Find your court

Municipal court or circuit court?

If your citation is a city or county ordinance violation, you are in a municipal division. If it is charged under Missouri statute, you are in a circuit court. The prosecutor decides which, and repeat offenses, accidents and injuries are more likely to be charged at the state level.

Two things people get wrong about municipal court. First, jail is still possible on a DWI. Missouri’s no-confinement rule covers both minor traffic violations and municipal ordinance violations, but it carves out an express exception for any violation involving alcohol or controlled substances. A DWI sits inside that exception. Second, a municipal DWI still counts as a prior on any future case. A trial de novo — an entirely new trial before a circuit judge — must be applied for within ten days of judgment. But it is not available in every case: where the municipal judge is licensed to practice law, the right does not extend to a case resolved by a guilty plea or tried to a jury. Since most municipal DWI dispositions are guilty pleas before licensed judges, this is a reason to think hard before entering a plea rather than counting on a second bite afterwards.