Karen Fountain Burke, Clerk
The official Twiggs County page names Karen Fountain Burke as Clerk of Superior Court. The GSCCCA directory identifies her as Karen F. Burke, Clerk of Superior Court, year elected 2025. GSCCCA also lists the office hours as 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, county code 143, and the courts managed as Superior and Juvenile. The local county page lists staff as Melinda Kelley Sodowsky, Chief Deputy Clerk; Kelly Harris, Deputy Clerk; and La'Bertha Robinson, Deputy Clerk.
The Twiggs County Clerk of Superior Court page is the official local office source for contact details.
The county source confirms that Superior Court records are handled through the Jeffersonville courthouse office, not a separate district clerk office.
Clerk of Superior Court
Clerk: Karen Fountain Burke
425 Railroad Street North
Jeffersonville, GA 31044
(478) 945-3350
Fax: (478) 945-6751
Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
What the Twiggs Clerk Does
The Clerk of Superior Court is the constitutional officer for Twiggs Superior Court and the clerk-managed Juvenile Court record environment. Georgia does not use a Texas-style split between a district clerk and county clerk for these trial records. Probate Court and Magistrate Court maintain their own case functions, so marriage applications, estates, guardianships, traffic citations, small civil claims, evictions, warrants, first appearances, and bond hearings should not be routed to the Superior Court Clerk unless the case has moved into a Superior Court file.
The county clerk page includes local institutional history. It notes that Georgia's constitution requires every county to maintain constitutional offices, including Sheriff, Probate Judge, Tax Commissioner, and Clerk of Superior Court, and that Clerks of Superior Court have been elected in Georgia since 1794. That history explains why the office is local, elected, and central to court record custody.
- Maintain Superior Court records for felony, divorce, equity, title-to-land, and broad civil matters.
- Manage Juvenile Court records listed by GSCCCA as part of the clerk's courts managed.
- Accept in-person, mail, phone, and fax contact for court-record and copy questions.
- Route users away from clerk records when Probate Court, Magistrate Court, or sheriff records are the correct source.
- Support certified-copy requests when the record is in the Superior Court file and public or otherwise available.
Request Certified Clerk Copies
Certified copies are used when an ordinary photocopy is not enough. They may be needed for divorce decrees, judgments, orders, case dispositions, name or custody proof, title-to-land matters, or other official uses. Research did not locate a Twiggs Superior Court certified-copy fee schedule or a clerk-specific downloadable request form, so requesters should confirm the cost, payment method, and delivery option with the clerk before mailing payment or traveling to the courthouse.
- Identify the case as a Superior Court or Juvenile matter. If it is a Probate, Magistrate, sheriff, or federal record, use that office instead.
- Collect the party names, case type, approximate filing year, document name, and case number if known.
- Contact the Clerk of Superior Court at (478) 945-3350, visit 425 Railroad Street North, mail P.O. Box 234, Jeffersonville, GA 31044, or fax (478) 945-6751.
- Ask whether the record is public, sealed, restricted, or requires judicial authorization before a certified copy can be issued.
- Confirm the fee and delivery method, then request pickup, mail, or other handling that the office permits.
Request Field Inventory
No Twiggs Superior Court copy-request form was located in official research. The most detailed form inventory came from the Twiggs County Sheriff's Open Records Request Form, which is useful for sheriff-held records but not a court-copy form. For clerk records, the same identifying facts still help staff locate the file and determine whether the requested document can be released.
