Searching Dade County Criminal Dockets
For public case lookups, the Dade County Circuit Clerk points people to Missouri Case.net. Pick the 28th Judicial Circuit first. Then run your Dade County criminal docket search with a last name or a full case or ticket number. Case.net covers public case information. But the clerk keeps the official trial-court record, including docket sheets and judgments that need copying or certification.
Check the result row before you open it. A Dade search may return a felony, misdemeanor, traffic, infraction, or municipal case, and the style may show the State or a city as the party pressing the charge. The defendant's name is usually the best key. A filing-date search helps catch a brand-new Dade matter, while the Scheduled Hearings & Trials Search answers the question of the next court date.
- Open Case.net and select the 28th Judicial Circuit for a Dade County search.
- Use the defendant's last name as shown on the Dade charging paper or citation. Add a first name to narrow common results.
- Use Case Number Search when a full Missouri or Dade case number or uniform citation number is available.
- Open the matching Dade case number, confirm the court and charge category, then read the Case Header and Docket Entries.
- For a public document, judgment, or certified copy that is not available online, contact the Dade County Circuit Clerk.
Note: A search result tells you a record exists. It does not make every filing attached to that case viewable from your computer.
Dade Criminal Docket Case Codes
A Dade County criminal docket often carries a modern Missouri case number. It mixes the year, a location identifier, a category, a sequence, and a subcase code. Keep every piece intact when you search. The statewide minimum category codes are CR for criminal, TR for traffic, IN for infraction. MU covers municipal ordinance. An X suffix can mark a bound-over, transferred, trial-de-novo, or certified Dade case. A TC suffix may point to a treatment-court referral. For some lighter Dade traffic and infraction matters, a uniform citation number still applies. It still serves as the file number.
- CR
- Criminal case category in the Missouri numbering system.
- TR
- Traffic category, often associated with a citation-based case record.
- IN
- Infraction category used for certain lower-level violations.
- MU
- Municipal ordinance category within the circuit-court record structure.
These codes separate records that look alike. Treat them as routing clues only, since they say nothing complete about the charge or its outcome. Read the case header, the charge block, and the newest docket entry to confirm that a Dade County criminal docket is the file you actually want.
Inside a Dade County Criminal Docket
Case.net labels the chronological register Docket Entries. It opens with the case header, which may list the 28th Circuit location, court or division, case type, filing date, case style, judge, security level, status, and the disposition once the case closes. From there, filings and court actions appear in order. A linked entry may signal an attached document. Whether you can open it depends on the document's security and your public access level.
| Dade case number | A Missouri identifier such as 26-XX-CR-00001-01, or a citation number where the Dade matter uses one. |
|---|---|
| Dade charge block | The offense or charge, and where entered, its classification or statute or ordinance reference. |
| Dade parties and counsel | The State or municipality, the defendant, and attorney information as the Dade public record permits. |
| Dade settings and entries | Hearing date, time, type, judge, location, filings, motions, orders, and continued or reset events. |
| Dade outcome and financials | Disposition, signed judgment or sentence, and any public bond, fine, restitution, or payment information. |
A hearing entry is not a final Dade result. A case can show an arraignment, plea, trial, or review setting and still be pending. For the sentencing terms that count, read the signed judgment or sentence when public access allows. A short docket label never carries the full order.
Dade Criminal Dockets After Bind-Over
Felony cases in Dade County can open at an associate preliminary stage. Later they can surface as a circuit criminal case after bind-over. That move matters. One name search can return two Dade County criminal dockets for the same event. Under Court Operating Rule 4, each defendant-level record gets its own file number, and a transfer or certification may add a fresh number or an X suffix. If the docket hints the matter moved forward, pull both records. Get the preliminary record and the circuit case.
Jurisdiction sets the route. RSMo 541.020 gives the circuit court original jurisdiction over felonies, misdemeanors, and infractions, subject to provisions of law. The Circuit Court of Missouri, 28th Judicial Circuit covers Dade County with circuit and associate circuit divisions. The Dade County Circuit Clerk keeps the matching records.
That statute places a record on the right court track. It cannot replace the Dade County criminal docket itself. The docket shows whether a case sits at an early stage, has moved up to circuit court, or has closed with an outcome.
How a Criminal Case Moves
A Dade County criminal docket typically begins with a complaint, information, indictment, or citation. An initial appearance or arraignment may come next. The register notes any plea or waiver. From there the docket can show bond or release activity. It may list a preliminary hearing in an eligible felony case. Discovery, motions, pretrial events, and later settings can follow. Every entry is a dated court action. Read the newest one against the full history that came before it.
Docket flow: Filing → Arraignment → Pretrial → Plea or Trial → Disposition → Sentencing
The last Dade line can read several ways. It might say dismissal, nolle prosequi, suspended imposition of sentence, conviction, acquittal, or some other stated result. After that disposition line, a Dade docket may show sentencing, probation review, payment, bond, or an appeal. A status event alone proves nothing about the outcome. Read it as scheduling, not results. The signed order and the current status of the Dade case give the reliable answer.
Dade Criminal Docket Outcome Entries
Outcome words on a Dade County criminal docket carry precise legal meanings. "Dismissed" and "nolle prosequi" are two ways a case ends. A "guilty" or "convicted" entry signals a criminal judgment. SIS stands for suspended imposition of sentence. It is a deferred sentencing structure whose real effect depends on the signed order and the governing law. Bond forfeitures, warrants, and capias entries mark procedural steps only. None of them, standing alone, settles the outcome of every charge in a case.
