St. Louis County Court Dockets
A docket is the court's chronological event list. It is not the same as the full case file. In St. Louis County court dockets, each line may show a filing, motion, hearing, continuance, order, judgment, warrant, service return, notice, plea, sentencing entry, or other event. The docket helps a user see what happened and what is scheduled next, while the full case record may include pleadings, signed orders, exhibits, remote public documents, and certified copies from the Circuit Clerk.
St. Louis County is the 21st Judicial Circuit, and docket activity can come from circuit civil or criminal divisions, associate civil, associate criminal/traffic, family, juvenile, custody/divorce, probate, Department of Revenue, treatment court, small claims, and municipal division matters. A hearing entry may list a date, time, courtroom or room, judge or commissioner, and proceeding type. Some divisions sit in the main court building, while associate criminal/traffic divisions 32 and 33 are in Justice Center rooms 3A and 3B.
Find St. Louis County Dockets Online
The main online path for St. Louis County court dockets is Missouri Case.net. The county's Find My Case instructions tell users to enter a case number or litigant name and then use Track This Case for cases they want to follow. Case.net covers Missouri circuit courts and participating municipal divisions. For ordinance cases handled by the county's municipal court, the St. Louis County Municipal Court case-search page and Tyler payment portal may provide the better path.
- Open Case.net and choose a case-number, litigant-name, hearing, filing-date, or judgment search when available.
- Enter the case number if known, or search by last name, business name, and first name.
- Narrow results to St. Louis County or the 21st Judicial Circuit, then filter by case type or year if needed.
- Open the case and read the docket tab or event list for filings, orders, hearings, and dispositions.
- Use Track This Case for updates, but confirm time-sensitive settings with the clerk or division before appearing.
Track This Case is useful, but it does not replace a direct court check before a hearing. Online docket entries can lag when a case is sealed, a warrant is updated, or a clerk has not yet posted the newest order.
St. Louis County Docket Entries
Docket entries use short labels to compress court activity into a timeline. A single St. Louis County court docket may include filing events, notices, service returns, hearing settings, orders, warrants, pleas, continuances, and final judgments. If a public document is available remotely, Case.net may provide access under Missouri court rules. If the document is sealed, confidential, redacted, or not remotely available, the docket may still show an event without the underlying file.
| Docket Field | What It Shows |
|---|---|
| Entry date | The date the event was filed, entered, scheduled, or posted to the docket. |
| Event type | Filing, motion, hearing, continuance, order, judgment, warrant, service return, notice, plea, or sentencing entry. |
| Proceeding detail | The type of hearing, such as arraignment, motion hearing, trial setting, review, disposition, or sentencing. |
| Room and time | The courtroom, room, date, time, judge, or commissioner when the event is a hearing. |
| Party or attorney | The party or lawyer associated with a filing when the docket displays that detail. |
| Document access | A public document link where remote access is allowed, or no link where the item is blocked or not posted. |
| Disposition entry | The result of a motion, claim, charge, plea, judgment, dismissal, or sentence where public. |
St. Louis County Hearing Dockets
Hearing docket details matter because St. Louis County court activity is spread across divisions. The main court address is 105 South Central Avenue, Clayton, MO 63105, and the public court phone is 314-615-8029. Associate criminal/traffic divisions 32 and 33 are listed in the Justice Center in rooms 3A and 3B, while the county Municipal Court central division is Room S27 with phone 314-615-8760. The court departments also include family, probate, juvenile, custody/divorce, Department of Revenue, treatment, and small claims work.
A docket hearing entry should be read for both date and location. A St. Louis County court docket may list a judge or commissioner, a room, and a proceeding type, but courthouse logistics can change. A person with a hearing should confirm the room, security expectations, and whether the case belongs at the main courthouse, the Justice Center, a county municipal room, or a city municipal court.
21st Judicial Circuit Court
105 South Central Avenue
Clayton, MO 63105
314-615-8029
Monday-Friday, 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.
St. Louis County Municipal Court
105 South Central Avenue, Room S27
Clayton, MO 63105
314-615-8760
Courts With St. Louis County Dockets
Which docket to search depends on the court that owns the case. Circuit civil and criminal matters route through the 21st Judicial Circuit. Associate civil, associate criminal, traffic, and small claims cases may also appear in circuit-level search results. Probate dockets are part of the Probate Division of the Circuit Court. Family, custody, divorce, and juvenile-related dockets may appear with public details limited by confidentiality rules. Traffic and ordinance cases can be more fragmented because many municipalities operate their own courts.
