Legislation in 1783 ordered counties to be laid out in each of the seven South Carolina judicial districts. The County Court Act of 1785 established county courts in each of these counties "to hear and determine all causes at the common law, within their respective counties" where the debt of damages did not exceed fifty (50) pounds (about $200), to hear all personal actions where the damages did not exceed twenty (20) pounds (about $80), and to hear criminal causes where judgement would not call for the loss of life or corporal punishment. Cases involving boundaries or titles to land were heard by District, not County, courts.

In 1785, the General Assembly elected and the Governor commissioned Justices of the Peace to serve as the administrators of each county court. Legal experience was not a requirement. Initially, seven served in each court, and of those, three presided over the court when it was in session. The justices could appoint clerks, deputy clerks, sheriffs, deputy sheriffs, coroners, and county attorneys. In 1786, legislation increased the number of justices in each county to nine, and in 1787 to eleven.

By 1791, the county courts presided over a fairly extensive jurisdiction. They heard cases involving small claims, petty larceny, and the petitions and schedules of insolvent debtors. They oversaw the building of courthouses and jails, the care of the poor, the building of roads and bridges, read and recorded deeds and other conveyances, and took relinquishments of dower.

An Act of 1787 transferred the duties of the Ordinary to the county courts, thereby giving the courts jurisdiction over the proving of wills and the administration, guardianship, and settlement of estates. An Act of 1788 transferred to the courts powers concerning bastardy and directed the courts to take recognizances from both church wardens and the Court of General Sessions for the maintenance of bastards. Acts passed from 1786 to 1791 allowed the courts to collect a tax on taverns and to license tavern keepers and set their rates, established the clerk's office at the courthouse, further regulated ways to prove deeds, allowed the courts to appoint constables, and to issue licenses for the retail sale of liquor, extended the powers of the grand jury, and granted rights of appeal.

After 1791, the General Assembly appointed three judges from each couny, instead of justices of the peace, to preside over the courts. Each year, the courts held two plenary session and two intermediate sessions - hence the name County and Intermediate Courts. The intermediate sessions, which saw to administrative matters like the licensing of taverns and the appointment of overseers of the roads, required only one judge. The clerk was responsible for the proceedings - he filed all declarations, pleas, evidence, and other papers in his office, and, to prevent errors and validate the proceedings and judgements, read the minutes of the court at the close of each day's proceedings and subscribed to their accuracy.

The number of county courts varied during their existence from 1785 to 1799. Of the original thirty-four (34) proposed by the General Assembly, only twenty (20) were actually established. Fourteen (14) counties that had been laid out in Beaufort, Charleston, and Georgetown Districts were never constituted - presumably because the District Courts could cope with the legal needs in these areas. The real reason was that the people in these older, well-established areas had just gotten used to the District Court approach and did not see the need for further complications at a county level, so they refused to adopt them.

Acts passed in 1798 and 1799 abolished the overarching Districts, eliminated the county courts, and changed the counties into districts that were served by circuit judges. They passed the county court's administrative functions to several local boards eleced by the General Assembly and transferred the records of the county courts to the district courts. Records of estates, wills, and guardianship were transferred to the Office of the Ordinary.