Missouri judiciary launches new court rules feature online

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – As part of an ongoing effort to improve public access to court information through the Missouri Courts website, the judiciary has launched a new feature making the Supreme Court of Missouri rules and court operating rules available in a searchable, mobile-friendly, more accessible format.

From the new Court Rules landing page launched this morning, the public now can search rules, view rules or search orders updating the rules all from one convenient location. The underlying content – the revamped rules and operating rules – went online January 1.

Collectively, these changes reflect more than two years of planning, development, testing and refinement.

“It is wonderful to see the culmination of this huge but important project,” Chief Justice Mary R. Russell said. “Our rules of practice and procedure are critical to how our courts function – they govern everything from how cases are filed and proceed through our system to how evidence is presented and juries are instructed to how appeals work. Ultimately, they establish the methods by which courts ensure the rights of individuals in the court system. Our Missouri Courts website is our most important tool for providing the public information about the work of the courts, and it is amazing the public now will be able to access these rules so easily.”

Missouri’s court rules and court operating rules have been available online for more than two decades, but they lacked search functionality and were not particularly user-friendly. They also represent the largest section of content that still needed to be migrated into the judiciary’s current web content management system. While the “look and feel” of individual rule pages will continue to be improved over the coming months, the major updates are now complete.