Court portal, certified copy fees, and expungement laws for South Dakota
In South Dakota, an eviction (forcible entry and detainer) record lives with the Magistrate Court or Circuit Court in the county where the rental sits, because both levels of the Unified Judicial System handle landlord-tenant filings. There is no statewide public eviction portal you can search from home. Online access is limited, so most people who want a copy of a case file end up calling, writing, or visiting the county clerk of courts in person. Plan for a county-by-county hunt rather than one searchable database.
South Dakota also has no statutory right to expunge or seal an eviction record. Once a case is filed, it generally stays in the court file and can surface in tenant-screening reports for years. That makes it doubly important to read any record carefully: knowing where the file lives and how to interpret what it actually says is the difference between a fair screening decision and an unfair one.
Start with the county. Because there is no statewide search tool, you pull eviction records from the Magistrate Court or Circuit Court clerk in the county where the property is located. Contact the clerk of courts for that county and ask how they handle eviction (forcible entry and detainer) file requests, since online access is limited and often routed through in-person or written requests.
Bring what narrows the search: the tenant's full legal name, the rental address, and an approximate filing date. The clerk can confirm whether a case exists, let you review the file, and produce copies. If you need a record that will stand up in a screening dispute or another court matter, ask for a certified copy rather than a plain printout.
The single most important field in any eviction file is the disposition. A case being filed only means a landlord started an action; it does not mean the tenant lost. Cases get dismissed, settled, or resolved in the tenant's favor all the time.
A filing is not a judgment — do not treat the mere existence of a record as proof a tenant was evicted. Check whether the court entered a judgment for possession, whether it was for the landlord or the tenant, and whether the matter was dismissed or voluntarily withdrawn. Note money judgments separately from possession orders. In South Dakota, where files may need to be reviewed at the counter, take the time to read the docket entries through to the final order before drawing any conclusion about a renter's history.
South Dakota has no statutory eviction-record expungement or sealing right. There is no dedicated process a tenant can file to wipe a forcible entry and detainer case off the public record, so these filings tend to persist in the county court file.
For landlords, that permanence raises the FCRA stakes. If you order a tenant-screening report through a consumer reporting agency, the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act governs how you use it: provide an adverse-action notice when a report factors into a denial, and judge each record on its real disposition, not its headline. Screening companies sometimes report stale, mismatched, or dismissed cases. Verify questionable hits against the actual county court file before acting, and apply your criteria consistently to every applicant.
Because South Dakota offers no expungement or sealing statute for eviction records, tenants have fewer formal remedies than renters in states with a sealing law. The practical defense is accuracy. Get a copy of your own file from the Magistrate Court or Circuit Court clerk and confirm the disposition is recorded correctly — a dismissal or a ruling in your favor should be reflected as such.
If a screening company misreports your record (wrong person, wrong outcome, a dismissed case shown as a judgment), the Fair Credit Reporting Act gives you the right to dispute it directly with that consumer reporting agency, which must investigate. Keeping a certified copy of the correct court outcome on hand makes those disputes far easier to win.
Compiled by the Eviction Risk Map research team from the South Dakota Unified Judicial System (Magistrate and Circuit Courts) and clerk-of-courts records practices; South Dakota has no statutory eviction-expungement law as of this review. This page is general information, not legal advice — confirm current procedures and fees with the relevant county clerk of courts and consult a South Dakota attorney for your situation. Last reviewed June 2026.
There is no statewide eviction portal, so you request records from the Magistrate Court or Circuit Court clerk of courts in the county where the rental is located. Online access is limited, so expect to call, write, or visit in person. Provide the tenant's full name, the rental address, and an approximate filing date to help the clerk locate the file.
Yes. Eviction (forcible entry and detainer) cases are part of the public court record in South Dakota and can be reviewed through the county clerk of courts. What's limited is convenient online access — there is no single statewide website to search them, so retrieval is generally handled county by county, often at the counter.
No. South Dakota has no statutory right to expunge or seal an eviction record, so a filing generally stays in the county court file. A tenant's best protection is accuracy: confirm the court file shows the correct disposition, and dispute any misreported entry with the screening company under the Fair Credit Reporting Act.
Certified copies run $0.25 per page. Confirm the exact total with the specific county clerk of courts before requesting, since longer case files mean more pages. Ask for a certified copy rather than a plain printout whenever you need the record for a screening dispute or another court proceeding.
Court portal information sourced from the South Dakota court administrative office official website. Expungement laws from published South Dakota statutes (see citations above). Last updated July 14, 2026. For informational purposes only, not legal advice.
