Small charges stay local. Magistrates and city judges, together called summary courts, can try any offense punished by no more than a $500 fine, 30 days in jail, or both (S.C. Code 22-3-550; S.C. Code 14-25-65). Shoplifting of $2,000 or less also stays with them, with a fine as high as $1,000 (S.C. Code 16-13-110). These judges handle bond hearings and preliminary hearings, too.

Felonies and higher misdemeanors climb to the Court of General Sessions, the criminal arm of the circuit court, which meets at 102 Court Square, Abbeville, SC 29620. Greenwood, Laurens and Newberry join this county in the 8th Judicial Circuit (S.C. Code 14-5-610). Venue follows the crime, so a trial is held in the county where things happened.

• Clerk of Court for General Sessions, Family Court and civil filings: Abbeville County Courthouse, 102 Court Square, Room 103, Abbeville, SC 29620. Call 864-366-5312 and ask for the Clerk of Court. Hours are 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday to Friday. Letters go to P.O. Box 99, Abbeville, SC 29620.
• Magistrate Court, the single magistrate office for the county: Law Enforcement Center, 21 Old Calhoun Falls Road, Abbeville, SC 29620, 864-446-6500. Weekday hours match the clerk's. Bond court sits every day at 9:00 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Mail goes to P.O. Box 1156, Abbeville, SC 29620.
• Municipal Court for the city: 102 South Main Street, Abbeville, SC 29620, 864-366-1790.
• Federal cases: G. Ross Anderson, Jr. Federal Building, 315 South McDuffie Street, Anderson, SC 29624. Its paperwork runs through the Greenville clerk at 250 East North Street, Greenville, SC 29601, 864-241-2700.
• Town courts: Calhoun Falls, P.O. Box 246, Calhoun Falls, SC 29628, 864-418-8512; Due West, P.O. Box 278, Due West, SC 29639, 864-379-2385.

Yes. Three local governments keep a municipal court for town ordinance cases and minor state charges written by their officers.

• City municipal court, 102 South Main Street, Abbeville, SC 29620, 864-366-1790.
• Calhoun Falls Municipal Court, P.O. Box 246, Calhoun Falls, SC 29628, 864-418-8512. Phone to learn which building court meets in.
• Due West Municipal Court, P.O. Box 278, Due West, SC 29639, 864-379-2385. Town Hall sits at 103 Main Street, Due West, SC 29639, open weekdays 9:00 a.m. to noon and 1:00 to 5:00 p.m.

For a ticket from Donalds, Lowndesville or an unincorporated road, ask the Magistrate Court at 864-446-6500 where the case will be heard.

Within 24 hours of arrest, every person sees a judge about bond (S.C. Code 22-5-510). Locally that is the magistrate's bond court, held daily at 9:00 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Here is what goes on:

• Before or during the hearing, officers must hand over the rap sheet, open charges and any existing bonds (S.C. Code 22-5-510(E)).
• Victims are entitled to advance notice, and the floor is theirs if they want to talk (S.C. Code 16-3-1525).
• The judge picks the bond type, any amount and the release rules. A charge that can carry death or life gets passed to a circuit judge.

Charges too big for magistrate court can also get a preliminary hearing, where a magistrate tests if the state has enough proof to keep going. A court rule sets 10 days from bond court as the deadline to ask (Rule 2(a), SCRCrimP), and the local Magistrate Court wants its form back by then, so move fast. Pick up the form by calling 864-446-6500.

Most minor cases begin and end in the Magistrate Court or a town court. Pleading guilty and taking the case to trial are both options. When a magistrate case goes to a jury, six people decide (S.C. Code 22-3-545).

• Simple assault and battery, third degree: up to $500, 30 days, or both (S.C. Code 16-3-600(E)(2)).
• Shoplifting at $2,000 or under: up to $1,000, 30 days, or both, in summary court (S.C. Code 16-13-110).
• Classed misdemeanors are heavier. Class A tops out at three years, Class B at two and Class C at one (S.C. Code 16-1-20). Those climb to General Sessions.

