Walthall County Circuit Clerk Office

About the Walthall County Circuit Clerk

The Walthall County Circuit Clerk is Dan "Nut" Hawn, and his office works out of the Walthall County Courthouse at 200 Ball Avenue in Tylertown. This is the public counter for Circuit Court paperwork, marriage licenses, and several voter-related duties. The local Circuit Clerk page also posts voting and absentee-voting information, which shows the office does more than handle court cases.

Mississippi runs a split clerk structure, so the Circuit Clerk does not hold every county court record. A records seeker should treat this office as the counter for felony criminal files, circuit civil lawsuits, appeals that move up from lower courts, and jury-related records. The same office issues marriage licenses and provides copies. For files that are not available online, the clerk is reached by phone or in person during weekday hours.

What the Walthall County Circuit Clerk Handles

The Circuit Court is the county's main trial court for serious cases. It hears felony criminal prosecutions, civil lawsuits, and appeals that come up from Justice Court, Municipal Court, and some administrative boards. The Circuit Clerk keeps the paper and electronic trail for all of that activity. Because no free public online search was located for these Circuit files, the clerk's counter and phone line are the practical way to reach them.

• Felony criminal case files, indictments, pleas, dispositions, and sentencing orders.
• Civil lawsuit filings, motions, judgments, and jury-trial records.
• Appeals received from Justice Court and Tylertown Municipal Court.
• Marriage license issuance and certified copies of licenses.
• Voter registration and absentee-voting information for the county.

The county chamber's Walthall County Circuit Court page lays out the clerk's contact details, office hours, and a short marriage-license summary.

That page is the quickest confirmation of current hours and the basic fees before a visit, and it points marriage applicants to the Ball Avenue courthouse rather than the Magnolia Avenue offices used by the sheriff and Justice Court.

The Walthall County Chancery Clerk Office

The second clerk is the Chancery Clerk, Shannon Fortinberry. The Walthall Chancery Clerk page explains that this clerk also serves as Clerk of the Board of Supervisors and Clerk of the Chancery Court, with duties set by Mississippi Code Section 9, Chapter 5. The Chancery side covers the records that the Circuit Clerk does not.

In practical terms, this is the office for Chancery Court case files, divorce decrees, custody and domestic matters filed in chancery, probate estates and wills, guardianships, sanity hearings, land records, and Board of Supervisors minutes. Certified-copy and older-file questions for any of those records go here. Probate matters in the county are handled through Chancery Court, not a separate probate court.

Which Clerk Holds Which Record in Walthall County

Sending a request to the wrong clerk is the most common delay, so it helps to match the record type to the office before calling. The comparison below sorts the most-requested Walthall County records between the two clerks.

Note: Justice Court traffic and misdemeanor files and Tylertown Municipal Court records are not held by either clerk and route to those courts directly.

Walthall County Clerk Fees and Costs

Several clerk fees appear in official and local Walthall County sources. The figures below cover marriage and filing costs at the Circuit Clerk, the subscription rate for the online chancery search, and the certified vital-record charge from the state health department. Fees can change, so it is worth confirming the current amount when calling.

Under the Mississippi Public Records Act, an office may also charge a reasonable, actual-cost fee for searching, reviewing, copying, redacting, and mailing records, so a paper request can carry costs beyond the flat fees above.

How to Request a Certified Copy in Walthall County

A certified copy is a clerk-authenticated copy meant for legal use, such as a court proceeding, a name change, or a property transaction. Plain copies and uncertified online prints do not carry the same weight. The steps below outline the request path for a Circuit Clerk file; chancery records follow the same flow through the Chancery Clerk.

