Phelps County Docket Basics
A docket is the court's chronological record of case activity. In Phelps County, docket entries may show the filing of a complaint, petition, motion, summons, warrant, bond entry, plea, continuance, hearing notice, order, judgment, sentence, payment plan, or disposition. A docket also helps people confirm where a case is pending, which division is involved, and whether the next action is a hearing, payment, filing deadline, or court appearance.
Missouri uses Circuit Courts, not District Courts, for local trial-court work. Phelps County is in the 25th Judicial Circuit with Maries, Pulaski, and Texas counties. Local docket records can involve Circuit Court, Associate Circuit Court, Probate Division, traffic matters, family/civil matters, criminal matters, and municipal divisions. Rolla Municipal Court is a subdivision of the 25th Judicial Circuit for City of Rolla ordinance cases. St. James no longer runs a separate municipal court for new cases.
Find Phelps County Hearings
The main online docket search path is Missouri Case.net. It supports case-number, litigant-name, filing-date, scheduled-hearing, and judgment-index searches. A hearing search is useful when the goal is a court date rather than the full history of a case. The case-number search is best when a ticket, summons, notice, pleading, or attorney has already supplied the exact number.
- Open Case.net and choose the scheduled-hearings option or a case search route that fits the available information.
- Filter by Phelps County, the 25th Judicial Circuit, or the specific court location when the current screen provides those controls.
- Enter the case number, party name, filing date, or hearing date range. Use careful spelling for party-name searches.
- Open the result and review hearing time, court location, judge or division, event type, docket entries, and disposition fields.
- Call the correct division clerk if the docket entry is unclear, missing, restricted, or tied to a same-day appearance.
The Rolla Municipal Court page is one of the assigned docket sources because it publishes local court-session details.
Use that Rolla page for municipal session timing, but use Case.net or the municipal clerk when the question is a specific case setting.
Phelps County Docket Fields
Docket records are compact. Each line is a clue about what the court did, what a party filed, what the next hearing is, or how the case ended. A docket entry may not include the full text of the document. If a document link appears, remote viewing still depends on public status, redaction rules, and Case.net availability.
| Field | What It Shows |
|---|---|
| Entry Date | The date the court added a filing, order, event, payment, warrant, bond action, or disposition to the case. |
| Event Type | The kind of activity, such as arraignment, motion, summons, hearing, continuance, judgment, sentence, or payment plan. |
| Hearing Date | The scheduled date and time for a court appearance, review, trial setting, plea, or other hearing. |
| Division / Judge | The assigned court division, courtroom, judge, associate judge, probate judge, or municipal judge when shown. |
| Party Filing | The party, attorney, prosecutor, petitioner, respondent, plaintiff, or defendant tied to an entry when listed. |
| Result / Disposition | The outcome of a setting, count, motion, judgment, plea, dismissal, sentence, or case closure. |
| Document Link | A public document link when remote access is permitted. Restricted documents may be absent or redacted. |
Division Docket Contacts
Case.net is the starting point, but the Phelps County Circuit Clerk division phones are the local fallback for docket questions. Use the division that matches the case type. Criminal docket questions go to the Criminal Division. Civil and protection-order docket questions go to the Civil Division. Traffic docket questions go to the Traffic Division. Probate docket questions go to the probate clerks listed by the Circuit Clerk.
| Court / Division | Phone | Docket Use |
|---|---|---|
| Phelps County Circuit Clerk | 573-458-6210 | Main courthouse record and docket office. |
| Criminal Division | 573-458-6202; 573-458-6203; 573-458-6221; 573-458-6215 | Misdemeanor, felony, Associate Circuit, and Circuit Court criminal settings. |
| Civil Division | 573-458-6217; 573-458-6204; 573-458-6205; 573-458-6210 | Civil petitions, small claims, judgments, garnishments, protection orders, and administrative orders. |
| Traffic Division | 573-458-6218; 573-458-6219 | County traffic tickets, appearance dates, payment questions, and judge-required appearances. |
| Probate Division | 573-458-6245; guardianships 573-458-6207 | Estates, guardianships, conservatorships, and mental health proceedings. |
Note: Clerks can explain docket procedure and office routing, but they cannot give legal advice.