One more caution. A plea or hearing entry can look final on a Dade docket. It may not be. A later judgment, an amended charge, a probation event, or an appeal notice may follow. Always weigh the date and wording of the latest entry against the signed order itself. When a case involves a municipal transfer or trial de novo, do extra work. Track down both the original record and the new case number. The Dade County Circuit Clerk can point you to the right public record route whenever a result shows a transfer, a certification, or a document you cannot reach.
Courts That Hold Criminal Dockets
Dade County sits in Missouri's 28th Judicial Circuit, alongside Barton, Cedar, and Vernon counties. The Dade County Circuit Clerk keeps local records. Those cover the circuit, associate, criminal, traffic, and municipal-division files for the Dade location. Felonies run on the circuit criminal track, often after a preliminary stage in associate court. Misdemeanors land within the associate or circuit criminal structure. State traffic matters show up in the traffic or associate record. Dade's published recurring Associate Court criminal dates help with planning. The docket entry for the specific case controls the actual setting.
Municipal violations follow a related route. Greenfield's Municipal Division Clerk handles city-level traffic and ordinance contact, while a case filed in that division still appears on a Dade circuit-court municipal docket. The Dade County Prosecuting Attorney explains its role in Dade traffic, felony, and misdemeanor prosecutions. It also links the public to Case.net. Is a city-issued ticket missing under the name you expect? Check with the issuing city and the Dade Circuit Clerk.
Dade Criminal Docket Access at Court
Is the online docket search coming up short? Go to the Dade County Circuit Clerk at 300 W. Water Street in Greenfield. The clerk can tell you the status. A Dade County criminal docket may be public, terminal-only, paper, archived, sealed, or otherwise restricted. Under Missouri eFiling guidance, courthouse public terminals can reach public electronic cases and documents that are not available remotely. For public records and copies, call 417-238-2400; for traffic, payments, and court dates, use 417-637-2741.
Include the case number in any written request. Also list the document you want, the date, and whether you need a plain or certified copy. The county's Dade Circuit Clerk page offers Dade records, forms, a calendar, fee details, and Case.net routing. A Dade docket sheet helps you spot an entry. A certified copy of a judgment or charging document, though, moves through a separate clerk process with its own copy charges and turnaround.
Dade Criminal Docket Document Limits
Case.net may show a public Dade header. It may list Dade Docket Entries too. A particular filing can still refuse to open in the File Viewer. An entry with no link can mean no image was ever attached. Or the viewer cannot release it to you. Remote access also carries Dade date and security limits. Even so, the Dade County criminal docket still earns its keep. It names the filing, the court action, and the setting. It also tells you exactly which record to request at the Dade courthouse.
For a public-terminal session, a paper file, or a copy request, the Dade County Circuit Clerk is the practical route. Ask for the specific docket sheet, charging document, judgment, or other item you identified. Do not assume the label in Case.net Docket Entries contains the full document text. You can make the request in person. You can also mail it. Or email the Dade record/copy form. Note that email attachments do not count as valid court filings.
Note: A remote document limit can reflect record security or filing date, not the absence of a Dade County criminal case.
Sealed Dockets and Public Access
Missouri treats court records as open by default. Anyone may inspect or copy them. A statute, court rule, or court order can say otherwise. For a Dade County criminal docket, Case.net is the free place to begin. Even so, the public view has limits. Juvenile cases, mental-health records, expunged and sealed files, grand-jury material, and protected-person information may not appear at all, or may show up only in part. So an empty result does not mean no case exists.
Key rules:
Court Operating Rule 4 treats the docket or backer sheet and filed documents as parts of the official court record, while providing for restricted access to confidential, sealed, and expunged records.
RSMo 610.105 addresses when certain criminal records become closed after specified termination outcomes, subject to the statute's terms and exceptions.
RSMo 610.140 authorizes an eligible person to petition for expungement in the court where the person was charged or found guilty.
A sealed Dade case stays in restricted Dade court custody. It does not vanish. Was access denied? Keep the response. Press the Dade Circuit Clerk to name the statute, rule, confidentiality provision, or sealing order behind the restriction. The Dade clerk can point out the public access route. Even so, the clerk gives no legal advice and reveals nothing protected. The state's Chapter 610 access reference lays out how closed criminal records and authorized access work.
Reading that statute is not a key to everything. It cannot override the security level set on a Dade County court record. Nor can it undo a specific court order. What the Circuit Clerk can do is walk you through whichever public channel exists for the docket or document you want.
For cases seeking expungement, Missouri's expungement statute applies. It sets out the petition framework the court works from.
Who qualifies, when to file, and what papers you need are all statutory questions. Dade's local fee page lists an expungement surcharge, yet a dismissal alone does not guarantee every public record disappears or becomes unreachable.
Separately, Missouri Supreme Court Rule 122.02 allows limited written-request access to certain juvenile pleadings and orders, while juvenile electronic files and other records stay restricted.
A Dade County criminal docket may hold juvenile or protected material. Ask the Dade Circuit Clerk for the public Dade portion only. Then follow whatever access conditions attach to that record.