St. Louis City County Court Record Requests
The Circuit Clerk of the 22nd Judicial Circuit holds case records for the Circuit Court of the City of St. Louis. Give the clerk a case number. Add a document type. Include an approximate filing or hearing date too. That detail gets you to the right file fast. The local public-records page points people to remote Case.net access. It also covers the records counter at the Civil Courts Building. Email requests can go to stlcircuitclerk@courts.mo.gov. Ask for one identified pleading or judgment rather than everything tied to a name. Narrow requests are far more workable for staff and for you.
- Search Missouri Case.net by a complete case number when available, or narrow a name search by court and case type. Record the case number and docket date that identify the item.
- Decide whether the need is for the public docket, an ordinary copy, a certified copy, an authenticated copy, or a transcript. Those are distinct St. Louis City County court record requests.
- Email the Circuit Clerk for a public document request, or use the records counter at the Civil Courts Building when an in-person route is more suitable. The clerk's general line is 314-622-4044.
- Ask staff about a courthouse File Viewer terminal when a public electronic document does not open remotely. Public status for the case does not guarantee unrestricted remote document access.
- Wait for the clerk's estimate and payment directions before assuming a copy is ready. Certified-copy and transcript requests follow their own procedures.
Note: A case number, a document title, and a date make any St. Louis City County court record request smoother, because staff must locate the exact file or docket entry you mean.
St. Louis City County Case.net Record Access
Missouri opens its public case index through Case.net. The case header and docket can display the case number. They also show the parties, court, category, filing date, division, events, hearings, and public disposition information. Search tools there cover case numbers, litigant names, filing dates, scheduled hearings, and judgments. For identifiers that support a copy request, a focused St. Louis City County docket search does the job.
Keep in mind that the index is not the full electronic file. Missouri eFiling serves registered filers. A member of the public who wants a document not available remotely can ask courthouse staff for File Viewer access at a public terminal. A hyperlinked docket entry may open a document. A nonhyperlinked one can mean no document is attached, or that the viewer lacks access. The court's public File Viewer guidance notes that even public cases can contain confidential material.
Access point: A St. Louis City County Case.net result is a useful public index, not a promise that every pleading is available from home. For an eligible public document that will not open remotely, use the courthouse terminal route and ask staff for assistance.
Kinds of Court Records
"Court record" covers several different things. The docket is the chronological register of events in a case. A pleading, an order, a judgment, a transcript, or a plain copy each plays its own role. The Circuit Clerk maintains the state-court case files within St. Louis City County court records. A municipal citation takes a different path. So does a probate index entry or a federal docket.
- Docket or case index: a dated list of filings, settings, orders, and other events shown subject to public-access limits.
- Pleadings and filed documents: petitions, motions, answers, and attachments when the document is public and accessible.
- Orders and judgments: court rulings, dispositions, and judgment entries that may be requested as plain, certified, or authenticated copies.
- Transcripts: a reporter's record of a hearing, ordered from the reporter assigned to the division rather than from Case.net.
- Historical probate records: index and source-record material for estates and guardianships handled through the Probate Resource Room.
St. Louis City County Clerk Record Access
The local public-records page lists the Circuit Clerk records counter on the third floor of the Civil Courts Building. That counter serves state-court records of the 22nd Judicial Circuit. It is not the same as the City Municipal Court customer-service desk. That desk handles municipal traffic and ordinance matters. The Family Court and Juvenile location is separate too. Access restrictions there can be tighter. Call ahead if a record category is unclear or a counter has moved.
22nd Judicial Circuit Circuit Clerk
Civil Courts Building, third floor records counter
10 N Tucker Blvd.
St. Louis, MO 63101
314-622-4044
Bring the case number, or at least enough detail to pin down the request. The courthouse trip also serves electronic records that require the File Viewer terminal. Clerk staff can explain access procedures. They cannot give legal advice on what an order, filing, or deadline means.
