Missouri Criminal Records

Missouri is an open state with a statewide court search and a $15 name check of the state repository, which makes it one of the easier states to check and, since 2021, one of the states whose records go away on petition in large numbers. This page gives the Missouri rule and the Missouri search for each record, with government sources only.

The Missouri courts' Case.net "is your access to the Missouri State Courts Automated Case Management System. From here you are able to inquire on case records including docket entries, parties, judgments, and charges in public court," across the circuit courts of all 114 counties and the City of St. Louis, by litigant name or case number, with the docket entries and dispositions. Felonies and misdemeanors are both circuit court cases in Missouri, in the circuit and associate divisions, and the municipal ordinance cases are in the municipal divisions, most of which are on Case.net as well. The courts warn on their home page about "fake Case.net websites," which is the state's own way of saying that copies of its index circulate under other names; the criminal records page explains what those copies miss.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol sells an open-record check of the state repository through the Missouri Automated Criminal History Site, launched, in the Patrol's announcement, to "allow the public to obtain name-based open record criminal background checks in a matter of seconds." Its questions page gives the price: "the fee for a name-based search is $15.00 per individual searched, plus an additional payment processing fee," and the Patrol's criminal record check page adds that "a fingerprint based search requires a completed applicant fingerprint card," with "the state only fingerprint fee" at "$20.00 per request." The open record is the part of the repository the law makes public, arrests with charges and dispositions, and the closed record, arrests without charges and expunged cases, is released only to the person and the agencies the statutes name.

Missouri expunges under RSMo 610.140, "expungement of certain criminal records," which the statute's own heading describes with "petition, contents, procedure, effect of expungement on employer inquiry, lifetime limits." A petition on the courts' form CR360 goes to the circuit court where the case was filed, one year after completion of the sentence for a misdemeanor and three years for a felony, with the violent, sex and driving offenses the section lists excluded and a lifetime limit on the number of expungements. An expunged Missouri case is closed at the court, on Case.net and at the Patrol, and the statute limits what an employer may ask; a copy that left before the order is reached through the federal rule on complete and up to date public records.

Missouri's Sunshine Law answers the arrest question in RSMo 610.100, "arrest and incident records ... available to public, closed records, when," which makes arrest reports and incident reports open records, closes the investigative report until the investigation ends, and closes the arrest record itself when the case ends without charges or is nolle prossed after the period the section sets. Who is in custody is in the Department of Corrections offender search, which "provides information about offenders supervised by the Missouri Department of Corrections," and in the jail rosters, the City of St. Louis inmate search among them. The arrest records page covers the rest.

A Missouri judgment is presumed paid ten years after entry unless revived. RSMo 516.350, "judgments presumed to be paid, when," sets the ten-year presumption, rebuttable only by a revival or a payment entered on the record within the period, so a Missouri judgment older than ten years with no revival on Case.net is one the creditor can no longer enforce. The court records page covers where the judgments are searched.

Missouri is divided into two federal judicial districts under 28 U.S.C. 105. The Eastern District sits at St. Louis for Crawford, Dent, Franklin, Gasconade, Jefferson, Lincoln, Maries, Phelps, St. Charles, St. Francois, St. Louis, Warren and Washington counties and the city of St. Louis; at Hannibal for Adair, Audrain, Chariton, Clark, Knox, Lewis, Linn, Macon, Marion, Monroe, Montgomery, Pike, Ralls, Randolph, Schuyler, Scotland and Shelby; and at Cape Girardeau for Bollinger, Butler, Cape Girardeau, Carter, Dunklin, Iron, Madison, Mississippi, New Madrid, Pemiscot, Perry, Reynolds, Ripley, Ste. Genevieve, Scott, Shannon, Stoddard and Wayne. The Western District sits at Kansas City for Bates, Carroll, Cass, Clay, Henry, Jackson, Johnson, Lafayette, Ray, St. Clair and Saline; at Joplin for Barton, Barry, Jasper, Lawrence, McDonald, Newton, Stone and Vernon; at St. Joseph for Andrew, Atchison, Buchanan, Caldwell, Clinton, Daviess, De Kalb, Gentry, Grundy, Harrison, Holt, Livingston, Mercer, Nodaway, Platte, Putnam, Sullivan and Worth; at Jefferson City for Benton, Boone, Callaway, Camden, Cole, Cooper, Hickory, Howard, Miller, Moniteau, Morgan, Osage and Pettis; and at Springfield for Cedar, Christian, Dade, Dallas, Douglas, Greene, Howell, Laclede, Oregon, Ozark, Polk, Pulaski, Taney, Texas, Webster and Wright. A federal case from any Missouri county is on one of those dockets and on PACER, whose prices and gaps are on the criminal records page.

Whether a person was charged anywhere in Missouri: Case.net answers it, free, statewide, by name, with the docket and disposition.

Whether a person has a Missouri record at the Patrol: the $15 open record check answers it by name, and the $20 fingerprint check answers it for certain.

Whether a person is in custody now: the county jail roster answers it, and the Department of Corrections for state prison and supervision.

Whether an old case can still be found: an expunged case is closed at the court and the Patrol, a judgment is presumed paid at ten years without revival, and a copy that predates an expungement is reached through the federal rule.