Missouri Lawyers Media Missouri legal news and public notices

A judge has ruled that Missouri must provide indigent defendants with counsel within two weeks of their having qualified for an appointed lawyer.

A bill passed by the Missouri House on Thursday would put a pause on open-records requests when public agencies are closed, an attempt to ease pressure on governments during emergencies like the coronavirus pandemic.

Missouri has no plans to move teachers higher on the list for COVID-19 vaccinations, instead focusing on getting shots to older people and those with serious illnesses, the state’s health director said Thursday.

Missouri recorded a big jump in fatal traffic crashes last year, despite fewer people being on the road because of the coronavirus pandemic, state highway officials said Thursday.

A sustained downward trend in COVID-19 cases is buoying hopes that Missouri courts will be able to return to jury trials this spring, despite uncertainty surrounding the availability of COVID-19 vaccines.

The City of St. Louis has agreed to pay $5 million to settle a lawsuit brought against it by a Black police officer who alleged he was assaulted by white officers while working undercover at a protest in 2017.

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Feb. 16 denied qualified immunity for two St. Louis County police officers who entered a home late at night with guns drawn in search of someone who had stiffed his taxi driver.

A federal appeals court panel has ruled that a gun-drawn police search of a St. Louis County home constituted a “severe, warrantless intrusion.”

Attorneys for the purported leader of the Kansas City cell of the Proud Boys blamed former President Donald Trump for the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol, telling a federal magistrate judge that the five weeks since then “have broken the fever dream.”

Detainees have complained for decades about conditions inside St. Louis' jails, but when COVID-19 worries were added to the mix, the tension reached a breaking point.

Kansas City police officers would limit their use of tear gas and work to reduce confrontations during public protests under a policy proposed Tuesday by the city's police department.