Searching for a Warrant in Forrest County
A Forrest County warrant search works best as a series of calls. The order matters. Start where the case started, since a city ticket, a county citation, and a felony charge each point to a different clerk and a different phone.
- Pull the original ticket, notice, or bond paperwork and read the Forrest County court name printed on it.
- Call that court's clerk and ask for the process label, issue date, bond condition, and current status.
- For a felony or probation matter, call the Twelfth Circuit Court office and the Circuit Clerk at (601) 582-3213.
- For a county citation or limited criminal case, call Justice Court Clerk Chris Selman at (601) 544-3136.
- For a city matter, call Hattiesburg Municipal Court at (601) 545-4933 or Petal Municipal Court at (601) 582-5351.
- When the court is unknown, call Forrest County Sheriff's dispatch at (601) 544-7800 and ask which agency entered the process.
- Email a written request to fcsorecords@co.forrest.ms.us when a document rather than an answer is what you need.
Forrest County Has No Name-Search Box
Every official Forrest County channel gives the same answer. No public form lets you type a name and get a warrant status. The Sheriff's Office posts a curated Most Wanted page. It also runs a records-request page and a Patrol page for its Warrants and Process Unit. None of them accepts a name and returns an answer. Mississippi has no statewide public warrant database either. A Forrest County warrant lookup is therefore a short list of named offices, each one answering for its own docket.
Warrant Search Fields Explained
Each Forrest County channel asks for something a bit different. The table lays out what the public channels accept and what each one returns.
| Channel | What It Asks For | What It Returns |
|---|---|---|
| Court clerk by phone | Legal name, birth date, case number | Status, bond, next setting, clerk instructions |
| Mississippi Electronic Courts | Registered account, then case lookup | Dockets, documents, and flags in participating courts |
| Sheriff's dispatch line | Name and the nature of the matter | Routing to the issuing court, not a warrant clearance |
| Sheriff's records request | Dates, names, case numbers | Non-exempt documents, after advance payment |
| Most Wanted page | No search field at all | A curated subset the Forrest County Sheriff publishes |
Forrest County Warrant Channels by Court
Forrest County is compact. Its warrant paperwork is not. The files sit in offices scattered across downtown Hattiesburg and out at Arena Drive, with two city dockets layered on top. Plenty of Forrest County residents assume one counter answers for everything; it does not.
- Four Justice Court districts cover the county outside city limits, each with its own judge but one shared clerk's office on Main Street.
- Two incorporated cities, Hattiesburg and Petal, run police departments and municipal courts with warrant files of their own.
- Circuit and County Court records sit at 630 Main Street, while Youth Court matters at 110 Alcorn Avenue stay restricted.
- Chancery Court on Main Street holds contempt and support process that never reaches a criminal docket.
- The Sheriff's Office and the Adult Detention Center sit apart from all of them at 55 Arena Drive.
Note: A citation may name a Justice Court district a Forrest County resident has never heard of, so read the district line on the ticket before calling.
What a Warrant Search Shows
Ask a Forrest County clerk for fields, not a verdict. Reading from the docket, the clerk can quote specific items. Those items let you plan the next step, so write each one down.
| Process label | Warrant, bench warrant, capias, or mittimus, in the court's own wording |
|---|---|
| Case or cause number | The docket identifier that ties the process to a charge |
| Issuing court and judge | The forum that signed it and therefore controls it |
| Issue date | When the judge signed, which is not when it was served |
| Status | A local code or a docket flag such as Capias Pending |
| Bond or condition | Amount or release terms if the judge set any |
| Next action | Payment, appearance, motion, or surrender as the court directs |
Forrest County Warrant Flags and Codes
Forrest County Circuit and County Courts joined Mississippi Electronic Courts on July 27, 2020, and the Twelfth District court information page publishes the flag vocabulary those dockets use. Flags are metadata. Each one marks a Forrest County case event. No flag proves a warrant is executable today.
The Twelfth Circuit court information page lists Forrest County addresses, hours, and the flag definitions.
- Bench Warrant Issued
- The docket records that a judge signed a bench warrant. Ask the clerk whether it was later returned or recalled.
- Capias Pending
- A custody process is open on the case. The Circuit Clerk can say whether it remains executable.
- MDOC Warrant Issued
- A corrections warrant sits behind the Forrest County case, which usually points to a probation or supervision matter.
- SEALED
- The public cannot view the file. A sealed flag says nothing about whether the process is live.
Where to Check Warrants in Forrest County
Three offices handle most Forrest County warrant traffic. Match the matter to the right counter. Then call before you drive over, because the Sheriff posts weekday afternoon hours and each court clerk keeps a separate schedule.
Forrest County Circuit Clerk
630 Main Street
Hattiesburg, MS 39401
(601) 582-3213
Forrest County Justice Court
700 Main Street
Hattiesburg, MS 39401
(601) 544-3136
Sheriff's Office, Warrants and Process
55 Arena Drive
Hattiesburg, MS 39401
(601) 544-7800
PAMEC and Forrest County Warrant Files
Public Access to Mississippi Electronic Courts is the paid route into participating Forrest County dockets. It is a court-records product, not a warrant search. Only courts that adopted the system appear. Registration demands a full identity profile and a payment method before any search.
The registration screen asks a non-attorney seeking Forrest County access to pick a user type and work through several required fields.
| Registration Item | Required | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| User type | Yes | Attorney, Non-Attorney, or Firm Administrator |
| Name, gender, date of birth | Yes | Middle name and suffix optional |
| Email and username | Yes | Email must be confirmed twice |
| Password | Yes | At least eight characters with a letter, number, and symbol |
| Mailing address and phone | Yes | The ZIP code fills in city and state |
| Security questions and captcha | Yes | Two questions, answers under 30 characters |
Non-attorney registration for Forrest County runs $10 a year. Result pages bill at $0.20 each, including a no-match, and usage is invoiced quarterly.
Restricted Warrants and Access Rules
Some Forrest County warrant material never reaches a public counter in Hattiesburg or anywhere else. The published PAMEC terms are blunt. Restricted cases and documents stay closed to public users. The judiciary also applies its own disclosure policy to court files rather than the general state records law.
The public-user terms spell out the restricted-case limit and the per-page billing in one block of text that binds Forrest County users too.
What stays out of reach: Youth Court and juvenile files, sealed cases, records tied to an open investigation, and search warrants that have not been executed or returned.
Mississippi Code §§ 25-61-1 through 25-61-17 gives the right of inspection but also carries the exemptions an agency can claim, so ask any office that says no to name the exemption in writing.
Empty Forrest County Warrant Search Results
A blank result proves little. The name may be spelled differently in the Forrest County record, a file may not have uploaded yet, the matter may sit in a city court outside the channel you checked, or the record may be restricted. None of that means no warrant exists. Work the gap on purpose. Try the name exactly as the citation spells it, and treat the published active-warrant material as a subset rather than a register. Note the date and the office you called. A Forrest County status ages fast. It is only as current as the moment a clerk read it aloud.
Do not treat silence as clearance. A dispatcher who finds nothing, a clerk who checks one docket, and a vendor screen that shows no balance are each answering a narrower question than the one you asked.