Size decides the courtroom. Tickets and petty charges stay in the neighborhood courts, while felonies rise to the circuit.

• Summary courts. That means the two magistrate offices and the four town courts. They try charges punished by no more than $500, 30 days, or both (S.C. Code 22-3-550; S.C. Code 14-25-65). A $2,000-or-under shoplifting case also fits, with fines as high as $1,000 (S.C. Code 16-13-110). Juries there seat six people (S.C. Code 22-3-545).
• The Court of General Sessions. The county nicknames it Criminal Court. All felonies come here, along with the heavier misdemeanors, and cases are tried in the county where the offense took place.

Magistrates handle more than trials. They run bond hearings and the preliminary hearings for bigger cases too. Not sure which court has yours? The Clerk of Court can sort it out at 843-398-4330.

Each office below opens weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

• Clerk of Court, who files for the circuit and Family Court benches, 110 N. Main Street, Darlington, SC 29532, 843-398-4330. The support desk for Family Court answers at 843-398-4333.
• Darlington Magistrate Office, 115 Camp Road, Darlington, SC 29532, 854-267-7670.
• Hartsville Magistrate Office, 404 South 4th Street, Hartsville, SC 29550, 854-267-7543.
• Federal court (Florence Division): McMillan Federal Building, 401 West Evans Street, Florence, SC 29501, 843-676-3820.

The two magistrate offices split the county by area, and a case goes to whichever one covers the spot where the offense happened. One magistrate is always on call after closing time.

Four towns do. Each municipal court handles tickets and minor charges from its own officers, and its judge may also set and accept bond (S.C. Code 14-25-115).

• Darlington Municipal Court, City Hall, 400 Pearl Street, Darlington, SC 29532, 843-398-4004. City Hall opens weekdays, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pay a city ticket on the city's online citation site, or by phone at 877-794-1145.
• Hartsville Municipal Court, PO Drawer 2497, Hartsville, SC 29551, 843-383-3008.
• Lamar Municipal Court, PO Box 267, Lamar, SC 29069, 843-326-7264. Its judge sits at Town Hall each third Monday. Tickets can be settled through the town's ticket payment page.
• Society Hill Municipal Court, PO Box 29, Society Hill, SC 29593, 843-378-4681.

When deputies or troopers write the charge outside town lines, the case belongs to a county magistrate.

The bond hearing comes first, and the law says it can't wait more than 24 hours (S.C. Code 22-5-510). A magistrate or town judge runs it. For its time and place, ring the jail office at 843-398-4220 during weekday hours, or 843-398-4920 at night.

• The arresting agency brings the judge a packet: past convictions, pending cases and any bond already in place (S.C. Code 22-5-510(E)).
• A victim gets advance word and a chance to talk (S.C. Code 16-3-1525).
• The judge picks bond or release terms. Speak up here if a public defender is needed.
• Facing a charge above the magistrate's limit? The defense has 10 days after this hearing to demand a preliminary hearing (Rule 2(a), SCRCrimP).

That later preliminary hearing also takes place in magistrate court. Its only question is whether the state has enough evidence to move the charge up to General Sessions.

Most minor cases end at a magistrate or town court window. The accused can plead guilty and pay, or ask for a trial. The judge can hear it alone, or six jurors can. Two common local charges:

• Assault and battery, third degree: fines reach $500, jail reaches 30 days, or both (S.C. Code 16-3-600(E)(2)).
• Shoplifting, $2,000 or less: fines reach $1,000, jail reaches 30 days, or both (S.C. Code 16-13-110(B)).

Heavier misdemeanors climb to General Sessions. There, a Class A misdemeanor can bring three years, B two and C one (S.C. Code 16-1-20).

A first slip-up can sometimes be wiped away. The Solicitor offers a Traffic Education Program for small tickets and an Alcohol Education Program for ages 17 through 20 with no earlier alcohol offense. That second one costs $250, which can be reduced (S.C. Code 17-22-550).

Picture a felony as five stops:

1. Arrest and bond. A magistrate handles bond inside a day. Death or life charges wait for a circuit judge.
2. Preliminary hearing. Asked for in time, it lets a magistrate test the evidence.
3. General Sessions. The Fourth Circuit Solicitor now runs the prosecution. Local appearance dates and full term weeks sit on the Solicitor's court dates page.
4. Plea or trial. The charge may be dropped, settled by a guilty plea, or put to a jury at the courthouse.
5. Sentence. Class sets the ceiling. F means 5 years at most; E, 10; D, 15; C, 20; B, 25; A, 30 (S.C. Code 16-1-20).

First-time, nonviolent defendants can ask about Pretrial Intervention, known as PTI. Completing it ends in a dismissal, after which expungement can be sought (S.C. Code 17-22-150). It costs $100 to apply plus $250 to join, and either fee may be waived (S.C. Code 17-22-110).

Several. South Carolina keeps a closed list of violent offenses. Murder, kidnapping, armed robbery, carjacking and first- or second-degree burglary all appear on it (S.C. Code 16-1-60).

• Bond. A judge can refuse bond on a listed crime (S.C. Const. art. I, § 15). When death or life is possible, bond belongs to a circuit judge alone.
• Arrested again on bond. A new violent or gun felony charge while out ends the existing bond at once, and circuit court reviews it inside 30 days (S.C. Code 17-15-55(C)). Doing a violent crime during a violent-crime bond is its own felony, punishable by five years (S.C. Code 17-15-270).
• PTI is closed. Violent charges and DUI can't enter it (S.C. Code 17-22-50).
• Murder. Death, or 30 years up to life (S.C. Code 16-3-20(A)).

Ask the Solicitor's Office how a violent case will proceed: 843-398-4300.

