Leflore County Circuit Court Overview
The Circuit Court is the primary trial court in Mississippi. It holds original jurisdiction over felony criminal cases and over civil matters that the law does not assign to another court. It is the venue for jury trials, and it is where most serious cases in Leflore County are tried.
The court also serves as the local court of appeal. Cases decided in the County Court, the Justice Court, and the Greenwood Municipal Court can move up to Circuit Court for review. That makes the Circuit Court both a first stop for felony and large civil filings and a second look for decisions made one level below.
Leflore County belongs to the Fourth Circuit Court District, which also covers Sunflower and Washington counties. A single district bench rotates across all three counties rather than each county keeping its own separate circuit judge. The court sits at the Leflore County Courthouse at 310 West Market, Greenwood, Mississippi 38930, where the Circuit Clerk files and stores the case record. Mississippi does not number its trial courts the way some states do, so the court is identified by its circuit district rather than by a court number.
Leflore County Circuit Court Judges
The Fourth Circuit District is served by a panel of elected circuit judges who share the criminal and civil docket across Leflore, Sunflower, and Washington counties. Each judge can preside in any of the three counties, which is why a Leflore County Circuit Court case may be set before any one of them.
The bench includes Carol White-Richard, Richard A. Smith, Margaret Carey-McCray, and W. Ashley Hines. The table below lists each sitting judge with the role and district shown on the official county court page.
| Judge | Role | District |
|---|---|---|
| Hon. Carol White-Richard | Circuit Judge | Fourth Circuit District |
| Hon. Richard A. Smith | Circuit Judge | Fourth Circuit District |
| Hon. Margaret Carey-McCray | Circuit Judge | Fourth Circuit District |
| Hon. W. Ashley Hines | Circuit Judge | Fourth Circuit District |
Judicial seats change as judges retire, win election, or take new posts, and each change is marked by an investiture at the courthouse. The state judiciary covered one such ceremony for the county bench in Greenwood.
That news item described the December 2022 investiture of Leflore County Court Judge James K. Littleton III, who also serves as the county's youth court judge. You can read the judiciary announcement on the Mississippi Judiciary news page for Judge Littleton.
The investiture marks the formal start of a judge's term and shows how the local bench keeps turning over while the Circuit Court itself stays the steady center of felony and civil trial work in the county.
Circuit Court vs. County Court vs. Justice Court
Mississippi spreads trial work across several courts, and the difference between them comes down to how serious the matter is. The Circuit Court sits at the top of the local trial structure, the County Court handles assigned and juvenile matters, and the Justice Court takes the smallest civil and criminal cases. The Chancery Court stands apart from all three because it handles equity, divorce, and probate rather than the matters compared below.
| Circuit Court | County Court | Justice Court | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Civil Limit | Larger civil suits not vested elsewhere | Eminent domain and assigned civil matters | Civil actions up to $2,500 |
| Criminal Jurisdiction | Felonies | Limited and juvenile matters | Misdemeanors and preliminary felony hearings |
| Hears Appeals | Yes, from County, Justice, and Municipal courts | No | No |
| Family or Equity Cases | No, handled by Chancery Court | Youth and juvenile only | No |
The Justice Court limit of $2,500 is set by Mississippi statute, and the official county page repeats it. The County Court holds exclusive jurisdiction over eminent domain proceedings and juvenile matters in Leflore County, and the county court judge also serves as the youth court judge.
Note: A felony usually begins with a preliminary hearing in Justice Court or Municipal Court before it is presented to a grand jury and moves into Circuit Court.
How a Leflore County Court Case Moves
A case does not stay in one court from start to finish. Criminal and civil matters each follow their own path, and a felony often touches more than one court before it reaches a Circuit Court jury. Mapping that path helps you find the right clerk for the records you need.
A felony commonly starts with an arrest and a first appearance in the Justice Court or the Greenwood Municipal Court, then moves to the grand jury and into Circuit Court for indictment and trial. A civil suit large enough for the Circuit Court is filed there directly and runs through the usual pretrial stages before judgment.
