Missouri Court Records: How to Search Case.net, What's Public, and How Expungement Works

Missouri runs a single, free statewide portal for its court records: Case.net, at courts.mo.gov/casenet. It covers the state's circuit courts, the Missouri Court of Appeals, and the Missouri Supreme Court, and it is the starting point for looking up a case by name or case number anywhere in the state.

Case.net is not a complete window into every document, though. Missouri drew a hard line in 2023: documents filed before July 1, 2023 are not available remotely at all, only at courthouse public access terminals. The rule that draws that line, and the general presumption that Missouri court records are open, comes from Missouri Court Operating Rule 2 (COR 2), not from Case.net's own marketing copy.

Information last verified on 2026-08-10. This article has not yet been reviewed by a licensed lawyer.

This guide is part of a broader look at court records by state; for the mechanics of federal versus state versus county searches generally, see how to look up court records and are court records public.

Searching Missouri Court Records on Case.net

Case.net describes itself as the public's access to the Missouri State Courts Automated Case Management System, covering docket entries, parties, judgments, and charges in cases that have been deemed public under Missouri statute. The search supports several free entry points: litigant name, filing date, case number, scheduled hearing, and a judgment index, and none of them require creating an account.

Two practical details are easy to miss. First, Case.net is not available around the clock; the portal's own posted hours are Monday through Friday, 6 a.m. to 1 a.m. Central time, so a weekend search will not go through. Second, the site carries a plain disclaimer that the information it returns "is provided as a service and is not considered an official court record." Treat a Case.net printout as a starting point, not as proof, if the record needs to stand up anywhere official.

Missouri's courts have also had to warn the public about scam sites and messages impersonating Case.net, including fake text messages about traffic tickets designed to spread malware. Only use courts.mo.gov/casenet directly, not a link from a text message or an unfamiliar site claiming to be Case.net.

What's Public, and the July 2023 Document Cutoff

Missouri Court Operating Rule 2 sets the general rule for the whole state: records of all courts are presumed to be open to any member of the public for purposes of inspection or copying, subject to specific confidentiality exceptions written into the rule. COR 2 also expressly bars automated scraping of Missouri judicial websites, including Case.net, and it allows the State Courts Administrator to temporarily suspend remote access if demand threatens the statewide court automation system.

The single most important access fact on this page is the cutoff COR 2 built into the state's rollout of remote document access: the public can view actual court documents filed on or before June 30, 2023 only at a public access terminal in the courthouse where the case is on file. Documents filed on or after July 1, 2023 are the ones the Expanded Remote Access rule made available online, subject to the same redaction and confidentiality rules that apply to any public record. Case docket entries themselves (who filed what, and when) are generally visible on Case.net regardless of date; it is the underlying filed documents from before mid-2023 that require an in-person courthouse visit.

Missouri's Expungement Law, and the New SB 1421 Drug Track

Missouri uses the word expungement, not sealing, for its record-clearing process. Under Section 610.140 of the Missouri Revised Statutes, a person may petition to expunge a qualifying record after a waiting period: at least three years since completing the sentence for a felony, or at least one year for a misdemeanor, and no earlier than eighteen months from the date of arrest for an arrest that did not lead to a conviction. The statute caps how many records a person can expunge over a lifetime, no more than three misdemeanor offenses or ordinance violations, and no more than two felony offenses, and it excludes a specific list of serious offenses, including Class A felonies, dangerous felonies, offenses requiring sex-offender registration, felonies involving death or assault, domestic assault, and kidnapping.

Missouri is building a second, narrower track on top of that existing law. Senate Bill 1421, signed by Governor Kehoe on July 8, 2026, directs the state to automatically expunge eligible drug possession and drug paraphernalia convictions, both felony and misdemeanor, without the person having to file a petition. The bill text describes eligible offenses as being automatically expunged "as a matter of law upon eligibility," with the state's central criminal history repository screening records on a rolling basis. Drug trafficking offenses are not covered. The new automatic track is expected to take effect no later than January 1, 2027, so as of this writing it is not yet operating; the existing petition-based process under Section 610.140 remains the only path available today. For eligibility details and the filing process under both tracks, see Missouri expungement laws, which this page does not duplicate.

Certified Copies

A certified copy of a Missouri court document comes from the Circuit Clerk of the county (or the city of St. Louis) where the case was filed, not from any statewide office. Certified-copy fees are set locally and vary by circuit, so confirm the current fee directly with the circuit clerk's office handling the case rather than assuming a single statewide amount.

Using Missouri Court Records the Right Way

Case.net is built for checking your own case, following a matter you are personally involved in, or general public research, not for compiling a background file on someone else. Under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, most arrests and civil judgments age off a consumer report after seven years, but criminal convictions are carved out of that limit under 15 U.S.C. section 1681c(a)(5) and can be reported indefinitely unless Missouri has expunged them. Anyone assembling public court records for a hiring or housing decision may be acting as a consumer reporting agency under federal law, and the FTC has enforced this directly: in 2023 it reached a $5.8 million settlement with TruthFinder and Instant Checkmate over marketing public-records reports for tenant and employee screening without following FCRA requirements. A Case.net printout is not a substitute for an FCRA-compliant background check when the decision involves employment or housing, and a common name can return the wrong person entirely, so treat an unverified match as unconfirmed.

Related Resources

Court Records by State covers the full 50-state picture. See also How to Look Up Court Records, Are Court Records Public?, Missouri Expungement Laws, Missouri Background Check Laws, Missouri Warrant Search, and Missouri Public Records Laws.

Disclaimer

This article explains how Missouri's court records tools are organized. It is general legal information, not legal advice. Portal features, hours, and fees change without notice; verify current details with courts.mo.gov or the relevant circuit clerk before relying on them. Consult a Missouri-licensed attorney for advice about a specific case.

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Last updated: 2026-08-10. Portal facts and fees reflect their published status as of August 2026.