Yazoo County Circuit Court Overview
The Circuit Court is the highest trial court in Yazoo County. Its office sits at 209 E. Broadway St. in Yazoo City, and the public phone line is 662-746-1872. The court has original jurisdiction over all civil and criminal matters that are not given by law to another court. That broad reach makes it the home for felony cases, large civil disputes, and the appeals that rise from the county's smaller courts. The presiding judge is the Honorable Jannie M. Lewis-Blackmon.
Most Circuit Court cases are tried before a jury, which is one of the main features that sets this court apart from the county's lower courts. The Circuit Clerk, Robert Coleman, receives lawsuits, indictments, and motions, issues summonses and subpoenas, draws and qualifies juries, and keeps the record of judgments. Anyone who needs a felony case file, a civil jury case, or proof of a Circuit Court judgment begins with that office. Older or restricted files may call for direct clerk help rather than an online lookup.
Yazoo County Trial Courts and Their Records
Yazoo County does not have a single numbered district court. Mississippi spreads trial work across several courts that each hold their own records, so a records search has to begin with the right venue. The table lists the county's trial and related courts, where they sit, who presides, and the kinds of cases each one keeps. The City of Yazoo City Municipal Court is included because city traffic and misdemeanor files are not held at the county courthouse.
| Court | Address | Phone | Judge | What it handles |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Circuit Court | 209 E. Broadway St., Yazoo City, MS 39194 | 662-746-1872 | Jannie M. Lewis-Blackmon | Felony criminal cases, civil jury cases, appeals from lower courts, civil matters not assigned elsewhere |
| Chancery Court | 211 E. Broadway St., Yazoo City, MS 39194 | 662-746-2661 | Cynthia Brewer; Robert G. Clark III; James C. Walker | Divorce, custody, adoption, estates, land title, guardianship, conservatorship, equity |
| County Court | 209 E. Broadway St., Yazoo City, MS 39194 | 662-746-5214 | Mary Barnette Cotton | Eminent domain, juvenile matters, shared civil up to $200,000, preliminary hearings, transferred non-capital felonies |
| Justice Court | 211 E. Broadway St., Yazoo City, MS 39194 | 662-746-8181 | Pam May; Bennie (Kay) Warrington | County traffic, DUIs, ordinances, misdemeanors, small civil suits, initial felony appearances |
| Youth Court | 209 E. Broadway St., Yazoo City, MS 39194 | 662-746-5124 | Mary Barnette Cotton | Abuse, neglect, CHINS, truancy, delinquency for youth (records confidential) |
| Yazoo City Municipal Court | 305 Mike Espy Drive, Yazoo City, MS 39194 | 662-314-1013 | Christopher Espy | City-limit traffic and misdemeanor criminal violations, short-term protection orders |
Note: city incidents go to Municipal Court, while events outside the city limits route to the Sheriff's Department or Justice Court.
Circuit Court vs County Court vs Justice Court
The three law-side trial courts in Yazoo County overlap in some areas and split in others. The Circuit Court carries the heaviest cases, the County Court shares some civil work and handles juvenile matters, and the Justice Court is the high-volume first stop for tickets, small claims, and the first appearance after a felony arrest. The comparison below shows how their power differs across the points that matter most to a records seeker.
| Circuit Court | County Court | Justice Court | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Civil Limit | General, no fixed ceiling | Up to $200,000 (shared) | Small civil and small claims |
| Criminal Jurisdiction | Felony prosecutions and jury trials | Transferred non-capital felonies, preliminary hearings, bond, search warrants | Misdemeanors, DUIs, county ordinances, initial felony appearances |
| Family Cases | No (handled by Chancery Court) | Juvenile matters through Youth Court | No |
| Jury Trials | Yes, most cases jury-tried | Yes | Limited |
How a Case Moves Through the Yazoo County System
A felony case rarely starts at the Circuit Court. It usually begins with an arrest and an initial appearance in Justice Court, where a judge sets bond and an affidavit is filed. County Court may take part for bond, preliminary hearings, or a transferred non-capital felony. The district attorney then presents the matter to a grand jury, and an indictment moves the felony into Circuit Court for arraignment, pretrial work, and a jury trial. A disposition that a party wants to challenge can be appealed to the state appellate courts.
Criminal flow: Arrest › Justice Court First Appearance › County Court (bond / preliminary / transfer) › Grand Jury Indictment › Circuit Court Arraignment › Pretrial › Jury Trial › Sentencing › Mississippi Court of Appeals or Supreme Court
Civil flow: Complaint Filed › Answer › Discovery › Motions › Jury Trial › Judgment › Appeal
Appeals from the lower courts also feed the Circuit Court. A case decided in Justice Court or Municipal Court can be appealed to Circuit Court for a fresh hearing, which is one reason the same person may have files at more than one court level.
Felony Criminal Cases in Circuit Court
The Circuit Court is where felony prosecutions are tried in Yazoo County. After a grand jury returns an indictment, the defendant is arraigned, pretrial motions are heard, and the case is set for a jury trial unless it is resolved by plea. The case file held by the Circuit Clerk can show the charge, the indictment date, bond terms, the plea, trial settings, the verdict or plea, the sentence, probation terms, fines, court costs, and any appeal. The complete criminal case file lives in the Yazoo County court records kept by that office.
Felony charges are prosecuted by the district attorney, not by the county itself. Yazoo County is part of District Attorney District 21 along with Holmes and Humphreys counties, and the district attorney is Akillie Malone-Oliver, reachable at 662-653-3191. District numbering is being changed through state redistricting, so the number may shift in the coming years even though the office and contact stay the same. The district attorney decides how to handle indictments, plea offers, dismissals, and sentencing recommendations once a felony reaches the Circuit Court.
