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Criminal Defense Blog

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The Effect of Coronavirus on the Courts

In response to the Coronavirus Disesease (COVID-19) the Supreme Court of Missouri issued a momentous order yesterday, March 16, 2020. Click here to read the order. In it, the Court suspended all in-person proceedings in all Appellate and Circuit Courts effective immediately and through April 3, 2020.

Like anything, there are exceptions to this suspension. Some of those are:
1) Proceedings necessary to protect the Constitutional rights of criminal defendants;
2) Proceedings related to emergency health orders;
3) Proceedings in which civil or criminal jury trials are already in progress as of March 16, 2020.
There are other exceptions, but for us, these are the main ones that apply.

Many of you may wonder, how does that effect my case? What if I have a warrant? What if I have a loved one who is incarcerated?
Even with the Supreme Court order, attorneys like us can still appear on your cases in Court. In fact, Adam was in Court all day yesterday and today. If someone has a warrant and wants it taken care of, call us right away and we can still work to help. We can still conduct bond hearings, albeit without the presence of the Defendant, even through this order. However, if you have a general reappearance set in the next two weeks, those are expected to be reset by the Courts automatically.

We will keep our clients closely notified of any changes to their court dates, as there are sure to be many. The goal is to keep people out of large groups. We too encourage everyone to maintain safe social distances and not to go into public unless you have to. Let’s stop the spread of this ugly illness in its tracks. We are doing what we can in the justice system to meet that objective.