Boone County Civil Docket Searches
For any public Boone County Circuit Court or Family Court case, search through WVPASS. Coverage runs to 1999 for both civil and criminal information. Registration is free, and so is searching. Downloads of public documents normally run 25 cents per page plus a card-processing fee. Sealed, confidential, and juvenile filings stay off limits. One practical note: the search controls load dynamically. Follow the labels you actually see rather than assuming a field exists. Magistrate Court civil matters live in MCR instead. Search there by first name, last name, or case number. Results cap at 30 entries. You get case data rather than document images. A full case number beats a common name nearly every time.
- Identify circuit, family, or magistrate court from the notice or case number.
- Open WVPASS for circuit or family court, or MCR for magistrate court.
- Search the full case number when available and confirm Boone County on the result.
- Read the dated docket rows, setting data, and disposition fields in context.
- Contact the circuit or magistrate clerk for a public filing, certification, or help locating an older file.
Reading a Boone County Civil Case Number
A circuit civil number in Boone County looks like CC-03-2020-C-82. The CC marks circuit court. The 03 is Boone's county code. The four digits give the year, and C signals the civil series. If the case is appealed, the Intermediate Court of Appeals assigns its own number. The lower Boone County number still ties the appellate matter back to the trial docket. Magistrate civil cases follow a different MCR format. Don't force a circuit number into MCR. And don't expect an appellate number to retrieve the trial file. Write the court, county, year, series, and sequence exactly, dashes included. The Boone County docket search page compares the number and name routes in more detail.
Civil Dockets: What They Show
West Virginia Civil Rule 79 puts the clerk under a duty to keep a civil docket and enter things in order: filed papers, process and service, appearances, orders, verdicts, and judgments. Look at a Boone County civil entry and you'll often see an acceptance stamp, a case caption, an action number, the pleading title, and filing metadata. Those fields tell you the filing history. They don't prove an allegation is true.
| Case number | The court, Boone code, filing year, case series, and sequence. |
|---|---|
| Caption | The formal case title; private party names need not be republished to explain the record. |
| Filing entry | The date and description of a complaint, answer, motion, notice, or other paper. |
| Service | Docket information about process and return of service where public. |
| Setting | A hearing, conference, motion date, or trial setting, subject to later change. |
| Order or judgment | The court's recorded ruling or final action, distinct from a party's request. |
Boone County Civil Filing Stamps
CourtPLUS has handled e-filing for Boone County circuit and family cases since February 24, 2020. The official CourtPLUS sign-on shows the system this court level uses for filings.
That sign-on page is a filing channel, not a public search result. An electronic receipt or stamp proves the system accepted a document on a stated date and time. It proves nothing about what the judge thought of it. A motion title records what a party asked the court to do. A later order records what the court actually did. That distinction matters. Registered attorneys and other permitted users work through CourtPLUS. A self-represented filer, under Rule 15A.04, works with the circuit clerk for e-filing support. That route replaces using WVPASS as a filing screen. Keep the two functions straight. WVPASS is the public search layer, and CourtPLUS is the filing and case-management layer. Separating them prevents missed filings and mistaken conclusions about what a stamp means.
What Cases Fill the Civil Docket
Boone County Circuit Court holds general civil jurisdiction under West Virginia Code §51-2-2. It covers matters above the lower court's range along with equity and extraordinary-relief proceedings. Boone Family Court, under §51-2A-2, handles divorce, annulment, paternity, custody, parenting, child support, and name changes. Access to family files can be limited. Personal, child, financial, or confidential information may be at stake. The magistrate level hears limited civil claims and unlawful-detainer or wrongful-occupation matters when title is not disputed. Current §50-2-1 sets the ordinary civil ceiling at $20,000. Some older Judiciary summaries still say $10,000. So the current statute is the one that controls.