| Field | Required | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Requester name | Implied | Needed for contact and pickup or delivery coordination. |
| Telephone number | Implied | Use a number where the clerk can clarify the request. |
| Email or fax | Optional | Useful if the office can send status, estimates, or non-certified copies by that method. |
| Mailing address | Implied | Needed if copies are returned by mail. |
| Case number | No, but helpful | No Twiggs Superior format was confirmed, so party names and dates may be needed. |
| Party names | Yes | Give full names and role if known, such as plaintiff, defendant, petitioner, or respondent. |
| Document type | Yes | Examples include decree, judgment, order, disposition, motion, or docket entry. |
| Number and type of copies | Yes | State whether certified, plain, or exemplified copies are needed. |
Twiggs Clerk Fee Gaps
The research file did not locate a local Twiggs Superior Court copy schedule. That gap matters because the amount may differ for plain copies, certified copies, exemplified copies, mailed copies, fax handling, searches, or filings. The safest wording is to call the clerk before ordering. The sheriff records page did publish certain law-enforcement report fees, but those are not the Superior Court Clerk's copy fees.
| Item | Amount / Note |
|---|---|
| Plain court copies from Superior Court Clerk | Fee not located in official Twiggs sources. |
| Certified court copies from Superior Court Clerk | Fee not located; call (478) 945-3350 before ordering. |
| Exemplified copies | No local fee schedule captured. |
| Fax or mail request fee | No local schedule captured. |
| Sheriff vehicle crash report for non-involved parties | $5.00, but this is a sheriff report fee, not a clerk fee. |
| Sheriff additional or delayed report pages | $0.25 per page, for sheriff-held records. |
GSCCCA and Online Channels
The Clerk of Superior Court page links to the Georgia Clerks Authority. The GSCCCA Twiggs clerk listing is useful for confirming the clerk name, hours, county code, courts managed, and legal-organ details.
GSCCCA confirms office identity and hours, but it should not be described as a complete public case docket search for Twiggs Superior Court.
Georgia Courts e-access and PeachCourt may apply to some Georgia court record or e-filing functions, but the captured research did not confirm a dedicated Twiggs Superior public docket result. Magistrate Court has its own nCourt filing gateway, and Probate Court uses Georgia Probate Records for several probate, marriage, traffic, and calendar functions. That split is important when a clerk request involves the wrong court level.
Open Records and Clerk Limits
Georgia's open-records policy is reflected in O.C.G.A. 50-18-70.
The statute source supports public inspection principles, but court files can still be sealed, confidential, or redacted by other law or court order.
Juvenile records, adoption records, mental health or incapacity materials, protected identifiers, pending criminal discovery, and sealed or restricted criminal-history records need conservative handling. The sheriff page specifically warns that requests beyond an initial incident report for a person awaiting trial must go through the District Attorney by proper discovery motions. That same principle matters for clerk users: an open-records request is not a way around court rules, sealed orders, or criminal discovery controls.
Note: Probate Court, Magistrate Court, and the Sheriff's Office are separate request paths for records outside Superior Court files.
Twiggs County Clerk Context
The Twiggs County Clerk of Superior Court page includes background that explains why the office is a local constitutional record custodian. It notes that Georgia's Constitution requires each county to maintain certain constitutional offices, including Sheriff, Probate Judge, Tax Commissioner, and Clerk of Superior Court. It also describes how the clerk role developed because judges could not preside, record proceedings, and issue writs alone. That history is practical for records users because it explains why Superior Court files are held by an elected county clerk rather than a single statewide court database.
The GSCCCA listing adds small-county context. It identifies Twiggs County code 143, lists the legal organ as Times Journal Post, and confirms that the Clerk manages Superior and Juvenile courts. The same source lists a county population of 7,691. A smaller county can still have several record paths: the Clerk of Superior Court for Superior and juvenile files, Probate Court for estates and traffic citations, Magistrate Court for warrants and limited civil matters, and the Sheriff's Office for law-enforcement records.
For older files, non-digitized records, certified copies, or questions about whether a case is sealed, the most reliable path is still direct clerk contact by phone, mail, fax, or in person at the Jeffersonville courthouse.
The clerk contact path is also useful when a user has only partial information. A request with party names, case type, approximate year, and any known docket, citation, warrant, or filing number is stronger than a broad name-only request. The research did not locate a clerk-specific public copy request form, so users should ask the office how to format a mailed or faxed request before sending payment.