Roane County Court Docket Searches
Start at the official West Virginia Court Records Access page. That page splits Roane County Circuit Court records in WVPASS from Magistrate Court records. Circuit records live in WVPASS; Magistrate Court records live in MCRSearch. A party name alone can work in a docket search. But a case number helps, and so do the court level, a filing year, and a known event date. Together they make the match far more reliable.
- Read the citation, notice, or prior order to identify Circuit, Family, Magistrate, or municipal court.
- Choose WVPASS for a public circuit matter or MCRSearch for a public magistrate matter.
- Search with a party name or case number and confirm Roane County and the expected court.
- Read the header, parties, dated entries, event schedule, and disposition in order.
- Contact the proper clerk for a missing record, current setting, inspection, or certified copy.
Online search is just one channel. You can also call the Circuit or Magistrate Clerk. You can inspect eligible files at the office during posted business hours, or mail a written request. Keep it focused. A formal West Virginia Freedom of Information Act request goes to the office that actually holds the court record. When a hearing is close, compare the portal against the written notice. Then confirm directly with the court.
Two Roane County Docket Portals
The official access landing page presents West Virginia's two trial-court search paths.
WVPASS holds public Circuit Court civil and criminal cases from July 1, 1999 forward. Browsing case details is free. Public document pages cost 25 cents each plus a card fee. MCRSearch covers Magistrate Court information and takes a first name, last name, or case number. It returns up to 30 records but shows no document images.
| System | Search input | Result |
|---|---|---|
| WVPASS | Party, case number, other filters | Case detail and paid public images |
| MCRSearch | First name, last name, case number | Events, charges, judgments, entries |
| Clerk | Court, case, document, date range | Inspection, copies, certification |
Court Dockets: What They Show
A docket is the court's ordered list of activity. It points to pleadings, notices, orders, and events, yet it is not always the whole file. A brief status line can even lag behind a newer signed order, so read with care.
| Case number | The court identifier, often including a year and case type. |
|---|---|
| Parties | Plaintiff and defendant, petitioner and respondent, or State and defendant, plus attorneys. |
| Filings | Complaint, answer, motion, response, service, order, judgment, and appeal entries. |
| Settings | Event, date, time, place, judge, and event status when supplied. |
| Court | County, court level, judicial officer, and sometimes courtroom. |
| Disposition | Dismissal, plea, conviction, judgment, nonsuit, sentence, satisfaction, or appeal. |
The entry date and the event date are not the same thing. Read a Roane County docket from the first filing to the newest activity instead of trusting one line.
Roane County Docket E-Filing History
Roane County joined statewide Circuit and Family Court E-Filing on March 1, 2019. Registered filers use West Virginia E-File. Public readers use WVPASS. The systems play related roles, but an E-File sign-on is not the general public search. WVPASS opened statewide public circuit documents in March 2025. It works on mobile devices and current browsers. Downloads are not certified. Purchase-history access lasts 30 days, and there is no bulk download or update alert. Email verification and two-factor authentication are required. Only one session may run at a time. CourtOne is planned to replace the separate Circuit, Family, and Magistrate systems. That announcement does not mean today's WVPASS and MCRSearch paths have changed. Keep using the live Judiciary access page.
Roane County Courts and Their Dockets
West Virginia assigns every dispute to a court level. Circuit Court is the general-jurisdiction court of record, while Family Court handles domestic relations and Magistrate Court handles limited civil and criminal work. Municipal courts, where established, handle city ordinances.
| Court | Docket covers | Search |
|---|---|---|
| Roane Circuit Court | Felonies, major civil, equity, appeals | WVPASS and Andrea Stockner |
| Family Court | Divorce, custody, support, domestic relations | Circuit Clerk or family judge office |
| Roane Magistrate Court | Misdemeanors, traffic, preliminary stages, small claims, civil up to $10,000 | MCRSearch and Cynthia Morgan |
| Municipal court | City ordinance matters named on a citation | City custodian; Circuit Court if appealed |
Roane Circuit Court sits in the Fifth Judicial Circuit with Calhoun, Jackson, and Mason. Family Court groups Roane with Calhoun, Gilmer, and Ritchie. So a judicial contact may sit outside Spencer, even though the local clerk keeps the court file.
