Search Stone County Circuit Court

Stone County Circuit Court Overview

The Circuit Court is the trial court of general jurisdiction in Mississippi. It tries felony crimes, hears civil suits not set aside for another court, and takes appeals from Justice Court and certain local bodies. Misdemeanors can reach it too, but only on appeal. The court works with a grand jury, and a felony has no Circuit Court file until that jury returns an indictment. Until then the charge stays with a lower court, the sheriff, or a bonding agent.

Stone County belongs to Mississippi's Second Circuit Court District. The local court sits in the Stone County Courthouse at 323 East Cavers Avenue in Wiggins, the county seat. Four judges serve the district. The Circuit Clerk keeps the criminal and civil case files, the judgment roll, and the jury records for the court. Online case access runs through Mississippi Electronic Courts, where Stone Circuit cases from 2008 forward are posted.

This page covers the state Circuit Court first. A separate federal court system also serves county residents, and that is explained further down.

Stone County Court Offices and Judges

Stone County shares one courthouse for its two main trial courts. The Second District Circuit Court and the Eighth Chancery District Court both sit at 323 East Cavers Avenue in Wiggins. Two lower courts handle smaller cases from separate buildings. Prosecutors round out the system. The table lists each office, where it meets, who staffs it, and what it hears.

The four Circuit judges share the district. Stone County is grouped with Harrison and Hancock Counties in the Second Circuit. A judge may sit in Wiggins for part of a term and elsewhere in the district for the rest.

Circuit Court vs. Justice Court vs. Municipal Court

Three courts handle criminal and traffic matters in Stone County, and they do not overlap much. Circuit Court is the top trial court for felonies and big lawsuits. Justice Court is the county-level lower court. Municipal Court handles city cases from Wiggins. The agency that made the arrest or wrote the ticket usually tells you which court holds the file. The grid below sets the three side by side.

An appeal climbs the ladder one step at a time. A Justice Court or Municipal Court loss can be appealed to Circuit Court for a fresh trial. A Circuit Court ruling is appealed to the Mississippi Supreme Court, which may send the case to the Court of Appeals.

Note: Chancery Court is not a step below Circuit Court; it is a separate trial court for divorce, estates, and land matters that runs on its own track.

How a Case Moves Through the Stone County System

A criminal case rarely starts in Circuit Court. It begins with an arrest and a first appearance in a lower court. Justice Court judges hold sessions at the jail three times each week so each person gets a first appearance within three days. The case only becomes a Circuit Court matter once a grand jury returns an indictment. Civil suits follow a calmer route from filing to judgment. The two flows below show the common path.

Criminal flow: Arrest › First Appearance in Justice or Municipal Court › Grand Jury Indictment › Arraignment in Circuit Court › Pretrial › Trial › Sentencing › Appeal to the Mississippi Supreme Court

Civil flow: Complaint Filed › Summons Served › Answer Within 30 Days › Discovery › Trial › Judgment › Appeal

Equity matters move on a separate line. Divorce, custody, estates, guardianships, and land-title disputes go straight to Chancery Court, not through this Circuit Court chain. Knowing which track a case sits on saves a wasted call to the wrong clerk.

What Stone County Circuit Court Handles

Circuit Court carries both a criminal and a civil docket. On the criminal side it tries felonies and hears misdemeanors brought up on appeal. A full felony file can hold the indictment, the waiver of arraignment, a plea petition, motions, continuances, the judgment of conviction, the sentence, fines, restitution, probation terms, and any appeal. Stone County criminal cases carry the caption "State of Mississippi versus" the defendant.

The civil docket covers debt collection, contracts, torts, product liability, and other claims not set aside for another court. A defendant served with a civil summons has thirty days to file an answer. Missing that deadline can lead to a default judgment for the full amount asked, plus attorney fees and costs. Civil files may include the complaint, summons, answer, motions, orders, the verdict, and post-judgment collection steps. Both dockets feed the records you can pull through the clerk or look up among the broader Stone County court records.

Stone County Circuit Court Terms and Records

Circuit Court does not sit every week of the year. Stone County terms are held in January, May, July, and September. Each judge presides for two or three weeks during a term. That rhythm explains why criminal settings cluster and why a court date may not come right away. A bonding agent or the sheriff often knows a date before it shows online.

Online case access runs through Mississippi Electronic Courts, known as MEC. The Circuit Clerk confirms that all criminal and civil circuit cases from 2008 to the present are posted there. You reach the system at the state MEC portal, then choose Stone Circuit from the court list. The Circuit Clerk's own circuit court page walks through MEC access, court dates, fines, and the court-appointed attorney process. Files that are not online come from the clerk by phone, mail, or a visit. Hearing dates also surface on the Stone County court dockets.