Some people can earn a dismissal through the Solicitor. Young people from 17 up to their 21st birthday, with a clean alcohol record, may fit the Alcohol Education Program, which costs $250 (S.C. Code 17-22-520 and 17-22-550). Certain traffic tickets fit the Traffic Education Program. The Solicitor's diversion staff answer at 864-942-8800.

1. Booking at the Detention Center, 21 Old Calhoun Falls Road, Abbeville, SC 29620.
2. A bond hearing inside 24 hours, before a magistrate or, for the gravest charges, a circuit judge.
3. A preliminary hearing in magistrate court, if the defense asks for one.
4. Transfer to General Sessions, where the 8th Circuit Solicitor's Office builds every docket for this courthouse.
5. An ending: dismissal, diversion, a guilty plea or a trial.

Class A felonies cap at 30 years, and the ceiling drops by five years with each later letter, down to 5 years for Class F (S.C. Code 16-1-20). Larger shoplifting is a felony too, up to five years past $2,000 and up to ten years at $10,000 or more.

A first arrest on a nonviolent charge may open the door to Pretrial Intervention (PTI); ask the Solicitor's Office. It costs a $100 application fee and a $250 participation fee, $350 total, with waivers for people who are indigent (S.C. Code 17-22-110). Completing PTI ends in a noncriminal disposition (S.C. Code 17-22-150), after which an expungement request is possible. The 8th Circuit also runs a Drug Court and a Veterans Court.

South Carolina keeps a list of violent crimes in S.C. Code 16-1-60, among them attempted murder, voluntary manslaughter, kidnapping, carjacking and first- or second-degree arson and burglary. Landing on that list matters in four ways:

• Bond. The magistrate has discretion to set it or withhold it. Murder, and any other charge exposing someone to life or execution, goes to a circuit judge for bond.
• Diversion. PTI is closed to anyone accused of a crime on the violent list (S.C. Code 17-22-50).
• Second arrests. Rearrested on another violent or firearm felony while out on an earlier bond? The first bond is cancelled automatically (S.C. Code 17-15-55(C)). Committing the violent crime during that release adds a stand-alone felony count worth up to five years (S.C. Code 17-15-270).
• Penalties. For murder, the punishment is death or 30 years up to life (S.C. Code 16-3-20(A)).

Youths 14 through 16 accused of serious felonies may also face transfer to adult court (S.C. Code 63-19-1210).

• 8th Circuit Solicitor's Office, which prosecutes General Sessions cases: courthouse office at 102 Court Square, Room 107, Abbeville, SC 29620, 864-366-5312. Headquarters are at 222 Phoenix Street, 2nd Floor, Greenwood, SC 29648, 864-942-8800. Website: scsolicitor8.gov.
• Public defender for this county, run out of the Greenwood office: 528 Monument Street, Greenwood, SC 29646, 864-229-9505.
• South Carolina Commission on Indigent Defense, the statewide agency: 1330 Lady Street, Suite 401, Columbia, SC 29201, 803-734-1343.

To qualify for a free lawyer, the person signs a sworn money statement (S.C. Code 17-3-45). A $40 application fee is due, though the clerk may shrink or erase it for someone without the means (S.C. Code 17-3-30).

The Clerk of Court links the state Judicial Branch court rosters for this county. To use them:

1. Accept the disclaimer on the first screen.
2. Choose a Court Agency, such as General Sessions or the Magistrate Court.
3. Choose a Roster Type, then a Begin Date, and read down the list for the name.

Rosters show court dates, not where someone is jailed. By phone, the Clerk of Court at 864-366-5312 handles General Sessions and Family Court, and the Magistrate Court at 864-446-6500 handles bond, ticket and summary cases. Bring a case number if you have one.

Sheriff's deputies, based at 21 Old Calhoun Falls Road, Abbeville, SC 29620, handle warrant service across the county; call 864-446-6000 and ask for warrants. City police serve them inside city limits at 864-366-5017. For statewide fugitives, see the Most Wanted Offenders list (tips 888-761-6175) while federal fugitives are posted through the U.S. Marshals 15 Most Wanted program. Clerks at either court will search a name if you call or stop by. Clearing a warrant means walking into the issuing court with your lawyer, or phoning it to request a fresh date: the Magistrate Court at 864-446-6500, or the Clerk of Court, 102 Court Square, Room 103, Abbeville, SC 29620, 864-366-5312.