Court Records: What They Contain
What shows up in a St. Louis City County court record depends on the case category. The public-access level matters. So does the item requested. A Case.net index usually gives the case number and the event history. The file itself may hold more. But confidential, sealed, expunged, juvenile, or otherwise protected entries can be left out of both remote results and public copies.
| Case number | The Rule 4 case identifier, including a category such as CR, CV, TR, or MU where assigned. |
|---|---|
| Case header | Publicly displayed court, case type, filing date, division or judge, and party or attorney information where the rules permit it. |
| Docket sheet | Chronological filing, hearing, order, and disposition entries. A docket entry may have a document link, no attachment, or restricted access. |
| Pleadings and orders | Filed documents and signed rulings when a public version is available; the docket index alone does not prove that every item is releasable. |
| Judgment information | Disposition, judgment, satisfaction, vacated information, or related public entry when shown for the particular case. |
St. Louis City County Transcript Requests
A transcript is not a docket printout and not a clerk copy. The 22nd Circuit points requesters to the court reporter. Use the reporter for that hearing's division, linked here. Give the reporter the case number and the hearing date or dates. Then ask about electronic or paper format, the estimate, payment, and delivery.
No fixed official transcript fee applies to St. Louis City County court records. The reporter sets the estimate. Page-copy, certification, and authentication amounts are different prices. Do not treat them as transcript costs. A hearing date pulled from the docket helps the right division find the proceeding.
Copy Fees and Certification
An ordinary copy is not certified. Certification is not authentication. For a certified copy, email stlcircuitclerk@courts.mo.gov to start the process. The Certified Copies Department replies with an estimate and payment directions. Its listed supervisor is Kevin Cahill at 314-622-4922. The cashier line for law-firm accounts is 314-622-4020. Whatever the clerk's current estimate says controls the request.
| St. Louis City County court record item | Official fee source | Request note |
|---|---|---|
| Copy, per page | $0.25 | Missouri local-court fee text; confirm the clerk's current estimate. |
| Certification, per document | $1.50 | Added when certification is requested for the document. |
| Authentication, per document | $2.50 | Separate from certification under the official fee source. |
| Transcript | Fee not located in official sources | The assigned reporter provides an estimate and format options. |
Missouri's RSMo § 610.026 sets a copy-cost framework for public bodies and permits estimates plus advance payment in the circumstances it describes. Court-specific schedules and the certification requested can still govern. Get the local estimate before any large order.
St. Louis City County Historical Probate Records
Digging into an old St. Louis City County probate file starts with one tool. It is the 22nd Circuit's historical probate index. It reaches decedent estates filed from 1890 through May 31, 2000. Guardianships date back to 1815 through May 31, 2000. What you get back is a name, a file number, and date context. That is an index entry, not the record itself.
For the actual documents, email the Probate Resource Room at CT22.probateresourceroom@courts.mo.gov. You can also send the linked official request form or call 314-622-4238. Give the decedent or ward name and the file number if you have it. Add a description of the record. Say whether you want a plain copy or a certified one. The clerk has not posted a per-record copy price, so ask for an estimate first. Do not assume the general copy schedule covers it.
Note: A historical probate index works well for genealogy or for pinning down a document. Include the listed file number whenever you request a St. Louis City County record.
Access Rules for Court Records
Open access has real limits. Missouri Court Operating Rule 4 sets the framework for dockets, indexes, categories, security, and automation. It also spells out how confidential, sealed, and expunged records are treated. Court Operating Rule 2's linked review draft covers categories. It says which ones can show up in public indexes. Even so, that draft makes no promise. Not every field or document will surface in a local Case.net result. Family, juvenile, sealed, and expunged matters call for extra care.
Missouri access rules: Court Operating Rule 4 addresses official records, indexes, security, confidential files, sealed records, and restricted expunged material. The Court Operating Rule 2 review draft describes public index fields. RSMo § 610.140 makes expunged court records confidential except for authorized access, and RSMo § 211.321 protects juvenile records subject to stated exceptions.
Filing a public-record request does not get around these rules. Ask the clerk for the public or redacted version of the specific document, and let the clerk sort out what the law allows. Keep in mind that victims, witnesses, children, protected parties, and non-litigants may never surface in a name search.
St. Louis City County State and Federal Record Split
Case.net and the Circuit Clerk serve the state side of the 22nd Judicial Circuit. They hold no federal civil, criminal, or bankruptcy dockets. St. Louis federal matters live elsewhere. They sit with the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Missouri CM/ECF and PACER system and the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Eastern District of Missouri. Access rules, case numbers, and fees over there differ. They have nothing to do with St. Louis City County court case records.
The same line helps route municipal questions. The City Municipal Court sits inside the 22nd Circuit as a division. Yet it runs its own customer-service instructions for traffic and ordinance matters. So confirm which court handled the case before you ask the Circuit Clerk for anything. That matters most when a citation number is the only identifier you have.