Note: A felony arrest does not create a Circuit Court file until the grand jury acts, so an early charge may show only in Justice Court or jail records.

Prosecutors in Stone County Circuit Court

Two prosecutors share the state's work in Stone County. The District Attorney handles felonies once a case reaches Circuit Court. Stone County sits in District Attorney District 2 with Harrison and Hancock Counties. W. Crosby Parker is the District Attorney, and Matthew Burrell serves as the Assistant District Attorney for Stone County. The office can be reached at 601-928-9943 or 228-865-4003.

The County Prosecuting Attorney handles the earlier and lower-court side. Thomas M. Matthews III holds that role from a Wiggins office at 601-528-6028. He represents the state in felony matters before the lower court, takes criminal appeals from Justice Court up to Circuit Court, can present matters to the grand jury, and handles misdemeanor youth court work. People who cannot afford a lawyer may qualify for court-appointed counsel after a sworn financial review, with the petition provided by the lower-court judge or the Circuit Clerk.

Federal Court for Stone County Residents

The Circuit Court handles state cases, but some matters are federal. Stone County falls inside the federal Southern District of Mississippi. Federal court hears federal crimes, civil rights suits, federal-question and diversity cases, prisoner petitions, and bankruptcy. These are not Stone County court records, and a local felony or divorce does not go here. Still, residents pulled into a federal case need to know where it lives. The district runs its own website with court news, rules, and office locations.

The map of the Southern District and its divisions appears on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi site. Stone County users file and follow Southern Division federal cases through that district rather than the state Circuit Court.

The district keeps offices in Jackson, Hattiesburg, Gulfport, and Natchez. For a Stone County resident, the Gulfport courthouse is the closest and most relevant of the four.

The Gulfport Federal Courthouse Near Stone County

The nearest federal courthouse to Stone County is in Gulfport. It is the Dan M. Russell, Jr. United States Courthouse, and it serves the Southern Division of the district. The building sits at 2012 15th Street, Suite 403, Gulfport, MS 39501, and the main phone is 228-563-1700. Southern Division federal filings are handled there. The drive from Wiggins down U.S. Highway 49 puts most residents within easy reach.

Details on the Gulfport courthouse, including its address and clerk contacts, are posted on the district's Gulfport courthouse page. That page is the place to confirm hours and filing rules before a federal trip.

A federal case at Gulfport is a separate file from anything in the Stone County Courthouse. The two systems do not share dockets, so a search in one will not surface a case from the other.

Federal Appeals to the Fifth Circuit

A losing party in federal court can appeal. Appeals from the Southern District of Mississippi go to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. That court covers Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas. It is the federal mirror of the state path, where a Circuit Court appeal climbs to the Mississippi Supreme Court. The Fifth Circuit reviews the trial record and the law rather than holding a new trial.

The Fifth Circuit posts its rules, calendars, and opinions on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit site. A Stone County resident with a federal appeal would track it there, not on any state court page.

Note: Federal appeals follow their own rules and deadlines, so anyone facing one should confirm the current schedule on the Fifth Circuit site.

Searching Federal Court Records on PACER

Federal court records are not on MEC. They live in a national system called PACER, which stands for Public Access to Court Electronic Records. PACER covers district, bankruptcy, and appellate cases across the country, including the Southern District of Mississippi. A free account is needed to log in, and the system can charge for pages viewed. The PACER Service Center answers questions at 800-676-6856, and current fees and any fee-waiver rules are listed on the site.

The main entry point is the PACER portal, where users register and search by name or case number. Fees and access policies change, so the live PACER pages are the right place to check before relying on a quoted price.

Each federal court has its own PACER access point. To reach Fifth Circuit appellate records, users go through a court-specific lookup that routes to the right system. That lookup tool confirms the correct site for the appeals court before a search begins.

The Fifth Circuit PACER lookup points to the appellate court's filing and records system. It is the federal counterpart to choosing Stone Circuit on MEC for a state case.

The U.S. Attorney for Stone County Cases

Federal crimes in this region are prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Mississippi. That office is the federal version of the District Attorney who handles felonies in the state Circuit Court. It brings federal criminal charges and defends the United States in civil suits across the district. A Gulfport branch sits at 1575 20th Avenue, Gulfport, MS 39501, with a phone of 228-563-1560, while the main office is in Jackson.

The office posts press releases, division contacts, and program information on the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi page. Federal prosecution there is wholly separate from the work of the Stone County District Attorney, even though both carry the title of prosecutor.

For most county residents, the state Circuit Court remains the court that matters. Federal court enters the picture only when a case is truly federal. When that happens, the offices above show where the file sits and how to reach it. Day-to-day felony, civil, and appeal work for Stone County still flows through the Circuit Clerk and the courthouse in Wiggins.