St. Clair County Circuit Clerk

About the St. Clair County Circuit Clerk

Kinnis Williams Sr. is the elected Circuit Clerk of St. Clair County. The county's elected-official page states that he was sworn in as Circuit Clerk in December 2022. The Circuit Clerk is an elected county officer who serves a four-year term. The role is set by Illinois statute and Supreme Court rules. The clerk attends court sessions, preserves files and documents, maintains the complete case record, and tracks money received and paid out on court cases.

The Circuit Clerk's elected-official page describes the office as the statutory judicial administrator for all civil and criminal cases in St. Clair County. The page also gives a direct line of contact for the office and an official email for the clerk. The Circuit Clerk leads a staff that runs the court counter, the criminal cashier booth, eFiling support, the copy-request desk, and the records vault. The main office is in the county building on Public Square in Belleville.

The county Circuit Clerk page links a short biography along with the office mission. The elected-official profile introduces Circuit Clerk Williams and lists his direct line and email. The profile is useful for confirming who runs the office and how the staff routes a court-record question to the right desk.

What the Circuit Clerk Does

The Circuit Clerk is the court's recordkeeper. The office files new cases, stamps in pleadings and motions, and adds each new filing to the docket. The clerk's staff also issues summonses and subpoenas at the direction of the court. When a case ends, the clerk records the final order, the judgment, and any sentence. The office maintains the file from start to finish and stores closed files for the time set by court rule.

• Maintains the official court record for all civil and criminal cases in the county.
• Files new cases and dockets each pleading, motion, order, and judgment.
• Collects and pays out fines, fees, court costs, bond money, and restitution.
• Issues court summonses, subpoenas, and certified copies of orders and judgments.
• Runs the public court-record search, the docket page, and the online copy-request form.
• Supports mandatory eFiling under Illinois Supreme Court Rule 9 and runs public eFiling terminals.

The clerk's office does not give legal advice. Staff can explain a court process, a fee, or a form, but they cannot tell a person what to file or how to argue a case. People who need help with the case itself should talk to a lawyer or use legal aid.

Circuit Clerk Office Hours

The Circuit Clerk page lists business hours as Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The first-floor criminal cashier booth keeps a slightly tighter schedule. The booth is open Monday through Friday, 8:15 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Court counter staff are on hand for case filings, file pulls, certified copies, and payments during the main office hours. The office is closed on county holidays.

Call ahead before a long trip. Court calendars sometimes pull staff into hearings, and a counter line can move slowly during peak filing periods.

Court Record Search Through the Circuit Clerk

The Circuit Clerk publishes a public court-record search portal. The portal opens through the Court Record Search link on the Circuit Clerk page. It runs on the clericusmagnus.com case-lookup system. The Circuit Clerk says the portal covers all civil and criminal court dates. The office warns users to check the site again later because cases are continued and reset often.

A user can search by party name or by case number. The case number is broken into a year, a two-letter type code, and a sequence number. Knowing the type code, such as CF for felony or DC for divorce with children, helps narrow a result. Daily and attorney dockets are on a separate Court Docket Search page. For deeper case detail across Illinois, the statewide remote access policy applies to eFiled documents through re:SearchIL.

If a case will not load while eFiling, the Circuit Clerk asks users to call the office at (618) 825-2334. The notice on the page ties that issue to a continued system conversion.

Copy Requests Through the Circuit Clerk

The Circuit Clerk runs an online copy-request form for court documents. The form asks for contact details and case details, including year, type, number, and party names. The page tells the requester that the office will quote the cost first, before the request is finished. Business check, money order, or cash are accepted; the form notes that personal checks are not. Copies can be emailed. The Circuit Clerk says copy costs are the same whether a person orders online, in person, or through the U.S. mail.

The online form mirrors the case-number layout used in the search portal. That way, a copy request lines up with what a researcher just pulled up. A user who knows the case number can fill in year, type, and sequence and then list the documents to be pulled in the request-details box. The certified-copy radio sets the fee tier on the back end.

Note: A copy is not the same as a certified copy; only the certified version carries the clerk's seal for use in court or with another agency.

How to Request a Certified Copy

A certified copy of a court order, a judgment, or a final disposition is the version used for court, for the Secretary of State, for an employer background check, or for an out-of-state agency. The Circuit Clerk stamps the document, signs it, and certifies that it is a true copy of the file. The steps below match the Circuit Clerk's published copy-request flow.