Municipal Court Dockets
Rolla Municipal Court hears City of Rolla ordinance cases and is located at City Hall, 901 North Elm Street, 2nd Floor. Court sessions are Tuesday night at 5:30 p.m. and Thursday day at 9:30 a.m. The municipal office is open Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and it remains open past 4:30 p.m. when an evening court session is scheduled until court is finished. Court Clerk ReLauun Smith, Municipal Judge Brad Neckermann, and city prosecutor Katie Fox are listed by Rolla sources.
Payments for Rolla court-related fines may be made at the municipal court office by cash, check, or money order. Case.net can be used for online electronic payments when the case is eligible before the appearance date or when the person is on a payment plan. For a city ticket, confirm the court location before going to the county courthouse, because Rolla's municipal sessions are held in City Council Chambers.
The St. James court page is also assigned to the Phelps County docket page because it explains a venue change that can affect court-date searches.
St. James states that its Municipal Court was abolished and that, beginning November 2022, new cases and trials are held by the Court of Phelps County at 200 N. Main Street in Rolla.
Docket vs. Case File
The docket and full case record answer different questions. The docket is best for tracking movement: what has been filed, what is set next, what the court ordered, and how the case ended. The full case file is better for legal review because it can include the actual pleadings, motions, judgments, orders, and other documents. A docket entry saying "motion filed" may not show the content of the motion unless the public document is available remotely or the clerk provides a copy.
| Docket | Full Case Record | |
|---|---|---|
| Format | Chronological event list | Documents plus event history |
| Best Use | Confirm hearing dates, status, and case movement | Review filings, orders, judgments, and certified copies |
| Online Access | Often visible through Case.net | Public documents may be online, but some require clerk contact |
| Limits | May use short codes or brief descriptions | May be sealed, redacted, older, certified-only, or courthouse-only |
For a broad record search beyond hearings, use the Phelps County court records page for case-file channels, access laws, and in-person clerk requests.
Reading Docket Entries
Common docket terms include arraignment, motion, continuance, disposition, judgment, bond, summons, warrant, and order. An arraignment is an early criminal appearance where the charge and plea rights are addressed. A continuance means a setting was postponed. Disposition is the final result of a charge or case. Bond is a release condition or security amount. A bench warrant or capias often reflects a failure to appear or comply.
Jury and hearing logistics can also affect docket planning. Phelps County jurors are directed to call the jury message line at 573-458-6223 for weekly updates, to call before reporting, and to call Fridays after 6:00 p.m. for updates. Unless told otherwise, jurors should appear no later than 8:30 a.m. Official sources did not publish parking rates or detailed entry rules, so visitors should confirm practical arrival details with the Circuit Clerk or the specific division before the hearing date.
Federal Docket Distinction
Phelps County federal cases are not part of Missouri Case.net. Federal civil, criminal, bankruptcy, supervised-release, and appellate dockets use federal systems. Phelps County is in the Eastern District of Missouri, Eastern Division, with federal court held at St. Louis. Use the Eastern District counties-by-division page to confirm routing, and use PACER or Eastern District CM/ECF for federal docket access.
A federal hold or federal detainer can appear in a county custody context, but that does not make the federal docket a Phelps County Circuit Court docket. If a jail or sheriff record suggests a federal agency is involved, use the federal case systems for the federal file and the local clerk only for any separate state case. Bankruptcy matters also use the federal bankruptcy court, even when the person or property is in Phelps County.
The manifest also assigned a Phelps County docket image from the Recorder of Deeds office page, which helps reinforce a boundary: recorder records are not court dockets.
Marriage and land records should be routed to the Recorder of Deeds, while hearing dates and court docket entries should be routed through Case.net or the appropriate court clerk.