | Yes | Include phone, mailing address, and any deadline for pickup or mail return. |
Florence County Clerk Fees
The research file provides official access channels and some related court fee sources, but it does not provide a Florence Clerk of Court copy-fee schedule for certified copies. It does document county FOIA guidance, sheriff FOIA fees, Probate Court fees, Circuit Court fee schedules, Family Court fee schedules, and state e-filing technology-fee examples. Those sources should not be treated as Clerk copy fees unless the Clerk confirms they apply to the requested document.
| Fee Topic | Documented Source |
|---|---|
| Clerk certified court copies | Confirm with Florence County Clerk of Court, 843-665-3031. |
| Circuit Court filing fees | South Carolina Judicial Branch Circuit Court fee schedule. |
| Family Court filing fees | South Carolina Judicial Branch Family Court fee schedule. |
| County administrative public records | Florence County FOIA page, County Administrator 843-665-3035. |
| Probate certified copies | Florence Probate fee schedule, separate from Clerk records. |
The Florence County FOIA guidance source appears below through the official county FOIA page.
FOIA may help with county administrative records, but court records still follow court rules, clerk procedures, sealing orders, and statutory confidentiality.
Clerk, ROD, and Probate Split
Florence County uses different offices for different record groups. The Clerk of Court is the right office for Circuit Court and Family Court case files. Probate Court is the right office for estates, wills, marriage licenses, and probate certified copies. The Register of Deeds records deeds, plats, mortgages, federal tax liens, and documents connected to Florence County real-estate transactions. The ROD provides public access and assists with photocopies for a fee, but it does not perform title searches, extensive lien searches, legal advice, deed preparation, tax checks, Clerk records checks, Probate records checks, delinquent-tax checks, or credit-bureau reporting.
The Florence County Register of Deeds page is represented by the image below.
Use the Register of Deeds route for real-estate instruments, and use the Clerk of Court route for Circuit Court and Family Court case records.
The Florence County Online Record System for Register of Deeds includes fields for grantor and grantee names, company or individual entity type, date range, grantor-or-grantee broadening, instrument group, book, page, instrument number, subdivision, lot, block, section, map, phase, unit, and property description. Research showed instrument records verified through June 12, 2026 at 12:55:53 p.m. when retrieved on June 13, 2026.
The ROD name-search form is shown from the Florence County Online Record System source.
That portal is valuable for deeds and related instruments, but it is not a substitute for the Clerk of Court public index case-search path.
Online and Restricted Clerk Records
For online case access, use the South Carolina Judicial Branch Case Records Search, choose Florence County, and open the Florence public index. The state page says cookies and JavaScript must be enabled, and some browsers may require pop-up exceptions for case-detail windows. Court rosters are available through the Florence court-rosters link when the need is a docket or upcoming court setting instead of a full case-history search.
Public access has limits. E-Filing Rule 10 allows public access to case status and party-filed documents through the public index, but sealed cases and sealed documents are not publicly available. Rule 41.2 requires filers to restrict personal identifiers in public filings. South Carolina law restricts juvenile records, adoption records, expunged records, and some personal information uses. As of January 1, 2026, home address information is no longer displayed on the public index for new and existing cases.
The South Carolina personal-information privacy statute source is represented below through S.C. Code Title 30 Chapter 2.
That statute is relevant when public-record data includes personal information that may not be obtained or used for commercial solicitation.
Florence County probate and estate records follow a different statute set. The South Carolina Probate Code source appears below through Title 62 Article 3.
That code is included here to show why estate administration belongs with Probate Court, while Circuit Court and Family Court case records belong with the Clerk of Court.