Criminal flow: Arrest › First Appearance › Grand Jury › Indictment › Arraignment › Pretrial › Trial › Sentencing › Appeal
Civil flow: Complaint Filed › Answer › Discovery › Motions › Trial › Judgment › Appeal
An appeal from a Circuit Court judgment does not stay in the county. It moves up to the Mississippi Court of Appeals and, in some matters, the Supreme Court of Mississippi. Appeals that reach the Circuit Court from below, by contrast, come up from the County, Justice, and Municipal courts. The clerk that holds the underlying file changes with each step, so the Circuit Clerk keeps the Circuit and County Court record while the Justice Court Clerk keeps the lower-court file.
Civil, Criminal, and Family Matters in Leflore County
The Circuit Court carries two main streams of work. On the criminal side it tries felony charges, the most serious offenses the state prosecutes, with files that run from indictment through verdict and sentencing. On the civil side it hears lawsuits over money, contracts, injury, and property that exceed the reach of the lower courts.
Family and equity matters do not belong to the Circuit Court. In Mississippi those cases go to the Chancery Court, which handles divorce, child custody, adoption, guardianship, conservatorship, mental health commitments, wills, estates, and land records. A reader looking for a divorce decree or a probate file should ask the Chancery Clerk rather than the Circuit Clerk.
The Circuit Clerk files, dockets, and retrieves the Circuit and County Court record, including criminal, civil, juvenile, and traffic filings handled at that level. Because the county does not post a free public case portal, the office counter and the statewide electronic system are the practical ways to reach a file. For the full menu of record types and how to request them, the Leflore County court records page lays out each access channel.
State and Federal Courts in the Delta
Not every case in Greenwood is a state case. The Circuit Court handles state felonies and civil suits, but federal crimes and federal civil questions go to the United States District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi instead. The two systems keep separate records, separate clerks, and separate online tools.
Federal dockets are not searched through the Leflore County clerks. They live in the federal PACER and CM/ECF systems, which require a federal account. You can reach the district court lookup through the PACER lookup for the Northern District of Mississippi.
That lookup page points to the federal account login rather than a free public search, much like the statewide system the Circuit Court uses for its own electronic files.
Bankruptcy is its own federal track. Debt and bankruptcy matters from Leflore County go to the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Mississippi, not to the Circuit Court. The bankruptcy filings sit in a separate electronic case system reached through the Northern District bankruptcy CM/ECF site.
That system shows the federal sign in screen, a reminder that a bankruptcy file is never part of the county Circuit Court record. When a matter is federal, the path runs through these national systems rather than the courthouse on West Market Street.
Note: A local arrest can become a federal case if the United States Attorney prosecutes it, in which case the file lives in the federal system rather than the county Circuit Court.
Lower Courts Beneath Leflore County Circuit Court
Three courts sit below the Circuit Court and feed cases and appeals up to it. The Justice Court hears small civil claims, misdemeanors, preliminary felony matters, and county traffic citations written by the Highway Patrol, the Sheriff, the Public Service Commission, and Mississippi Valley State University Police. The County and Youth Court handles eminent domain and juvenile cases. The Greenwood Municipal Court takes city ordinance violations, municipal traffic, and DUI cases.
When a party loses in one of those courts, the appeal generally rises to the Circuit Court for a fresh review. That role is the reason the Circuit Court records office often holds material that began one level down. The Circuit Clerk, Johnny Gary, keeps the Circuit and County Court files and can be reached at (662) 453-1435 for record questions.
The clerk's office is the practical front door for these records, since it files, dockets, and retrieves the case papers the court generates. The duties of that office, including how to request a certified copy, are covered on the Leflore County Circuit Clerk page.
Because Leflore County does not run a single combined case search, the first step for any Circuit Court record is to match the case to the right court and clerk. A felony or large civil file points to the Circuit Clerk, a small claim or county ticket points to the Justice Court Clerk, and a city ticket points to the Greenwood Municipal Court. Getting that match right is what turns a slow search into a quick one.