Can South Carolina police use a search warrant form other than the state's official SCCA 513 form?

Official title

Opinion addressing the use of search warrant forms outside of those approved by the Attorney General.

Requester

Requested by The Honorable Judge Matthew R. Mulholland, Ministerial Recorder, City of Greer.

Plain-English summary

A municipal judge in Greer told the South Carolina Attorney General that some law enforcement officers were not using SCCA 513, the standard search warrant form that Court Administration maintains and the AG's office has approved. He asked whether a search warrant on a different form is still valid if it meets the Fourth Amendment particularity requirement and is supported by probable cause under oath.

The AG's answer turns on a state statute, not on constitutional sufficiency. Section 17-13-160 requires that all arrest and search warrants issued by the State or any political subdivision be in a form prescribed by the Attorney General, and the AG's office has prescribed SCCA 513. So the form is mandatory as a matter of state law. The AG did not, however, say officers are locked into the literal SCCA 513 document. Reaffirming a 1998 opinion, the office concluded a police department may create its own warrant form, provided it follows SCCA 513 in form and substance to the letter. Any deviation, the AG said, likely violates § 17-13-160.

In short: a warrant that is constitutionally adequate can still violate the statute if it strays from the approved form. The opinion does not decide whether a particular non-conforming warrant would be suppressed in court; it answers the narrower question of what § 17-13-160 requires.

What this means for you

Magistrates and municipal judges

The opinion gives a clear statutory rule: search warrants must be on the AG-approved SCCA 513 form, and a locally created form is acceptable only if it tracks SCCA 513 exactly in both form and substance. A warrant that departs from the approved form likely violates § 17-13-160, regardless of whether it would otherwise satisfy probable cause and particularity.

Law enforcement agencies

For departments using their own software-generated or custom warrant forms, the opinion explains that this is permissible only if the form mirrors SCCA 513 to the letter. The AG did not authorize substantive departures, and it framed any deviation as a likely statutory violation.

Defense attorneys and prosecutors

The opinion identifies a statutory-compliance issue separate from constitutional validity. It does not decide suppression or remedy; it states the AG's reading that a warrant deviating from SCCA 513 likely violates § 17-13-160, which a court would weigh alongside the constitutional analysis.

Common questions

Does a search warrant have to be on the SCCA 513 form?
Under the AG's reading of § 17-13-160, yes, it must use the AG-approved form, which is SCCA 513. The statute requires all arrest and search warrants in the state to be in the form the Attorney General prescribes.

Can a department use its own warrant form?
Yes, but only if the form follows SCCA 513 in form and substance to the letter. The AG reaffirmed a 1998 opinion allowing independently created warrants that do not deviate in any manner from the standard form.

What if the warrant is otherwise valid under the Fourth Amendment?
The opinion treats the statutory requirement as separate. Even a warrant supported by probable cause and meeting particularity can violate § 17-13-160 if it deviates from SCCA 513. The AG did not address whether that would lead to suppression.

Background and statutory framework

Section 17-13-160 of the South Carolina Code provides that, effective September 1, 1975, all arrest and search warrants issued by the State or any political subdivision "shall be in a form as prescribed by the Attorney General," and directs the Attorney General's office to prescribe those forms to all law enforcement agencies. The AG's office has approved SCCA 513, the search warrant form maintained by South Carolina Court Administration.

The AG had addressed the statute before. In a 1998 opinion about computer-software-generated warrants, the office concluded a police department may create its own search warrants so long as they contain all information required on the standard forms and follow the standard "form and substance" to the letter, in which case no separate authorization from the AG is needed; but a warrant deviating in form or substance violates § 17-13-160. Applying its rule against overruling a prior opinion absent a clear error or a change in the law, and finding no such change, the AG continued to follow the 1998 position: local agencies may create their own form, but it must conform exactly to SCCA 513, and any deviation likely violates the statute.

Citations

Statutes:
- section 17-13-160 of the South Carolina Code (warrant forms prescribed by the Attorney General)

Source

• Landing page: https://www.scag.gov/opinions/opinions-archive/opinion-addressing-the-use-of-search-warrant-forms-outside-of-those-approved-by-the-attorney-general/
• Original PDF: https://www.scag.gov/media/c3hhbiab/mulhollandm-os-10960-final-opinion-10-14-2024-pdf.pdf

Original opinion text

Best-effort transcription from a scanned PDF. Minor errors may remain — the linked PDF is authoritative.

ALAN WILSON
ATTORNEY GENERAL

October 14, 2024

The Honorable Matthew R. Mulholland
Ministerial Recorder

City of Greer

100 South Main Street

Greer, South Carolina 29651

Dear Judge Mulholland:

We received your request for an opinion of this Office concerning the use of search warrant forms
differing from the one approved by our Office. In your request, you informed us that some law
enforcement officers are not using SCCA 513, the search warrant form provided by Court
Administration and approved by our Office. Thus, you question “whether a search warrant issued
in a form, type, or format other than that approved by your office . . . maintains facial validity if it
sufficiently meets the particularity requirement and is supported by probably cause under oath.”

Law/Analvysis

As you reference in your letter, section 17-13-160 of the South Carolina Code (2014) provides as
follows:

Notwithstanding any other provision of law, effective September 1, 1975, all
arrest warrants and search warrants issued by the State or any political
subdivision thereof shall be in a form as prescribed by the Attorney General and
the Attorney General’s office shall prescribe such forms to all law enforcement
agencies.

Clearly, section 17-13-160 mandates law enforcement only use search warrant forms approved by
our Office. SCCA 513, maintained by South Carolina Court Administration, is the search warrant
form approved by our Office and therefore must be used pursuant to section 17-13-160.
Nonetheless, we issued an opinion in 1998 discussing section 17-13-160 related to the use of
computer software generated search warrants instead of the standard form. Op. Att’y Gen., 1998
WL 317571 (S.C.A.G, May 1, 1998). In that opinion, we stated:

[I]t is perfectly acceptable for a police department to create its own search
warrants, provided that such warrants contain all of the information required on
the standard forms approved by this office. So long as the independently created
warrants follow the form and substance of the standard forms to the letter, there

RERBERT C. DENNIS BUILDING « POST GFFICE ROX 11549. « COLUMBIA, SC 29211-1549 « TELEPHOn: 802-744.3070 FACSIMILE £G3-25 7.6227

The Honorable Matthew R. Mulholland
Page 2
October 14, 2024

need not be any direct authorization by this office. If the form or substance of
the independently created warrant deviates from the standard in any manner,
such warrants are in violation of S.C. Code Section 17-13-160.

Id. “This Office recognizes a long-standing rule that we will not overrule a prior opinion unless it
is clearly erroneous or a change occurred in the applicable law.” Op. Att’y Gen., 2009 WL 959641
(S.C.A.G. Mar. 4, 2009). Finding no changes in the law since our 1998 opinion, we continue to
find local law enforcement can create their own search warrant form, but the form must follow the
form and substance of SCCA 513 to the letter. Any warrant that does not violates section 17-13-
160.

Conclusion

Section 17-13-160 of the South Carolina Code requires all search warrants issued by the State or
any political subdivision to be in the form approved by this Office. This Office approved SCCA
513 maintained by Court Administration and therefore, it must be used for search warrants. We
have interpreted section 17-13-160 to allow law enforcement to independently create warrants so
long as they do not deviate in form or substance from SCCA 513 in any manner. Any deviation
in form or substance to SCCA 513 likely violates section 17-13-160.

Sincerely,

4

Cydney Milling
Assistant Attorney General

REVIEWED AND APPROVED BY:

AXobert D. Cook
Solicitor General