Every state in this country is required to maintain and make public records that are considered of interest to the public. The idea behind this is the government focusing on what is best for the people.

In order to evaluate each state's ability to reach such a goal, an association was created known as The Better Government Association. The job of this association is to rand the states based on how well they conformed to the idea of public court records.

Of all the states in the country, South Dakota court records rank at the bottom of the list. In addition, the state has received the lowest possible score every year since the association began analyzing the states.

So, what does this mean for you? Even though South Dakota court records have not conformed to the BGA's standards, most people searching for South Dakota court records will not be affected by their noncompliance.

The state government still collects information that it makes available to the public. However, if you are looking for something specific that is not requested often, you may not be able to find all of the data that you seek. Otherwise, you should be able to find just about anything you are looking for in South Dakota court records.

Where Should You Go For South Dakota Court Records?

The administrative services for the South Dakota Unified Judicial System are maintained by the South Dakota State Court Administrator's Office. Some of the data maintained by this office includes annual reports, judiciary messages, court opinions, court calendar, court rules and regulations, a guide to courts, councils and committees, as well as rules hearings.

If you are interested in obtaining access to South Dakota court records by going through the South Dakota State Administrator's Office, you can do so by using the statewide criminal record search program. All South Dakota court records are available using this system, except for juvenile records.

This office maintains court records through the circuit courts, the Lower Court of Appeals and the South Dakota Supreme Court. If you know which court oversees the South Dakota court records that you need, you will be off to a good start. Otherwise, your search may be long and frustrating.

South Dakota court records are maintained in order to keep track of all criminal and civil court case heard in the state. It is in the best interest of the public to be able to access these records for a number of different reasons from background checks to genealogy studies.

Fortunately, these days, searching through the thousands of public court records available is much easier than it has ever been. The reason for this is that a large number of South Dakota court records can be found by searching on the Internet. It does not matter if you are looking for court records pertaining to a criminal case or the reading of a will, you can save an enormous amount of time by searching through the online databases that are available to the public. The information you need is out there, you just have to willing to go find it.

• South Dakota Legislative Research Council

• South Dakota State Court Districts