How to Search Criminal Dockets
Begin with the court, not the name. West Virginia splits its criminal record lookups by level. The West Virginia Court Record Access gateway is the front door to both. Circuit Court case information sits behind WVPASS. Magistrate Court case information sits behind MCRSearch, in more limited form. Neither one covers Buckhannon Municipal Court, and neither one holds federal criminal dockets.
Before you search, gather a few things. Collect the name exactly as filed, the case number if you have it, the likely filing year, and the court level. The public WVPASS form lets you narrow results by county, case type, year, filing dates, status, and security level. Those runtime fields appear when they are available. Past its disclaimer gate, MCRSearch takes a first and last name or a case number.
- Choose Circuit Court or Magistrate Court based on the charge and case stage.
- Open WVPASS for a circuit case or MCRSearch for a magistrate case.
- Use Upshur County, the name or case number, and any sound date or case-type filter.
- Compare the filing date, charge, court location, and status before opening a result.
- Ask the correct clerk for an unavailable document or certified copy.
If the portal gives you nothing useful, pick up the phone. The Circuit Clerk answers at 304-472-2370, and the Magistrate Clerk at 304-472-2053. You can also walk into either clerk office for public access. Or mail in a narrow, written record request. Upshur County's state courts offer no public records email address.
Upshur County Criminal Docket Split
Jurisdiction divides Upshur County criminal docket records. Misdemeanors, warrants, bail matters, and preliminary examinations in felony cases all live in Magistrate Court, which draws its authority from West Virginia Code §50-2-3. When a felony moves up to Circuit Court, it may pick up a new case number and a fresh register there. So a search of one system can reveal only a single stage of the case.
| Criminal court | Typical docket work | Public route |
|---|---|---|
| Magistrate Court | Misdemeanors, warrants, bail, and felony preliminary steps | MCRSearch, then Magistrate Clerk |
| Circuit Court | Felony prosecutions and circuit criminal proceedings | WVPASS, then Circuit Clerk |
| Buckhannon Municipal Court | City ordinance and charter offenses | City Hall or written city request |
| Federal court | Federal criminal prosecutions | PACER or Northern District Clerk |
A preliminary examination record is not the whole story. It never becomes the final Circuit Court case by itself. If a magistrate result mentions a transfer or a related proceeding, chase that clue through WVPASS, then verify the new docket with the Circuit Clerk.
What a Criminal Docket Shows
The Magistrate Case Record Search lays out an Upshur County criminal docket in blocks: a case header, charges, events, parties, docket entries, bond information, non-monetary sentences, and disposition. Many cases leave some blocks empty. Treat the record as a running timeline rather than a single verdict label.
| Case ID | The identifier, case location, description, filing date, type, trial type, and appearance date where populated. |
|---|---|
| Charges | Charge count or number, statutory or descriptive charge, plea, and related attributes. |
| Event schedule | Hearing, date, time, courtroom, location, and event status or context. |
| Docket entry | Record, filing date, short code, description, and who filed it. |
| Bond and sentence | Separate bond fields and non-monetary sentence information when applicable. |
| Disposition | Outcome text and date, disposition court or magistrate, and trial type. |
Copy any official case ID exactly as it appears. Patterns like ##-M##X-##### come from payment-help examples and describe a lookup format, not a universal Upshur criminal case number.
Upshur County Criminal Docket Blocks
A charge, a plea, and a disposition each answer a different question. The charge names the alleged offense. The plea records the defendant's response in court. The disposition tells you how the case ended at that level. And a hearing on the event schedule is just that, a scheduled or completed event, never proof of a conviction or dismissal.
- Docket entry
- A dated line recording a filing, court act, or other case activity.
- Case event
- A hearing or setting with time and place information.
- Disposition
- The portal's outcome field for the case or charge at that court level.
- Capias
- A court order directing that a person be taken into custody, sometimes issued after a properly noticed missed hearing.
For exact legal meaning, rely on the description and the filed order beside the entry. A short status field can never replace the judgment or sentencing document itself.
Stages on a Criminal Docket
The opening of an Upshur County criminal docket depends on the court level. A magistrate record might begin with a complaint, warrant, citation, or initial appearance. Bond, a preliminary examination, motions, and hearing events often follow. A misdemeanor can end right there in Magistrate Court. A felony, though, may move forward to an indictment or information. It can then land in a Circuit Court register.
Docket flow: Charge Filed › Initial Appearance or Arraignment › Pretrial Events › Plea or Trial › Disposition › Sentencing
These labels sketch a typical path, not a guarantee that every Upshur County criminal case hits every step. A reset simply adds a new setting. A motion can sit pending for a while. An order means only what its text says. For current court dates, read the latest event and check with the clerk or court office.