Two Roane County Docket Offices
Circuit Clerk Andrea Stockner keeps Circuit and Family records. The office sits at 200 Main Street, P.O. Box 122, Spencer, WV 25276, phone 304-927-2750. Magistrate Clerk Cynthia L. Morgan keeps the magistrate civil, criminal, traffic, small-claims, and safety-petition files. Her office is at 208 Court Street, Spencer, WV 25276, phone 304-927-4750.
Roane County Circuit Clerk
200 Main Street, P.O. Box 122
Spencer, WV 25276
304-927-2750
Roane Magistrate Court Clerk
208 Court Street
Spencer, WV 25276
304-927-4750
The county posts no terminal count, counter room, parking plan, local request email, or fixed counter schedule. Check posted hours before you make the trip.
Court Dates and Settings in Roane County
Roane County has no separate public daily-calendar portal. MCRSearch can show event type, date, time, location, magistrate, and status. WVPASS can show circuit notices, orders, and entries. For a close or conflicting date, the written notice plus a call to the office remains safer. Circuit terms begin on the fourth Tuesday of January, May, and September under Trial Court Rule 2.05. But a term does not assign a case hearing. Return days, arraignments, motion hearings, conferences, trials, sentencing, and reviews are all case-specific. A continuance only moves a setting; it does not dismiss the case. Check the newest order and call the court. The Roane County court schedule explains settings and emergency closure checks.
Roane County Docket Caseload Snapshot
The 2024 Judiciary report counted 224 Circuit criminal filings, 160 Circuit civil filings, and 69 juvenile filings. Family Court recorded 80 divorces, 35 domestic-violence filings, and 16 other domestic-relations filings. Add 3 modifications and 14 contempt proceedings.
Magistrate Court recorded 121 felony-stage filings, 1,219 misdemeanors, and 115 small claims. Those are category counts, not conviction or person totals. They also show why both portals matter when a case changes stage or is appealed.
Docket Access Under West Virginia Law
Public court information stays open through the custodian, subject to statutes, rules, and case orders. Access does not mean every document appears online.
Key rules:
W. Va. Code § 51-4-2 provides copies unless access is specially limited.
W. Va. Code § 29B-1-4 recognizes confidentiality exemptions.
Trial Court Rules 10.03, 10.04, and 15A.24 govern limits, inspection, copying, and private identifiers.
Family Court Rule 6 protects many family filings and recordings.
Sealed matters, juvenile, adoption, abuse-and-neglect, family, and private data may be hidden from view. A missing result does not prove that no file exists.
Missing Roane County Docket Results
Check the spelling, number, year, county, and court. MCRSearch caps results at 30 and requires a CAPTCHA, and its official entry screen states those limits on the page.
The portal does not promise a complete civil or criminal history. Magistrate documents come from Cynthia Morgan. Public circuit cases before July 1999 fall to Andrea Stockner. The same goes for any unavailable public documents. Ask whether the matter is archived, recent, non-public, or filed in another court.
How the Clerk Keeps Docket Records
The Circuit Clerk maintains docket sheets, filings, process, orders, judgments, fees, and inspection facilities. The Magistrate Clerk keeps the separate limited-jurisdiction file. A good request names the court, case, style, document, date range, plain or certified status, and delivery contact.
| Service | Amount |
|---|---|
| WVPASS detail | Free |
| WVPASS document | $0.25/page plus card fee |
| Magistrate copy | $0.25/page |
| Circuit copy leaving office | $1/page |
| Certification | Local amount not located; ask clerk |
Roane publishes no certification form or routine turnaround, so ask for the current total and method before sending payment.