1. Find the case number. Use the Court Record Search to pull the year, two-letter type code, and sequence number. Write it down.
2. Open the online copy-request form on the Circuit Clerk page, or visit the office at 10 Public Square in Belleville.
3. Fill in the contact section: full name, email, phone, street address, city, state, and ZIP.
4. Fill in the case section: year, type, number, and the names of the parties on each side of the case.
5. List the specific documents to be pulled in the request-details box. Name each filing and a file date if known.
6. Select Yes on the "Need Certified?" choice to flag the certified-copy fee tier.
7. Wait for the clerk's quote. The office will email or call back with the cost before any work is done.
8. Pay with cash, money order, or a business check. Pick up at the counter, get the copy by mail, or get an emailed copy.

eFiling Through the Circuit Clerk

Illinois Supreme Court Rule 9 requires eFiling for all civil case types. The rule covers both attorneys and self-represented litigants. The Circuit Clerk's eFiling page explains how to set up an account, lists approved eFiling service providers, and points users to the public eFiling terminals available at the office during business hours. The clerk's staff can help walk through the steps at the counter.

Statewide help and the master list of approved providers live on the Illinois Courts eFileIL page. The state page is the right starting point for a first-time filer, since it links provider sign-up and re:SearchIL access in one place.

Criminal eFiling rules differ from civil rules in Illinois. Most criminal cases still start with paper or law-enforcement systems and feed the court file from there. The Circuit Clerk can clarify what is filed in paper and what is filed electronically for a given case type.

Payment Methods at the Circuit Clerk

The Circuit Clerk accepts cash, money order, business checks, or a credit or debit card for in-person payments. Only one payment type is allowed per transaction. The card-usage fee is 2.25 percent, with a $1.00 minimum. The first-floor cashier booth handles criminal payments. Civil court costs and copy fees are paid at the main counter.

Mail-in payments go to a separate Circuit Clerk address. The office uses P.O. Box 691, Belleville, IL 62222 for mailed court payments. Note the box number; payments mailed to the office street address can be delayed in routing. Always include the case number and the party name on the check or money order.

Circuit Clerk Fee Schedule

The Circuit Clerk publishes a copy-fee chart that starts at $2.00 for one page and rises by page count. The chart is one of several fee documents the office maintains. The full Circuit Clerk Fee Schedule was last revised October 1, 2025, and it covers civil filing fees, certified copies, certifications, and other court costs.

The chart below is the at-a-counter summary that most copy and payment users will rely on. Larger civil filings carry their own per-case fees set by Illinois statute. For the full per-case line items, pull the October 1, 2025 fee schedule PDF.

The county also posts a one-page copy-fee chart for quick reference. The chart is the page to print before stopping at the counter, since it shows the exact fee at each page-count tier.

Forms and Case Categories

The Circuit Clerk keeps a forms library that groups blank court forms by case type. The library covers child support, civil, family, juvenile, miscellaneous, probate, small claims, and traffic forms. A user looking for the right form should start there. The Documents and Forms page is the source for the most-used filings.

The clerk also runs a Case Categories page. The page lists the two-letter codes used in St. Clair County court records. Codes such as CF (felony), CM (misdemeanor), DC (dissolution with children), DN (dissolution no children), PR (probate), GR (guardianship), TR (minor traffic), and MT (major traffic) are the keys to a clean case-number search.

• CF and CM mark adult criminal cases at the felony and misdemeanor level.
• DC and DN cover divorce, civil union dissolution, and separation cases.
• PR covers decedent estates; GR covers guardianship of a minor, an adult, or an estate.
• TR covers minor traffic; MT covers major traffic; DT is the separate DUI code.
• SC covers small claims up to $10,000; EV covers eviction and ejectment cases.

Circuit Clerk vs County Clerk

Illinois splits clerk duties. The Circuit Clerk holds court files. The County Clerk holds vital records, marriage licenses, elections, and tax-redemption records. New users sometimes call the wrong office for a record. The comparison below sorts out which office to call for which task.

Note: A divorce decree is a Circuit Clerk record, but the underlying marriage license sits with the County Clerk.

Contact the Circuit Clerk

The Circuit Clerk's main office sits in the county building on Public Square in downtown Belleville. The address is used for in-person filings, copy pickups, payments, eFiling help, and court-date questions. A separate P.O. Box is used for mailed court payments. Email is the fastest way to reach the office for a quick records question.

Related St. Clair County Searches

The Circuit Clerk's work ties to several record types on the rest of the site. Court files and search tools sit on the court records page. Daily and attorney calendars sit on the court dockets page. Arrest and criminal-case detail sit on the criminal records page. The trial-court structure that the Circuit Clerk serves is mapped on the Circuit Court page. For marriage licenses and vital records, see the County Clerk page.