Access Leflore County Chancery Records

About the Leflore County Chancery Clerk

The Leflore County Chancery Clerk is an elected office, and Debra Tate Hibbler holds the post. The job carries two sides. One side is court work for the Chancery Court, where the clerk files cases, keeps the minute books, and handles the money that moves through equity matters. The other side is county work that has nothing to do with a courtroom, such as land records, board minutes, and county funds. Few offices in Greenwood touch as many records, which is why the same clerk shows up on a deed, a divorce file, and a tax-sale list.

For court records, this is the office for divorce, probate, guardianship, and commitment files. The Circuit Clerk handles the criminal and general civil side instead.

Leflore County Chancery Court Records

Inside the courtroom, the Chancery Clerk runs the paperwork for the Chancery Court, the equity court that sits in the Seventh Chancery District. The office receives new cases and assigns them to the chancellors, then keeps every filing in the docket and preserves the minute books. It issues process so a defendant gets served, takes in and accounts for filing fees, and prepares the record when a case is appealed. This is the spine of every chancery file in the county.

The same office also moves sensitive civil commitments and sends case counts to the state.

• Receive cases and assign them to the chancellors
• Keep the court docket and preserve the minute books
• Issue process and account for filing fees
• Process mental-health and drug or alcohol commitments
• Send statistics to the Administrative Office of Courts and the state vital records office
• Prepare records for appeals to the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals

When a court needs it, the clerk may also serve as a guardian, administrator, executor, conservator, or commissioner in a case. Those fiduciary roles put the office inside an estate or a guardianship rather than merely keeping the file.

Divorce, Probate, and Guardianship Records in Leflore County

Chancery Court is where Leflore County divorces, estates, and guardianships are decided, so the Chancery Clerk holds those files. A divorce case can include the complaint, the final decree, and orders on custody or support, though some exhibits may be sealed. The clerk also reports divorce counts to the Mississippi Department of Vital Records, which keeps the statewide divorce index in step with the county.

Probate covers wills and estates. After a death, the file can hold the will, the letters that name an executor, an inventory of property, and the final decree that closes the estate. Guardianship and conservatorship cases protect a minor or an adult who cannot manage their own affairs, and those files can carry medical or financial details that the court shields. The full picture of how these cases move lives on the Chancery Court probate records page.

Testator

A person who leaves a valid will at death.

Executor

The person a will names to settle the estate.

Intestate

Dying without a valid will, which sends the estate through the state's default rules.

Conservator

Someone the court appoints to manage another adult's finances or care.

Leflore County Land, Board, and Tax-Sale Records

Away from the courtroom, the Chancery Clerk is the public custodian of land records for Leflore County. The office records warranty deeds, deeds of trust, powers of attorney, and similar documents, then files them in the subdivision, sectional, and direct and reverse indexes. Anyone tracing the chain of title on a parcel works from these books, and the office accounts for the recording fees that come with each filing.

The clerk is also clerk to the Board of Supervisors. The office attends board meetings, prepares the minutes, helps equalize the assessment rolls, and processes homestead exemption results for the county.

Each year the office keeps the list of lands sold for unpaid taxes at the sale held on the last Monday in August. When an owner pays the debt, the clerk processes the redemption and clears the parcel. If the time to redeem runs out, the office issues a tax deed to the buyer once the sale matures. The clerk also serves as county treasurer and auditor, so it receives, disburses, and accounts for county funds and prepares the claims docket that pays county bills.

Note: Tax-sale redemptions run on strict deadlines, so an owner who wants to save a parcel should call the office well before the redemption window closes.

How to Request a Certified Copy

A certified copy carries the clerk's stamp or seal and stands as a true copy of the court's record. Courts, lenders, and agencies often require one where a plain printout will not do. Because Leflore County does not post an online order form for clerk records, the request runs by phone, by mail, or at the counter.

1. Identify the case and the office. Divorce, probate, guardianship, commitment, and land records sit with the Chancery Clerk, while criminal and general civil files sit with the Circuit Clerk.
2. Gather the details the clerk needs, including the party or owner names, a case or instrument number if you have one, the approximate filing or recording date, and the exact document you want.
3. Contact the office by phone, by mail to the P.O. box, or in person at the courthouse counter in Greenwood.
4. Ask which copy type is available and confirm the current copy and certification fee before you pay, since local fees are not posted online.
5. Choose pickup or mail delivery, then include a callback number and your payment as the clerk directs.

Records Request Form Fields

The county does not publish a standard records request PDF, so the Chancery Clerk works from the details a requester supplies. Giving the office a complete set of identifiers up front is what lets a clerk pull the right file on the first try. The fields below match the information a clerk usually needs for a court or land record.

Public Records Act Requests in Leflore County

When a record is not handed over at the counter, the Mississippi Public Records Act gives the public a written path to it. The first rule is possession, which means the request goes to the office that actually holds the record. A public body may set reasonable written procedures, and it may charge the actual cost of searching, reviewing, copying, redacting, and mailing the record.

Some files stay closed. Adoption, sealed, expunged, youth court, and mental-health commitment records are restricted, and parts of an open file may still be redacted.

Online Access to Leflore County Records

Mississippi runs a statewide electronic court system called Mississippi Electronic Courts, known as MEC or PAMEC, which can hold chancery filings. The catch is that access is login gated. The public sign in page shows only account fields, not an open search, so a member of the public without an account still falls back to the clerk for most records.

The fields on that sign in page are limited, as the table below shows.

Passports, Notary, and Military Discharges

The Chancery Clerk's reach runs past court files and land books. The office records and preserves military discharge papers for veterans, which lets a veteran obtain a certified copy later for benefits or proof of service. The clerk also serves as a county-wide notary for documents that need an official acknowledgment.

On top of that, the office processes passport applications for the U.S. Department of State, so a first-time applicant can start the federal paperwork at the county level rather than traveling out of the area.

Note: Call ahead before a passport or military discharge visit, since hours, accepted payment, and document rules for these state and federal services can change without notice.

Leflore County Chancery Clerk Fees

Leflore County does not publish a full Chancery Clerk fee schedule on its website, so the copy, certification, recording, and tax-deed charges are confirmed by calling the office. The published amounts below come from state agencies and apply to records you order from the state rather than from the county clerk.