Upshur County Criminal Docket Codes
MCRSearch often squeezes a court act into a brief record code. The description printed next to it carries the real meaning. The codes below are examples from the statewide interface. They show how the system reads. No single code is guaranteed to appear in an Upshur County criminal docket.
- MMAPD
- Affidavit for appointed public defender, attorney, or counsel.
- MMWAS
- Warrant affidavit for search.
- MMCDR
- Court disposition reporting.
- MGHCC
- Hearing or event closed.
Always read the filing date and description alongside the code. Treat no code as a factual finding while its underlying order stays out of view.
Which Court Holds Criminal Dockets
Two clerks, one courthouse. The Magistrate Clerk, Geneva Peggs, keeps magistrate criminal records at 38 West Main Street, Room 204, Buckhannon. The Circuit Clerk, Brian P. Gaudet, keeps circuit criminal dockets and files. His office also sits at 38 West Main Street. Each office holds a different register.
Buckhannon Municipal Court sits apart from both. Its charter route covers city ordinance and charter offenses. No standalone municipal docket portal exists for it. Call City Hall at 304-472-1651 and ask for the municipal judge or the recorder custodian. Written requests can follow the city FOIA instructions.
Federal cases touching Upshur County appear in neither state portal. Those dockets live in PACER or CM/ECF for the Northern District of West Virginia. Upshur is assigned to the Elkins point of holding court.
Upshur County Criminal Docket Copies
Sometimes MCRSearch lists a document but shows no image. That happens. It does not mean the file is empty. Save the case ID, the record's exact description, and the filing date. Then ask the Magistrate Clerk for the item. Under Rule 11 of the Magistrate Court administrative rules, copies cost 25 cents per page. Faxing costs two dollars per page. Registered public users can instead download Circuit Court documents through WVPASS. That archive reaches back to 1999. Those downloads run 25 cents per page plus a small card-processing charge. A download is not a certified copy, though. When you need official proof, ask the Circuit Clerk to certify it and quote the current price.
Whether you mail a request or go to the counter, be specific. Spell out the court, the case number, the document title, the date range, plain or certified format, how you want delivery, and your contact information. The clerk's office publishes no Upshur-specific copy form. It states no turnaround time either, so plan for a short wait.
Upshur County Criminal Docket Events
A docket event can be public even when its paperwork is not online. MCRSearch keeps the event schedule apart from the chronological block of docket entries, and WVPASS splits case detail, events, and public documents the same way. That split matters. When the record shows a hearing, an order, or a disposition line but no image, the entry still stands on its own as part of the docket.
Read the latest line carefully. A scheduled hearing is not a disposition, and a missing image is not proof that no order exists. Confirm the current event and request the filed order from the custodian.
If a hearing date changes, trust the newest event date and status. When a portal throws an error, write down what failed. Start a fresh session, and then call the clerk. The official MCRSearch disclaimer says its information may be incomplete. It should be validated locally.
Checking is easy if you are precise. Hand the clerk the case ID, the court location, the disputed event date, and the exact wording the portal displays. Then ask a focused question. Ask whether a later entry, a written order, or a separate Circuit Court case changes what appears online. That way an old setting never gets mistaken for the current one. A search glitch also stays separate from the case outcome.
Upshur County Criminal Docket Caseload
Upshur County's criminal docket moved 112 felony cases and 24 misdemeanor cases through Circuit Court in the 2025 West Virginia Judiciary annual report. Cases are being counted here, not people. These totals also leave out Magistrate Court, municipal, and federal criminal matters entirely.
Treat these figures as scale, not as a live calendar. The judiciary's dashboard data can refresh near midnight. It stays preliminary, so confirm any actual hearing or result through the individual case docket and the clerk.
A single number also hides the work inside each file. One case may carry a handful of entries. Another may stack up repeated motions, settings, and orders. Use the caseload totals as local context only. Lean on the specific Upshur County criminal docket when you need to verify a charge, hearing, plea, disposition, or sentence.
Public Access and Sealed Criminal Dockets
West Virginia opens its court records to inspection. The exception is when a law or court rule says otherwise. The baseline has limits. Sealed filings, juvenile cases, protected identifiers, and expunged records stay out of view. WVPASS excludes sealed filings and juvenile cases by design. So a blank search result is never proof that no record exists.
Key Rules:
West Virginia Code §51-4-2 makes court records and papers open to inspection, subject to special provisions.
West Virginia Code §49-5-101 protects juvenile records from ordinary public access.
West Virginia Code §61-11-26 governs eligible expungement petitions and the effect of sealing or expunging records.
Getting into a restricted Upshur County criminal docket means going through the court itself, with any court order or proof of status the rules demand. Public search results are not a full criminal history. Never present them as one.