Civil Jury Cases and Court Divisions
On the civil side, the Circuit Court handles disputes that are not assigned by law to the Chancery Court or kept within the smaller courts. These include personal injury suits, contract claims, property damage, and other money disputes that often call for a jury. Typical civil records include complaints, answers, summonses, motions, orders, judgments, garnishments, and appeal papers. County Court shares some of this civil work up to its $200,000 limit, which is why a civil seeker sometimes checks both courts.
Family law is the main split that surprises people. Divorce, custody, alimony, adoption, and estate matters are not Circuit Court cases in Mississippi. Those belong to the Chancery Court and the Chancery Clerk. The Circuit Court keeps the law-side civil and criminal dockets, while equity and domestic matters sit one office over at 211 E. Broadway. Knowing that line keeps a records request from landing at the wrong counter.
Note: the Circuit Clerk also issues marriage licenses, draws juries, and registers voters, so the office does more than hold case files.
The Circuit Court Judicial District
Yazoo County does not sit in its own circuit alone. Its Circuit Court district groups three counties together: Holmes, Humphreys, and Yazoo. The Honorable Jannie M. Lewis-Blackmon presides over this district, hearing felony and civil jury matters across the member counties. Sharing a circuit is common in Mississippi, where rural counties are combined so that judges and resources cover a wider region.
The Chancery side uses a different map. The 11th Chancery District covers Holmes, Leake, Madison, and Yazoo counties, with Chancellors Cynthia Brewer, Robert G. Clark III, and James C. Walker. The two district maps do not match, which is one more reason the Circuit Court and Chancery Court are treated as separate systems even though they share the same downtown courthouse cluster on East Broadway.
Justice Court and the Lower Courts
The Justice Court is the magistrate-level court that feeds the Circuit Court its felony cases. Under Mississippi practice, all felony cases are first heard in Justice Court for the initial appearance and the filing of the affidavit. Justice Court judges hold sessions at the jail three times each week so that a person who is arrested gets that first court appearance within three days. The judges are Pam May and Bennie (Kay) Warrington, and the office line is 662-746-8181.
Justice Court also carries a heavy daily docket of its own. It handles county traffic tickets written by the Highway Patrol and the Sheriff's Department, DUIs, county ordinance violations, misdemeanors, and small civil suits. County Court adds magistrate-style functions too: a County Court judge may issue search warrants, set bond, and run preliminary hearings, and the same judge serves as the Youth Court judge for juvenile cases. Youth Court records are confidential by law and are not searched the way adult Circuit Court files are.
Note: there is no online case search for Justice Court or Municipal Court, so those records are reached by phone, in person, or by mail to the court office.
Searching Yazoo County Circuit Court Records Online
Mississippi runs its trial courts through Mississippi Electronic Courts, and the public access side is called PAMEC. Chancery, Circuit, and County Courts use this system for electronic filing, and registered users can view digital court documents through it. Electronic filing is now in place statewide, so Yazoo County Circuit Court records sit in the same case-management environment as the rest of Mississippi. The state judiciary keeps the entry point at courts.ms.gov.
Access is not free. Official figures put registration at $10 per year and document viewing at 20 cents per page, billed to a subscriber account. A records seeker can still inspect filings at the courthouse counter to avoid remote-viewing fees, and older, sealed, or non-digitized files may only be available through the Circuit Clerk in person. The MEC help desk answers questions at helpdesk@mec.ms.gov or 601-576-4650. For files held by the office itself, the Yazoo County Circuit Clerk is the place to confirm a copy fee before mailing payment.
| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
| Login / account | PAMEC requires a subscriber account for remote document viewing |
| Case number | Best search input when known; numbers vary by court and year |
| Party name | Use the legal name from the filing, last name plus first name |
| Court / county | Select Yazoo County and the correct court where the filter is offered |
| Document view | Viewing is billed at 20 cents per page |
Federal Courts That Serve Yazoo County Residents
The county Circuit Court is a state court, and it is separate from the federal courts that also serve people who live in Yazoo County. Federal cases are filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, and the county is placed in the Northern Division at Jackson. The federal divisional county listing confirms where Yazoo County belongs, and it can be reviewed on the court's own divisional county listing page.
That listing shows the divisional split that puts Yazoo County into the Jackson-based Northern Division for federal matters. Federal court handles a different class of cases than the Circuit Court, such as federal crimes, federal-question civil suits, and constitutional claims.
The federal courthouse for the Northern Division is the Thad Cochran United States Courthouse in downtown Jackson, where civil and criminal filings for the division are processed. Its location, contacts, and filing notes appear on the court's Jackson courthouse page.
The Jackson courthouse is the federal venue a Yazoo County resident would use, not the county courthouse on East Broadway. The two systems keep separate dockets, separate clerks, and separate access tools.
Federal records are not searched through PAMEC. The federal docket system is PACER, which provides case and docket information for federal appellate, district, and bankruptcy courts. A federal account is required for most searches, and the national service is reached through the main PACER website.
PACER is the federal counterpart to the state PAMEC system, and the contrast is worth remembering: PAMEC holds Yazoo County Circuit Court files, while PACER holds the federal ones. Bankruptcy for the county runs through the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Mississippi.
The PACER CM/ECF lookup for the Mississippi Southern Bankruptcy Court lists the court address, help desk, hours, and the counties it serves, including Yazoo. That official lookup can be opened on the CM/ECF court lookup page.
That lookup page is the federal bankruptcy access point for Yazoo County filers. For everyday county matters such as felonies, civil jury cases, and appeals from the lower courts, the state Circuit Court and the Circuit Clerk remain the right place to start.