Electronic Certification of Documents


Electronically certified documents for both court documents and for official records documents can be purchased online using Clerk E-Certify or at the Clerk's office. This convenient online service produces secure, reusable, and verifiable e-certified documents of Charlotte County Clerk's' digitized public records.

The Social Security office does NOT accept electronic certified documents. Any certified copy needed for a name change or benefits with the Social Security office will need to be obtained by mail or in person from one of our Public Records office.

Can Any Document Be E-Certified?

Not all documents are available to be e-certified. Certain documents that are confidential or protected by law may continue to be certified only in-person with a hand stamp or raised seal.

What is the Cost of Electronic Certified Documents?

All electronically certified documents have a flat fee of $9.00. Electronic certified documents can be saved to your computer or mobile device, emailed and multiple copies printed over time as needed. In person, electronically certified document fee is $6.00 plus $1.00 per page.

What Software is Required?

After submitting the order, the recipient will receive an email to access the certified document. The encrypted PDFs require a standard PDF viewer like Adobe Acrobat to be viewed. The software verifies the authenticity of the document, confirming the certifier and whether it has been modified since it was issued by the Clerk’s office.

How to Search For Documents

Court records may be searched by case number. Remove all spaces from the case number and include all leading zeroes when searching in E-Certify. For example, case number 2089 CA 123 would be searched using 2089000123CA.

Official records may be searched by instrument number or grantee/grantor name.

How to Verify or Authenticate an E-Certified Document

Each e-certified document receives a unique reference number that is printed on the cover page. The Clerk's E-Certify Authentication page linked above provides two fast and easy ways to verify and authenticate printed copies and electronic copies. The first way is to enter the unique reference number. The second way is to upload the original PDF file to the authentication page. For more information, please refer to this instructional video on authenticating an e-certified document