Access Nelson County Circuit Court Clerk

Nelson County Circuit Court Clerk

The court-record clerk for Nelson County is the Circuit Court Clerk. The Kentucky Court of Justice county page names Diane Thompson as Circuit Court Clerk and lists the Office of Circuit Court Clerk at the Nelson County Justice Center. This office is the local access point for Circuit, Family, District, and Business Court case records heard in Nelson County. It is the office to contact for criminal cases, civil cases, divorces, traffic cases, probate court files, juvenile matters where access is allowed, small claims, and district-court misdemeanors.

The Kentucky Court of Justice records-request instructions are important because they state that the Administrative Office of the Courts does not maintain court case records. A requester must start with the clerk of the court that heard the case. For Nelson County, that means the Circuit Court Clerk for local court files. The clerk can also tell a requester whether an old file is in the local office, at a records facility, or destroyed under retention schedules. If a file is at the State Records Center, the requester must have case and file locator numbers from the circuit clerk.

Nelson County Clerk Duties

Nelson County has two clerk roles that matter for public records. The Circuit Court Clerk handles court files for Circuit, Family, District, and Business Court matters. The Nelson County Clerk is a separate elected county official for non-court records such as deeds, mortgages, marriage licensing, recorded wills, permanent records, motor-vehicle work, and elections. Mixing these two offices is the most common cause of a failed clerk records search.

• Court case files, certified case copies, divorce decrees, traffic cases, and probate court files start with the Circuit Court Clerk.
• Marriage licenses, recorded wills, deeds, mortgages, encumbrances, plats, and financing statements start with the Nelson County Clerk.
• Older court files may require locator numbers from the Circuit Court Clerk before the State Records Center can help.
• County clerk open-records requests may be hand-delivered, mailed, faxed, or emailed to the county clerk.

The Nelson County Clerk EZ Document Search page is one online route for recorded records rather than court case files.

Use that tool for land, marriage, and financing-statement searches, while court case records stay with the Circuit Court Clerk and KYeCourts channels.

Request Nelson County Certified Copies

Certified court copies may be needed for appeals, name changes, licensing, immigration, benefits, employment documentation, or proof of a court order. For a Nelson County case, the copy request should identify the case number if known, party names, case type, document requested, and whether certification is needed. Older files may take longer if the clerk must locate a physical file or supply State Records Center locator numbers.

1. Identify the court record: case number, party names, court level, case type, and document name.
2. Call or visit the Nelson County Circuit Court Clerk to confirm that the file is available and ask what copy or certification fees apply.
3. Submit the request with enough detail to distinguish the file from similar names or older cases.
4. Pay required fees and ask whether pickup, mail, or another delivery method is available.
5. For a recorded county clerk record instead of a court case, use the Nelson County Clerk's office or document-search channels.

Payment rules at the Justice Center are specific. In-person payments are accepted at Window #1 by cash, money order, check, credit card, or debit card, with processing fees for card payments. A drop box sits to the left of the Justice Center front entrance and is checked weekdays at 8 a.m.; drop-box payments must be check or money order payable to Nelson Circuit Clerk and should include the citation or case number.

Nelson County Records Request Fields

The captured formal request-field inventory comes from the Nelson County Clerk open-records policy and form. Court case records still start with the Circuit Court Clerk, but the county clerk form is the right written request route for county clerk records. It shows what Nelson County expects when a public-records request is made in writing.

The county clerk open-records policy says the office determines within five working days, excluding weekends and legal holidays. Noncommercial document requests are listed at $0.50 per copy unless a statutory fee schedule applies, and fees plus postage are paid in advance.

For court case files, a written request should still include the same kind of identifying detail even when the county clerk form is not the form being used. Names alone can be weak search keys in older or common-name files. A case number, filing year, court level, document title, and party role give the Circuit Court Clerk a better chance to locate the correct record without confusing civil, criminal, traffic, divorce, or probate files.

Nelson County Clerk Fees

County clerk recording fees are useful for recorded wills and permanent records, while Circuit Court Clerk copy and filing fees should be verified with the court clerk because civil filing fees were scheduled to change on July 1, 2026. Premium online recorded-record access also has visible subscription pricing through the county clerk's vendor.

The Nelson County Clerk Premium Document Search page describes the subscription route for recorded county records.

Premium access is for recorded county clerk documents, not a substitute for Circuit Court Clerk court case copies.

The premium vendor portal shows the subscription account path for Nelson County recorded documents.

The vendor portal should be treated as gated recorded-record access because full use requires account and payment steps.

Nelson County Clerk Forms

Different forms apply to different clerk functions. Court forms, including divorce, probate, expungement, and other AOC forms, come through Kentucky Court of Justice. County clerk open-records and recording forms come through the Nelson County Clerk. The research also captured county jail pages assigned in the image manifest to this clerk page; those are not clerk forms, but they do document adjacent county record channels such as mail and canteen records for jail-related matters.

• Kentucky Court of Justice legal forms - court forms for probate, divorce, expungement, and other AOC filings.
• Nelson County Clerk open-records form - written requests for county clerk records.
• Recording format standards - formatting rules for recorded documents.

The EZ Document Search vendor portal is the direct vendor side of the county clerk's easier recorded-record search.

Use the county clerk's own pages first when deciding whether EZ or Premium access is the better route for a recorded document search.

Mail and Online Nelson County Clerk Access

Nelson County court case access has three main channels: KYeCourts guest public-records search, the local Circuit Court Clerk for full files and certified copies, and registered KYeCourts applications for authorized users. County clerk record access has a different set of channels: in-office public viewing, EZ Document Search, Premium Document Search, and written open-records requests by hand delivery, mail, fax, or email. The county clerk open-records address is 113 E. Stephen Foster Ave., Bardstown, KY 40004; fax requests use 502-348-1863; email requests use nelsoncountyclerk@ky.gov.

The assigned manifest also includes Nelson County Correctional Center mail and canteen pages. Those pages are not clerk offices, but they matter when a person is trying to separate court, county clerk, sheriff, and jail records after one event. Jail mail rules and canteen records belong to the correctional center, not the Circuit Court Clerk or County Clerk.

Online access also depends on the record system. KYeCourts public access can show public case information for Kentucky courts, while county clerk document searches are vendor tools for recorded records. The premium recorded-record portal may be useful for frequent title, land, marriage, financing-statement, or recorded-will searches, but it does not replace clerk-counter help for certified court copies or older case files.

The Nelson County jail canteen page documents the jail money channel separately from clerk payments or court costs.

That source helps keep jail deposits separate from court payments and county clerk recording fees.

The Nelson County jail mail page documents another county record channel that does not belong to the clerk offices.

The mail rules are useful for jail-related records, while certified case copies and recorded documents still follow their clerk-specific paths.