This county's federal crimes go to the Greenwood Division of the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina, which hears cases in Anderson, Greenville or Spartanburg. Its nearest courtroom: G. Ross Anderson, Jr. Federal Building, 315 South McDuffie Street, Anderson, SC 29624. Filings and calls go to the clerk in Greenville, 250 East North Street, Greenville, SC 29601, 864-241-2700.

• The detention hearing, where release gets argued, takes place at the first appearance (18 U.S.C. 3142). A defense request can postpone it by five days at most; a prosecution request, by three.
• Deputy U.S. Marshals hold defendants until trial. Their Greenville office is at 300 East Washington Street, Room 232, Greenville, SC 29601, 864-232-1566, and can say which jail has the person.
• Following a prison sentence, the Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate locator shows where they serve it.

Yes. An ICE detainer can keep the person locked up even as the state case moves along. In order:

1. ICE's detainer, written on Form I-247A, asks the Old Calhoun Falls Road jail to keep the person.
2. Once state charges would let the person go, the jail may hold them up to 48 hours after they would otherwise be released (8 CFR 287.7(d)).
3. Within that window, ICE officers pick the person up.
4. Family can then look for them in the ICE Online Detainee Locator.
5. ICE's South Carolina office: 3950 Faber Place Drive, North Charleston, SC 29405, 843-746-9800.

On the state side, within 72 hours of a criminal booking (S.C. Code 23-3-1100), the jail verifies immigration status and reports any unlawful presence to Homeland Security. That status is also part of the bond decision, since judges look at unlawful presence and the chance of flight (S.C. Code 22-5-510(D)(4)). Mention immigration status to the defense lawyer early, well ahead of any plea deal.

Short terms, three months or less, are usually spent in the county jail (S.C. Code 24-3-30). Longer terms go to the South Carolina Department of Corrections (SCDC), which decides the place. Now and then that is a county jail by agreement (S.C. Code 24-3-20). In 2019, SCDC's own list named the county prison camp as one such site, for state inmates on local public works; call the Detention Center at 864-446-6200 to ask whether it is still in use.

• Intake comes first: reception and evaluation, with no in-person visiting until it ends, unless it lasts longer than 30 days.
• Next, SCDC sends the person to an assigned prison.
• Find them on the SCDC inmate search, current as of the prior midnight.
• SCDC is based at 4444 Broad River Road, Columbia, SC 29210, 803-896-8500. For free custody alerts, use the SC VINE line at 866-727-2846.
• For the full list of facilities, open our South Carolina state prisons guide.

Family Court hears cases against children under 18. Not covered: 17-year-olds accused of Class A-D felonies, or of any felony capped at 15 years or more, whose cases start in adult court (S.C. Code 63-19-20(1)). Between ages 14 and 16, serious felony cases can be bound over, after a hearing, to General Sessions (S.C. Code 63-19-1210).

• A Department of Juvenile Justice worker must answer within an hour to say whether detention is needed (S.C. Code 63-19-810).
• Youth held in secure detention go to the state Juvenile Detention Complex, 1725 Shivers Road, Columbia, SC 29210, 803-896-9440 (visitation line).
• The county's DJJ office: 102 Court Square, Abbeville, SC 29620, 864-366-5312.

Parents sign the public defender form for a child and owe its fee (S.C. Code 17-3-45).

The state constitution gives victims a voice (S.C. Const. art. I, § 24). They are owed timely notice of the arrest, plus the bond hearing, so they can attend and speak. A judge has to put off a bond hearing when the notice came too late (S.C. Code 16-3-1525).

• The Sheriff's Office victim advocate works at 21 Old Calhoun Falls Road, Abbeville, SC 29620, 864-446-6061.
• Sign up for SC VINE custody alerts at no charge, in Spanish or English, on VINELink South Carolina, or dial 866-727-2846 to register.
• For state-level support, contact the Attorney General's Victim Advocacy Division, 1000 Assembly Street, Room 519, Columbia, SC 29201, 803-737-3739.

Anyone on the defendant's side must keep clear of the victim, and nobody should relay notes or messages. Contact like that can break bond conditions.