How to Search the St. Clair County Court Docket
The Circuit Clerk's Court Docket Search page is the official starting point. The page exposes two tabs: Daily Court Docket and Attorney Court Docket. The public daily view is open. The attorney view is set up for licensed counsel filtering by bar number. The docket is the place to confirm a court date that has been set for a St. Clair County Court case.
Have the case information ready before opening the docket. A name search works on the daily docket. An attorney docket search needs a bar number. A specific date may also be needed if the search returns no results. The default view in many sessions is the next business day, so a calendar pick can help.
- Open the Circuit Clerk Court Docket Search page from the county Circuit Clerk site.
- Choose Daily Court Docket for public lookups or Attorney Court Docket for bar-number filtering.
- Pick a begin date. The form expects a date in standard format, such as 8/25/2025.
- Run the search and review the columns for case, time, and courtroom.
- Use the printer-friendly view to save or print the day's docket.
When the docket returns no rows, the page shows the message "There Are No Records Matching This Search." The most common reasons are an empty day, a wrong date format, or a docket that has not posted yet. The Circuit Clerk also tells users that some lookup trouble is tied to a continued system conversion and to call (618) 825-2334 if a case will not load.
Daily Court Docket vs Attorney Court Docket
The two docket views serve different users. The Daily Court Docket is the general public view. The Attorney Court Docket is filtered for a licensed attorney's caseload. Both pull from the same St. Clair County Court calendar, but they show different columns and use different filters.
| View | Who It Is For | Key Filter | What It Shows |
|---|---|---|---|
| Daily Court Docket | General public, parties, witnesses, victims | Begin date | Name, date, appearance description, courtroom. |
| Attorney Court Docket | Licensed counsel | Bar number + date | Date, name and appearance type, case and ticket offense, prosecutor. |
A non-attorney user can still get most of what they need from the daily view. The attorney view is useful when a defense lawyer needs every case they have on a single day across multiple courtrooms.
St. Clair County Court Docket Search Fields
The Court Docket Search page uses a small set of controls. The table mirrors the visible fields on the official page so a researcher knows what to fill in before running a search.
| Field Label | Type | Required | Notes / Format |
|---|---|---|---|
| Daily Court Docket | Tab / link | Optional | Public docket view by date. |
| Attorney Court Docket | Tab / link | Optional | Attorney docket view filtered by bar number. |
| Begin Date | Date | Yes | Sets the docket day; harvested page showed "Court Docket For 8/25/2025." |
| Bar Number | Text | Conditional | Required for the Attorney Court Docket view. |
| Seven-day calendar | Option / link | Optional | Calendar-range control for stepping through several days. |
| Search | Button | Yes | Runs the docket search. |
| Printer Friendly Version | Link / button | Optional | Loads a print-ready output after the search. |
Reading the St. Clair County Docket Columns
Each docket result row has a short set of columns. The Daily Court Docket and the Attorney Court Docket use slightly different headers, but the fields below are the ones a researcher will see most.
| Field | What It Shows |
|---|---|
| Name | The party set for hearing on the docket day. |
| Date | The court date the row applies to. |
| Appearance Description | The hearing type, such as arraignment, status, plea, trial, or motion. |
| Courtroom | The room assigned for the setting. |
| Case / Ticket - Offense | The case or citation, with a short label of the offense or claim. |
| Prosecutor Name | The Assistant State's Attorney listed for the setting on the attorney view. |
The appearance description is the single most useful column for a non-lawyer. A status setting is a short check-in. An arraignment is the first criminal hearing where charges are read and a plea may be entered. A motion call is a hearing on a pretrial request. A trial setting is the date the case is scheduled to be tried.
Why St. Clair County Court Dates Change
Court settings are not fixed. The Circuit Clerk's own pages tell users to recheck the website because cases are continued and reset. A continuance can come from either side or from the court. Trials can be moved when an earlier case takes longer than planned. Status dates can be reset after a plea offer or new motion.
A few short rules help. Always check the docket the morning of a court date. Confirm the courtroom on the docket, not on an older notice. Call the Circuit Clerk at (618) 277-6600 if the docket disagrees with a written notice. Witnesses and victims should also confirm with the Assistant State's Attorney handling the case, since victim notice is separate from the public docket.
Criminal Court Dockets
Criminal cases in St. Clair County use the CF, CM, DT, DV, and MX categories. The Circuit Clerk links a Criminal Court Dockets page next to the general docket search. The criminal docket lists arraignments, status calls, plea cuts, motion calls, bench trials, and jury trial settings. The State's Attorney's office prosecutes each case, and the Assistant State's Attorney listed on the attorney docket is the one to contact for prosecution questions.
For a person in custody, the docket and the inmate roster are separate records. The Sheriff's Office controls custody. The Circuit Clerk controls court dates. A change in custody status does not always show up on the docket on the same day. The St. Clair County inmate records page covers the custody side of that split.
Court Docket vs Full Case File
The docket is a calendar view. The case file is the full record. The docket shows when a case is set for hearing and where. The case file holds the pleadings, motions, orders, judgments, and exhibits. For most public users, the docket is enough to plan a court appearance. For copies of any document inside the case file, the next step is the Circuit Clerk Copy Request form.
The Copy Request page asks for year, type, number, case style, party names, document names, file dates, and whether a certified copy is needed. The page says the requester is notified of the cost before the request is completed. No personal checks are accepted, and copies can be emailed at the same cost as mail or in-person service.
Printer-Friendly Dockets and Saved Views
The Court Docket Search page includes a Printer Friendly Version link that loads after a search. The printer view strips the page header so a docket print fits on a single sheet. Attorneys often print the day's docket as a check-in tool. Victims and family members sometimes do the same.
Note: A printed docket is a snapshot; recheck the live docket the morning of the hearing because settings can move after the print.