The Fourth Circuit Solicitor brings General Sessions cases for this county, plus Chesterfield, Dillon and Marlboro. Its local office is at 1 Public Square, Room 410, Darlington, SC 29532, 843-398-4300. People whose charges grow out of addiction can ask about its Adult Drug Court.

Low-income defendants are represented by the public defender at 300 Russell Street, Suite 113, Darlington, SC 29532, 843-398-4069. Applying means swearing to your finances on a form and owing a $40 fee, which may be excused (S.C. Code 17-3-30). Above the local office stands the SC Commission on Indigent Defense, 1330 Lady Street, Suite 401, Columbia, SC 29201, 803-734-1343.

The Clerk of Court, 110 N. Main Street, Darlington, SC 29532, 843-398-4330, gives out case numbers, charges and dates on General Sessions files.

• Local appearance dates and trial weeks are posted on the Solicitor's court dates page.
• Minor charges are tracked by the magistrate holding them. Hartsville's office answers at 854-267-7543, the Camp Road office at 854-267-7670.
• Custody and bond show on the jail lookup. Court dates come from the offices above.

Keep a birth date handy when you call. With a case number, staff work faster.

Countywide, warrants are served by Sheriff's deputies from 1621 Harry Byrd Highway, Darlington, SC 29532, 843-398-4501, and inside towns by town police. Phone and request the Civil/Warrant Division. For people wanted statewide or nationally, look at the PPP Most Wanted Offenders list or the Marshals Service 15 Most Wanted list. Getting a warrant cleared means walking into the court that signed it, ideally beside a lawyer, or by phoning the court's clerk to get back on the calendar. Bench warrants in General Sessions belong to the Clerk of Court, 110 N. Main Street, Darlington, SC 29532, 843-398-4330.

Federal charges born here are heard by the Florence Division of the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina. That court sits in the McMillan Federal Building, 401 West Evans Street, Florence, SC 29501, 843-676-3820, weekdays 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

• The detention question gets settled at the very first federal hearing (18 U.S.C. 3142). Pauses are brief. Defense lawyers may get five days, prosecutors three.
• Before trial, the Marshals Service has custody. Its office in the same building is 401 West Evans Street, Suite 341, Florence, SC 29501, 843-662-0750.
• The Marshals rent space at the county Detention Center, so a federal defendant may wait in the local jail.
• Once sentenced, the person appears in the Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate locator.

It can. The detainer is a federal hold that may keep a person behind bars even after the state judge allows release. Steps:

1. The Campbell center gets ICE's hold request, Form I-247A.
2. Under that form, staff can keep the person up to 48 hours after they would otherwise be released (8 CFR 287.7(d)).
3. ICE collects the person in that window. If agents don't come, the hold lapses.
4. Search the ICE Online Detainee Locator. The A-number gives the surest match; name and native country are the fallback.
5. South Carolina's ICE office: 3950 Faber Place Drive, North Charleston, SC 29405, 843-746-9800.

A state statute also makes every jail run a 72-hour check on whether a newly booked defendant is lawfully in the country, and the Department of Homeland Security hears about anyone who isn't (S.C. Code 23-3-1100). At bond, the judge factors that in along with any flight risk (S.C. Code 22-5-510(D)(4)).

Short sentences, three months or under, normally stay with the county (S.C. Code 24-3-30). Per the county, its jail mainly holds people awaiting court, plus a few doing 90 days or less. Anything longer hands the person to the South Carolina Department of Corrections (SCDC), and SCDC chooses the place (S.C. Code 24-3-20).

• New SCDC arrivals go through reception and evaluation first. In-person family visits start when that step is finished, or after 30 days if it runs long.
• Certain state-sentenced men live at the county's Prison Camp, 200 Camp Road, Darlington, SC 29532, 843-398-4210. It is a minimum-security camp where the men hold county jobs and can work toward a GED.
• Check the SCDC incarcerated inmate search. SCDC headquarters: 4444 Broad River Road, Columbia, SC 29210, 803-896-8500.
• Each prison has its own listing in our South Carolina state prisons directory.

Probation belongs to a separate state agency, not the jail. Its office sits at 302 Russell Street, Darlington, SC 29532, 843-393-4741.

Under-18 charges start in Family Court (S.C. Code 63-19-20(1)), whose Clerk of Court line is 843-398-4333. Seventeen-year-olds accused of a Class A to D felony, or of a felony carrying at least 15 years, are the exception and face adult court.

• A Juvenile Justice worker must respond within an hour and say whether the child should be held (S.C. Code 63-19-810).
• A judge must review any detention within 48 hours, skipping weekends and holidays (S.C. Code 63-19-830).
• Teens 14 through 16 charged with grave felonies can be transferred to General Sessions after a waiver hearing (S.C. Code 63-19-1210).
• For some first offenses, the Solicitor offers Juvenile PTI and Community Juvenile Arbitration.

Juvenile Justice keeps a local office at 302 Russell St., Room 15, Darlington, SC 29532, 843-393-5641. Most detained youth statewide are taken to the Juvenile Detention Complex, 1725 Shivers Road, Columbia, SC 29210, 803-896-9440.

The state constitution lists victims' rights: notice of the arrest, a voice at bond hearings, and repayment for losses (S.C. Const. art. I, § 24). Police must try to warn them before the bond hearing, and the judge has to pause the hearing if that warning came late (S.C. Code 16-3-1525).

• The Solicitor's Victim Services team walks victims through each court date. Reach it through 843-398-4300.
• Sign up for custody alerts at VINELink South Carolina or 866-727-2846. Both are free and work in Spanish too.
• The state Attorney General's victim advocates take calls at 803-737-3739.

A warning for the accused person's family: don't contact the victim, and don't carry messages for anyone. Doing so can violate bond and lead to new charges.