1. Identify the record and the correct office. Match the case type to the Circuit Clerk or the Chancery Clerk using the comparison table above.
2. Gather the case details. Have the party or defendant name, the case number if known, and the approximate filing date ready.
3. Contact the clerk. Call the Circuit Clerk at 601-876-5677 or the Chancery Clerk at 601-876-3553, or visit the courthouse during weekday hours.
4. State that you need a certified copy. Confirm the per-page and certification cost and the accepted payment method before submitting.
5. Submit the request and fee in person or by mail to P.O. Box 351, Tylertown, MS 39667 for Circuit Clerk records.
6. Collect the copy at the counter or wait for it to arrive by mail once the clerk processes and certifies it.

Walthall County Records Request Form Fields

No official online request form was located for Circuit or Justice Court files, so most requests are made by phone, by mail, or in writing under the Public Records Act. Including the fields below helps the clerk find the right file on the first pass and avoids a follow-up call.

Searching Walthall County Chancery Records Online

The most specific online court search located for the county is the Walthall Chancery Court Cases Link, hosted by Delta Computer Systems. It is a subscription service rather than a free public portal. Access costs $30 per month, scanned court documents are $0.50 per page, and the site states that chancery cases are available from 2004 to the present.

Subscribers search by one of several keys: party name in last, first format, case number, filed date, final disposition date, docket book and page, or file number. Name searches can be refined with a filing date range and a nature-of-action filter that lists categories such as foreign will, garnishment, declaratory judgment, and many land and equity actions. The system requires an account and a credit card before document access.

For Circuit Court records, no comparable online database exists, so the Circuit Clerk counter and phone line remain the route for felony files, civil cases, and appeals. The same online search supports a Walthall County probate records lookup for estates and wills filed in Chancery Court.

Marriage Licenses at the Walthall County Circuit Clerk

Marriage licenses are issued by the Circuit Clerk at the Ball Avenue courthouse. The local marriage page says both applicants must appear together, each must present valid identification such as a birth certificate or driver's license, and each must be at least 21. Applicants under 21 may need a parental signature or a court order. The filing fee is $36.

Marriage records can also be ordered from the Mississippi State Department of Health, which keeps copies for January 1, 1926 through June 30, 1938 and January 1, 1942 to the present. A certified copy from the health department costs $17. Divorce decrees are chancery records, so a certified decree comes from the Chancery Clerk, while the health department can run a five-year index search to locate the county and book and page. Fuller detail on both sits with Walthall County marriage and divorce records.

Public Records Requests in Walthall County

When a record is not online and not a routine counter copy, the Mississippi Public Records Act of 1983 is the legal route. It gives any person the right to inspect and copy public records unless an exemption applies, and it directs requests to the office that created or maintains the record.

Two provisions matter most for clerk requests. Miss. Code Ann. Section 25-61-5 sets the right of access and limits production beyond seven working days unless the office gives a written explanation. Miss. Code Ann. Section 25-61-7 allows reasonable, actual-cost fees for searching, reviewing, copying, redacting, and mailing. The full statute text is posted by the Mississippi Ethics Commission.

Sealed, expunged, juvenile, adoption, and certain law-enforcement investigative records are not ordinary public records, so the clerk may withhold or redact them. When part of a file is exempt, the office can redact that material and release the rest. Note: route a written request to the Circuit Clerk for circuit files and to the Chancery Clerk for chancery, probate, and land files.

State Custody Records and the Walthall County Clerk

When a Walthall County felony ends in a state prison sentence, the Circuit Clerk's file is only part of the picture. The sentencing order lives with the clerk, but custody, time served, and release questions are tracked by the Mississippi Department of Corrections. People with both a clerk file and a custody question often have to use two systems.

The Mississippi Department of Corrections home page is the entry point for that side of the record.

From there, the department's records office answers questions about offender time, jail credit, and release eligibility that a clerk cannot resolve from a case file alone. Those questions route to the agency rather than to the Walthall County courthouse.

For a sentenced person specifically, the state also runs a name-based lookup through the Mississippi.gov portal.

The Mississippi.gov MDOC search lets users look by name or by MDOC identification number, which ties a state-custody status back to the Circuit Court case the clerk maintains. The jail roster for people held locally in Tylertown is a separate system from this state search.