Older Roane County Docket Records
Three courthouses have stood on one Spencer site over the years. They went up in 1856, 1887, and 1965. Fire took the first two. Every record inside them went with the flames. So an old Roane County court docket may be missing from any database or archive for reasons having nothing to do with your search. The reasons themselves have nothing to do with your search. A failed modern name lookup is never proof that a nineteenth-century case failed to exist.
For current cases, the official WVPASS login is the public access point for the Circuit Court docket. That page spells out the terms of entry.
WVPASS coverage begins on July 1, 1999, and that date marks the portal's edge, not a retention cutoff. Plenty of older Roane County court records survive on paper, microfilm, or in archive storage. They sit outside any online docket search. Ask the Circuit Clerk whether staff must pull such a file by hand and whether you should call ahead. The county publishes no retrieval timetable and makes no promise that every old index has been digitized.
Registration is free. The portal verifies by email and two-factor authentication. It allows one active session and works in current browsers and on phones. Browsing case details costs nothing. You can confirm the right case before paying for pages. Downloads run 25 cents per page plus a small card fee. They stay in your purchase history for 30 days. A broken download can be retried without paying twice. There is no bulk download tool and no alert when a case updates.
A portal download is not a certified copy. For an official purpose, give Andrea Stockner the case number, case style, approximate year, and the exact filing you need. Then ask for certification steps and the current total. The clerk sets Roane-specific certification pricing on request. If the original burned in a courthouse fire, ask what substitute indexes or related public records remain. Do not ask staff to recreate a document.
Genealogy may push you toward state archives, libraries, land books, newspapers, and appellate reports once the trial file is gone. Those sources can show a proceeding happened. They cannot stand in for an original court order. A request that names the index entry, docket sheet, filed document, or certified copy you want gives the clerk a far clearer task. That clarity makes the clerk's job far easier.
A portal date limit and a courthouse fire are different gaps, so ask which one affects the record.
Roane County Treatment Court Dockets
The Fifth Circuit Treatment Court covers Roane and Calhoun and opened in 2020. Judge Anita Ashley sits at 304-927-2372. The coordinator sits at 304-927-2145. The docket handles addiction and mental-health problems tied to criminal conduct.
The public record stays the underlying circuit criminal case. WVPASS may display a plea, order, probation entry, or treatment entry. Treatment plans, health data, assessments, and participant details do not become public just because the base case does. Read any treatment entry alongside the charge, plea, and sentencing order. Check later supervision entries as well. Confidential clinical material stays confidential.
The program page posts no current length, full eligibility list, or participant calendar. It does exclude registered sex offenders and anyone with a prior violent felony conviction. That excludes no assumptions about any named person. Send program questions to the program offices and record requests to the Circuit Clerk. When an order is not downloadable, note its docket date and title. That helps separate it from protected treatment material.
City-by-City Court Dockets in Roane County
Only Spencer and Reedy appear as incorporated places in Roane County on the 2020 Census. A town name may hint at where something happened or how a ticket routes, but county cases still run through statewide systems for any Roane County court docket search.
Spencer Court Records
Population 2,063 · Ordinances establish a Municipal Court, but no general online docket was located.
Reedy Court Records
Population 150 · No town portal was located, so county cases use MCRSearch and the Magistrate Clerk.
Spencer's parking payment page is not a full municipal search. For Reedy, follow the citation itself; a municipal or magistrate appeal can later open a WVPASS Circuit Court docket.
Map and Directions to the Roane County Courthouse
Circuit and Family Court records are kept at the Roane County Courthouse, 200 Main Street in Spencer, the third courthouse built on that same site after the county's first two courthouses burned. Circuit Clerk Andrea Stockner's office is here; the separate Magistrate Clerk's office is a few blocks away at 208 Court Street. Confirm which office holds the file before choosing a counter.
Roane County Courthouse
200 Main Street, P.O. Box 122
Spencer, WV 25276
304-927-2750
No official source publishes a Roane counter schedule, parking plan, or terminal count, so calling ahead to confirm posted hours before a trip is the safer approach.