Access the Custer County Court Clerk

About the Custer County Court Clerk

The Custer County Court Clerk keeps the records of the District Court. Staci Hunter holds the office. She is a Democrat, her hometown is Arapaho, and she has served as Court Clerk since 2011. Kyla Garibay serves as her First Deputy. The office sits inside the courthouse in Arapaho and is open to the public during posted hours.

The Court Clerk is not the same office as the County Clerk. The Court Clerk handles court cases. The work is wide. Every civil suit, criminal charge, probate case, juvenile matter, divorce, and small claim filed in the District Court passes through this office.

The official Custer County Court Clerk page lists the office duties, contact details, and a court-record search link.

That page is the source for the contact block below and for the office's posted hours.

What the Custer County Court Clerk Keeps

The Court Clerk's duties center on the court file. The office records, files, and keeps the permanent records of District Court proceedings. It maintains the appearance docket for each case, a running log of every filing and event. Court reporters file word-for-word transcripts that the clerk also keeps. The office answers to the Oklahoma Court Administrator's Office and the Oklahoma Supreme Court.

• Records, files, and keeps the permanent District Court case files.
• Works with the civil, criminal, probate, juvenile, domestic relations, and small claims divisions.
• Maintains the appearance docket for every case filed.
• Keeps the court-reporter transcripts filed in each case.
• Collects fees for licenses and court costs and deposits them in the court fund.

This is the office that opens a case number, time-stamps a filing, and certifies a copy for official use.

The appearance docket sits at the center of this work. It is the chronological log the clerk keeps for each filed case, listing every motion, hearing, order, and payment in date order. When a court reporter transcribes a hearing word for word, that transcript is filed with the clerk too. Together the docket and the transcripts form the permanent record a court relies on years later. Because the office reports to the Oklahoma Court Administrator's Office and the Supreme Court, the way it keeps and certifies these files is standardized statewide.

Custer County Court Clerk vs County Clerk

Two clerks serve Custer County, and they hold different records. The Court Clerk keeps court cases. The County Clerk, Melissa Graham, is the registrar of deeds and keeps land records, county records, and the judgment docket. A search for a deed or a property lien starts with the County Clerk, not the Court Clerk. The table sorts the split.

The Custer County Clerk page covers the land-records side and links the county property search.

When a court order affects real estate, it crosses from the Court Clerk's file into the County Clerk's judgment docket.

Custer County Certified Copy Requests

A certified copy is a court-stamped document that agencies and other courts accept as official. An online docket printout is not certified. To get a certified copy of a Custer County court record, work through the Court Clerk.

1. Find the case number, or bring the party names and case type so staff can locate the file.
2. Tell the clerk which document you need and how many copies.
3. Submit the request in person, by phone, by email, or by mail to the Court Clerk.
4. Pay the certificate fee and the per-page copy fee.
5. Pick up the certified copy at the counter, or wait for it to arrive by mail.

Custer County Court Clerk Fees

Custer County publishes its clerk fees on the official county fee page. The amounts below come from that page. Certified copies are charged per certificate, and plain copies are charged per page.

Court filing costs and bond amounts are not on the county page. The Court Clerk's fee area links to the statewide OSCN court cost and bond schedules for those figures. Call the office to confirm a filing fee before you file.

The official Custer County fees page shows the County Clerk charges and links the Court Clerk fee and bond schedule.

For court costs tied to a specific case type, the statewide OSCN schedule is the controlling source.

Searching Custer County Court Records

The Court Clerk links the public to court records online. The office's "Search Court Records" button points to ODCR. ODCR is the participating-court portal, and Custer records there begin August 21, 2001 and update every hour. OSCN carries the same Custer County District Court data. For a guided walk through both portals, the Custer County court records page lays out the search fields one by one.

The ODCR court record search works by name, by case number, or by filing-date range. Direct clerk contact still handles older files and certified copies.

Custer County Court Costs and Licenses

Beyond filing fees, the Court Clerk collects court costs, fines, and license fees, then deposits them in the court fund. Court costs ride along with criminal and traffic cases. The office also collects fees for licenses, including the marriage licenses issued through the District Court. Each payment is logged against the case.

Some cases allow online or counter payment. Others require a visit or a call. Because the office answers to the Oklahoma Court Administrator's Office and the Oklahoma Supreme Court, its accounting is checked and standardized. Ask the clerk which payment types a given case accepts.

License work is part of the same job. In Oklahoma the Court Clerk issues marriage licenses, so a couple applying for a license deals with this office rather than a separate vital-records counter. The clerk collects the license fee and records the return after the ceremony. Court costs on criminal, traffic, and civil cases are added to the case file and tracked until paid. A defendant who owes fines and costs can ask the clerk about a payment plan or which cases the court allows to be paid online.

Custer County Clerk Recording Standards

When a court order or a probate decree must be recorded against property, it goes to the County Clerk and has to meet recording standards. The county publishes detailed rules for conforming instruments. A document must be an original or a certified copy, legible without magnification, and written in English. It needs a clear legal description and proper margins, generally a two-inch top margin and one-inch side margins.

The county's conforming-instruments standards spell out paper size, margins, and return-address rules.

A document that fails these rules can be charged a nonconforming fee or refused for indexing, so a court order headed for the land records should be prepared with care. The standards also require xerographic reproduction, a return address for the grantee or assignee, and separate index entries when a single instrument lists more than 25 legal descriptions. These details matter most when a probate decree, a judgment, or a lien from a District Court case has to be recorded against property.

Contacting the Custer County Court Clerk

Custer County does not offer a fillable court-record request form online. Requests run through the office directly. You can call, email, mail, or visit the counter. Bring a case number when you have one, since it speeds the search. The table lists what to include in a request.

The clerk's staff can search the appearance docket, certify copies, and confirm fees, but they cannot give legal advice. Use the contact details below to start a request.