| Court | Typical civil work | Public search |
|---|---|---|
| Circuit | General civil, equity, appeals, and assigned proceedings | WVPASS |
| Family | Domestic relations and assigned family matters | WVPASS, subject to limits |
| Magistrate | Limited claims and qualifying possession matters | MCR |
Boone County Complaint and Information Statement
Under Civil Rule 3, an action commences when the complaint is filed. The state forms also include a Civil Case Information Statement. Don't confuse the two. The complaint states the claims and the relief requested. The information statement supplies administrative data used to open and classify the case. A public docket may list both without exposing every protected field. The circuit filing fee listed by §59-1-11 is $200 for a new civil action. It is subject to the statute and any waiver or case rule. That fee covers only the initial filing, not later copy or certification charges. Ask for an itemized amount before you pay. A WVPASS download, a plain clerk copy, a certified copy, and a new-case filing each do a different job. Each comes at a different price.
Hearings on the Civil Docket
Civil settings come in several forms. A motion hearing, a scheduling conference, a status event, an evidentiary hearing, or a trial can each appear on the Boone County civil docket. So read the order or notice for the date, time, judge, room, attendance method, and purpose. Two things fool people. A filing timestamp is not a hearing time. The start of a circuit term is not an individual setting. Trial Court Rule 2.09 sets term openings for Boone County circuit court. They fall on the third Monday in January, April, and September. Those dates organize the court year, but they promise nothing about when a named case will be heard. Check WVPASS for a later docket entry, then confirm with the clerk before you travel. For moved settings and clerk confirmation steps, the full Boone County court schedule workflow has the details.
Boone County Civil Copies and Clerk Routes
Boone County circuit and family files live with Circuit Clerk Samuel R. Burns. His office sits at 200 State Street, Suite 202, Madison, WV 25130. The public number is 304-369-7320. When you call, give the case number, the record title, and a narrow date range. Also mention your preferred format, and whether you want a plain or certified copy. Always ask the charge before reproduction. For magistrate matters, clerk Elizabeth Summers handles the magistrate court. MCR says to call or visit. Those documents are not online. Roger Toney, the elected county clerk, keeps deeds, liens, probate, vital records, and county commission material. One caution first. A judgment or lien you find in county online records is not the full Circuit Court case file behind it.
Use the record's actual custodian
Circuit and family: Circuit Clerk, 304-369-7320.
Magistrate civil: Magistrate clerk, 304-369-7366.
Recorded instruments: Boone County Clerk, a separate county records office.
Who Can See Civil Dockets
Civil dockets in West Virginia are public by default. Code §51-4-2 opens court papers to inspection unless another law says otherwise. Trial Court Rule 10.04 promises prompt access to public judicial records through the custodian. Electronic format counts where that exists. Rule 15A.26 then makes the electronic docket and nonsealed, nonconfidential circuit documents available. Privacy review still applies.
Public access has boundaries. Family, juvenile, medical, financial, protected personal, sealed, and confidential content may be withheld or redacted. A limitation order under Rule 10.03 must state its nature, duration, and reason.
If access is denied, ask for the legal basis and whether a segregable redacted copy can be released.
A portal search that comes up empty is not final. The civil case may be older, sealed, confidential, filed under a different court number, or held only at the clerk's office. Ask for the smallest record that answers your question, not every file tied to a name.
Boone County Civil Statistics Need Care
The 2025 annual report splits Boone County filings into circuit, family, and magistrate categories. Fields cover general civil, adoption, guardiansship, mental health, domestic relations, and more. Treat these as aggregate counts. They are not hearing lists and not evidence about anyone. A case marked "filed" was received in that period. That says nothing about who won. It also says nothing about whether it is still active. A second tool, the Judiciary dashboard launched in 2026, refreshes preliminary active-case counts daily. Do not add those live numbers to finalized annual totals. Do not swap one for the other. For historical comparison, use the annual report. For the procedural history of one Boone County case, use the docket itself. That separation keeps civil workload statistics honest.