- Circuit civil and criminal divisions handle major civil actions and felony-level criminal cases.
- Associate civil and associate criminal/traffic divisions handle lower civil, criminal, and traffic matters.
- Family, custody/divorce, juvenile, and probate divisions handle specialized case types with more access limits.
- St. Louis County Municipal Court handles county ordinance and municipal traffic cases through its central division.
- City municipal courts handle local ordinance and traffic cases for municipalities across the county.
The local municipal court split is a common cause of missing docket results. A case from Florissant, Kirkwood, Manchester, University City, Webster Groves, or another listed municipality may not be found by treating every matter as a main circuit-court case.
St. Louis County Docket vs Record
A docket is a roadmap. A full St. Louis County court record is the file behind that roadmap. The docket may show that a motion was filed, an order was entered, or a hearing was continued, but the full document may need to be opened through Case.net, requested from the Circuit Clerk, or reviewed at the court. This distinction matters for legal use because a docket summary is usually not the same as a certified order or judgment.
| Issue | Docket | Full Case Record |
|---|---|---|
| Format | Chronological event list. | Case header, parties, docket, filings, orders, judgments, and documents where public. |
| Best use | Track hearings, deadlines, status, and recent activity. | Review signed orders, pleadings, decrees, dispositions, or certified copies. |
| Access path | Case.net, municipal search, or court contact. | Case.net documents where public, Circuit Clerk copies, or municipal clerk copies. |
| Limits | May lag or omit confidential detail. | May be sealed, redacted, not remote, or subject to copy fees. |
Civil and Criminal Docket Events
Civil docket events in St. Louis County court dockets often concern pleadings, service, motions, orders, judgments, garnishments, liens, executions, and appeals. Criminal docket events focus on the case after a charge is filed, so the docket may show arraignment, bond, counsel, plea, trial setting, continuance, warrant issued or recalled, disposition, sentencing, probation, and payment obligations. A criminal charge line is not the same as a conviction, and the docket should be read through the final disposition before drawing conclusions.
Warrant events can be time sensitive. A docket may show a warrant issued or recalled, but status can lag. The St. Louis County courts home page included a June 10, 2026 news item titled "Administrative Order 26-12. Circuit Clerk Ordered to Update Warrant Status," which is a reminder that court-status verification matters when a warrant entry appears. The practical fallback is the court that issued the warrant, the Circuit Clerk, or the municipal court that owns the case.
When St. Louis County Dockets Disappear
Some docket material is limited by law even when a case exists. RSMo 211.321 makes juvenile court records confidential with statutory exceptions. RSMo 610.122 covers arrest-record expungement after dismissal, no charge, or not guilty outcomes under listed conditions, while RSMo 610.140 governs eligible criminal-record expungement. Adoption files, mental-health and civil-commitment records, sealed cases, and redacted identifiers may also be unavailable to the public.
The source image for Missouri juvenile court record confidentiality shows one reason a St. Louis County court docket may not appear like an ordinary public case.
Juvenile confidentiality affects both docket access and document access, so public search results may show little or nothing.
The source image for Missouri arrest-record expungement is relevant when a docket search is tied to an arrest that did not become a conviction.
That arrest-only rule differs from criminal case expungement and should not be treated as a general way to erase every docket.
The source image for Missouri criminal-record expungement relates to closed criminal dockets and public access limits in St. Louis County.
Expunged records are closed from ordinary public view, so a missing docket can reflect a legal access limit rather than a search error.
Read St. Louis County Dockets Carefully
A docket should be read from the first filing through the newest entry. Look for the filing date, active court, judge or commissioner, next hearing, pending motions, service status, warrants, orders, and final disposition. In criminal cases, pay close attention to the difference between charge, plea, disposition, sentence, probation, and warrant activity. In civil cases, separate an interim order from a final judgment.
Important terms include docket, which means the chronological event log; disposition, which means how a charge or case ended; continuance, which means a hearing was postponed; judgment, which means a final court decision; and bond, which means money or conditions tied to a defendant's appearance. If a docket entry is unclear or the hearing is near, confirm directly with the Circuit Clerk, division clerk, municipal court, or attorney of record.
Note: For signed orders, certified copies, or complete filings, use the Circuit Clerk rather than relying only on a docket line.