Updated Information for Attorneys During the Suspension of In-Person Sessions

Updated information and procedures for attorneys with cases in Municipal Court during the suspension of in-person sessions, effective October 26, 2020

October 26, 2020 | 2 min reading time

This article is 4 years old. It was published on October 26, 2020.

St. Louis City Municipal Court remains subject to the Missouri Supreme Court order and 22nd Judicial Circuit orders suspending in-person municipal court sessions due to COVID-19.

The Court is conducting regular virtual sessions via WebEx as permitted by the Supreme Court order. Full information about our virtual sessions, including the links to our virtual courtrooms, is set forth at Virtual Courts. New citations will ordinarily be written to a virtual date and the Court is sending reset notices to defendants with virtual dates in pending cases on a rolling basis. If a warrant recall request is granted, the case(s) will ordinarily be reset on a virtual docket. The Court encourages counsel to contact the City Counselor about the case before the virtual date. Any scheduling issues should be handled before the virtual date. Failure to appear after a warrant recall is granted is disfavored. After such a failure to appear, no further warrant recalls submitted by counsel will be granted by fax or memo. Any such further warrant recall requests, unless the required bond is posted by the defendant, must be submitted to the Administrative Judge for review and consideration.     

The City Counselor’s office will continue to accept and process requests for recommendations by all the means listed on the How to Request a Prosecutor's Recommendation page in the Attorney Information menu.

The Court will review and process City Counselor recommendations on a timely basis. Payment arrangements will be provided in the usual manner. Our current payments arrangements are fully explained at Pay a Municipal Court Ticket. Please remember that under Supreme Court Minimum Operating Standards requests for recommendations must be directed to the City Counselor. The Clerk’s office cannot forward any request for recommendation to the City Counselor. Requests for recommendations sent only to the clerk with an entry will not be processed.

You may continue to send entries of appearance, requests for warrant recalls and requests for compliance orders to the fax number for the Courtroom Coordinator: (314) 612-1694. These will be collected daily and presented to the Administrative Judge or duty judge for handling. If you are requesting a compliance order on a FACT suspension or a LOB release, you must supply us with the defendant's name, date of birth, license number and the case number(s) for each case for which you are requesting a compliance order or hold release. This relief, if requested prior to disposition, is discretionary.  

Remember that www.municourt.net is available to check the status of your clients’ case(s). www.payitstlouis.com is available to your clients to make on-line payments.

There will be a duty judge in the building, every day from Monday to Friday, if you have a proposed order or special situation that requires you to speak with a judge, please e-mail Administrative Judge Newton McCoy: mccoyn@stlouis-mo.gov.

 

Almost every issue can be handled without the attorney physically coming to the Court. Your cooperation in this will assist us in preventing unnecessary risk of COVD-19 exposure in the building.   

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