The free way to search South Dakota court records is the state’s eCourts portal at ecourts.sd.gov. Registration is free and confidential, and once you’re in you can look up civil and criminal case summaries statewide by party name or case number.1South Dakota Unified Judicial System. Cases and Records There’s also a paid tool called PARS for formal criminal background summaries, but for most everyday lookups you won’t need it.
Using the eCourts Portal
Go to ecourts.sd.gov and create an account. After you log in, you can search by a person’s name or by a case number. The results show the parties involved, the attorneys of record, filed documents, hearings, judgments, and how the case was disposed of.2South Dakota Unified Judicial System. eCourts
One thing eCourts won’t do: let you read the actual filings. The system shows docket entries and summaries but withholds document images because of personally identifiable information concerns.2South Dakota Unified Judicial System. eCourts If you need to see a motion, complaint, or order itself, that has to happen at a courthouse.
Free Tools for Hearing Dates and Money Judgments
The Unified Judicial System runs two other free lookups that don’t require the full eCourts account.
If you have a summons or just need to know when someone is due in court, the UJS court date search takes either a name plus date of birth or a case number and returns the upcoming hearing.1South Dakota Unified Judicial System. Cases and Records A separate civil money judgment search lets you look up judgments by name and date. Neither charges a fee and neither requires a subscription.
Getting Useful Results
The quality of a name search depends on what you put in. A full legal name is the minimum. Common surnames can return hundreds of hits, so adding a date of birth narrows the list quickly. Picking the correct county in the search interface helps too when you know where the case was filed.
The fastest path is a case number if you have one. South Dakota case numbers follow a standard format identifying year, case type, and sequence, and entering one goes straight to the file. Court paperwork usually prints the number near the top.
Cases from before 1989 may not appear online at all. Those files have to be requested from the clerk of courts in the county where the case was filed. The UJS “Court Finder” tool lists contact information for every clerk’s office.3South Dakota Unified Judicial System. Court Records Search
Free Access at the Courthouse
Every South Dakota courthouse has public access terminals in the Clerk of Courts office. Using them costs nothing, and they show the same case management data available online plus the document images that eCourts holds back. They’re open during regular business hours.
Printed copies from the clerk are where fees start. Documents from an active file run $0.50 per page with a $2 minimum; documents pulled from inactive storage are the same per-page rate with a $5 minimum. Fax or email delivery is $1 per page with a $5 minimum.4South Dakota Legislature. South Dakota Code 16-2-29.1 – Fees of Supreme Court Clerk Certified copies add a $2 certification fee, though guardianship, adoption, probate, and divorce certifications are free for the attorney of record or personal representative using them in that case.5South Dakota Legislature. South Dakota Codified Law 16-2-29 – Fees Charged by Clerk of Courts
When You’ll Need to Pay: PARS
South Dakota’s Public Access Record Search is a separate system from eCourts. PARS produces official summaries of criminal cases, domestic protection orders, stalking protection orders, and foreign protection orders, and it charges $20 per search whether or not anything comes back.3South Dakota Unified Judicial System. Court Records Search The $20 rate applies when the requester is not a party to the case. If the search relates to a pending state or federal lawsuit and you certify that, the fee drops to $5. Attorneys of record and their staff pay nothing.6South Dakota Legislature. South Dakota Code 16-2-29.5 – Records Search Fee
PARS is the tool the UJS features most prominently, which is why people searching for South Dakota court records often land there first. But if you just want basic case information rather than a formal background summary, eCourts gives you that for free.
Federal Cases
Federal court records don’t appear in the state systems at all. Bankruptcy filings, federal criminal cases, and civil suits brought under federal law live in PACER, the Public Access to Court Electronic Records system. South Dakota is one federal district, with courthouses in Sioux Falls, Rapid City, Pierre, and Aberdeen.7United States District Court. District of South Dakota
PACER charges $0.10 per page with a $3 cap per document, but if your quarterly total stays at $30 or less the fees are waived, so casual searches are effectively free.8PACER: Federal Court Records. PACER Pricing: How Fees Work PACER also lets you view and download the actual documents, not just summaries. An account is required before searching.
Records You Won’t Find
Public access in South Dakota is broad but not total. SDCL Chapter 15-15A sets the rule that every member of the public has the same right to inspect court records, then carves out categories that stay closed.9South Dakota Legislature. South Dakota Codified Laws 15-15A – Unified Judicial System Court Records Rule
- Juvenile law enforcement and court records are kept separately and closed to the public except by court order or in limited circumstances such as transfer to adult proceedings.10South Dakota Legislature. South Dakota Codified Law 26-7A-27 – Juvenile Records
- Adoption files are closed. Only the adoptive parents, the adopted child once they turn 18, and Department of Social Services representatives can access them without a court order.9South Dakota Legislature. South Dakota Codified Laws 15-15A – Unified Judicial System Court Records Rule
- Mental health commitment proceedings are closed entirely.
- Child abuse and neglect investigation files are confidential with narrow statutory exceptions.
- Presentence investigation reports aren’t available to the public.
- Records sealed after a successfully completed suspended imposition of sentence come out of public view.
Grand jury proceedings, involuntary substance abuse commitments, domestic abuse victims’ location information, trade secrets, and trust documents sealed by petition are also restricted.9South Dakota Legislature. South Dakota Codified Laws 15-15A – Unified Judicial System Court Records Rule If a search returns nothing for a name you expected to find, the case may sit in one of these categories rather than not existing.
Removing a Record So It Stops Showing Up
Anyone searching their own name may want to know whether an old arrest can be taken out of the public record. South Dakota allows expungement of arrest records in specific situations under SDCL 23A-3-27:
- One year has passed since the arrest and no charges were ever filed.
- One year has passed since the prosecutor formally dismissed the entire case.
- You were acquitted at trial, in which case you can file right away.
- You can show compelling necessity within one year of a dismissal.11South Dakota Legislature. South Dakota Codified Law 23A-3-27 – Expungement of Arrest Record
The standard is clear and convincing evidence that expungement serves both the public interest and yours, which is higher than the ordinary civil standard.12South Dakota Legislature. South Dakota Codified Law 23A-3-30 – Standard for Expungement Order The UJS publishes self-help forms for the petition, hearing waiver, and proposed order; all must be printed single-sided in black ink.13South Dakota Unified Judicial System. Expungement The petition is filed in the court that would have had jurisdiction over the crime. Once the order is granted, the arrest record comes out of public access and no longer turns up in an eCourts or PARS search. This is not a general clean-slate law and does not cover convictions across the board.