Franklin County Civil Docket Searches
Missouri Case.net is the first public stop for Franklin County civil matters. Plug in a party name. Try a filing date, a case number, or a scheduled hearing or trial date. Do not trust a result yet. Check that the case category, county, and division all line up. A header and its docket entries do more than fill the screen. They separate a true court record from a related service or agency record.
- Open Case.net and choose a name, filing-date, case-number, or hearing search.
- Narrow the result to Franklin County and the relevant case information when controls are available.
- Confirm the exact case number, filing date, parties, case category, and division in the case header.
- Read the dated docket entries for the petition, service, motions, settings, orders, and judgment activity.
- Record the document title and filing date before asking the Circuit Clerk for a copy.
Treat Case.net as an index and case-information layer. It may not display every document image, and it never replaces a clerk copy request when a certified court record is required.
Franklin County Civil Process Status
Civil Process in Franklin County serves the papers that move a lawsuit along: summonses, subpoenas, garnishments, writs, orders of protection, evictions, and similar orders. The office sits at 401 E Main Street, Suite 100B, Union. Its phone line is (636) 584-6861. Before calling, the official Civil Process page has one instruction. It tells you to check Case.net and have the case number ready.
Know which task you actually need. A copy of a filed summons is a Circuit Clerk record request. Service status is a Civil Process question. The county says returns are e-filed where possible. So a service record will not show up instantly on the docket.
Franklin County Civil Process spells out the service types. It also gives the local route for checking status on a civil docket.
The page also marks a court-record line worth remembering. A filed case event and the separate work of serving a document are two different things.
Civil Dockets: What They Show
Think of a Franklin County civil docket as a timeline. Each entry lands in the order the court acted. The public case header may list the case style, parties, counsel, category, filing date, court, and division. The dated entries then carry the substance. Where entries are public, they can show the petition or complaint, summons and return, answer, counterclaim, motion, response, discovery, hearing, order, judgment, costs, satisfaction, and appeal.
| Case header | Shows identifying information such as the court, parties, case category, filing date, and status where public. |
|---|---|
| Petition or complaint | The filing that begins the civil court matter. |
| Service return | Proof or status of delivery. It is distinct from the court’s final judgment. |
| Setting | A scheduled hearing, conference, trial, or other court event. |
| Judgment or order | The court action that should be read to confirm a disposition or ruling. |
One caution belongs here. A petition, a service entry, or a past setting is not a final result, so read the later docket entries and the relevant order for the full context.
Franklin County Civil Docket Requests
The Franklin County Circuit Clerk holds the actual court file. That file sits behind any civil docket you find. To get copies, fill out the office's records request form. It asks who you are. It also asks how to reach you, plus whether you want the copies certified, mailed, or held for pickup. You will also supply a case number, the document you need, and its filing date. One document-and-date pair is required. The form has space for two more document requests if you need them. Be precise. The clerk can pull the right civil filing and price the copies faster when you are.
Copy fees are $1 per page. Certification adds $1.50. The clerk quotes an estimated total and wants prepayment before work begins. You can pay by cash, check, money order, Visa, Mastercard, Discover, or American Express. Card payments carry a convenience fee. Mail delivery and hold-for-pickup are the two documented options. The office publishes no standard turnaround time and no way to upload a file online.
One more thing worth knowing. The Circuit Clerk and the County Clerk are separate offices. They keep separate records. The Franklin County Clerk page lists what that office handles. That list is not the civil court docket.
Route any court-file request to the Circuit Clerk, not the county-government clerk's office.
What Cases Fill the Civil Docket
A Franklin County civil docket holds procedural stages, not one simple case type. County materials point to protection-order proceedings, eviction actions, service of civil papers, garnishments, and writs. Filed court matters also appear. These move through pleadings, service, hearings, orders, judgments, and appeals. The type of case in front of you is easiest to pin down from the case category in the Case.net header. Check that field first.
- Petition or complaint filings and later responses
- Summons and service-return activity
- Protection-order matters handled in Circuit Court
- Eviction civil actions and later court entries
- Garnishment, writ, subpoena, and other process-related filings
One local detail: for an order-of-protection petition, the county suggests submission by 3:00 p.m. for judge review. That is a Franklin County operational note. It is not a general deadline or a prediction about any filing.
Franklin County Civil Docket Service Returns
Service status is never a final case outcome. A return tells the court whether delivery was completed or attempted. The docket keeps moving after that, tracking later pleadings, settings, orders, and judgment. Have multiple service matters? The Civil Process page asks requesters to email a list. Include each case number. The sheriff serves respondents who live or work in Franklin County. This happens under the county's protection-order workflow.
Eviction materials sketch the county's path. It runs from a petition and service or posting to appearance and judgment. A ten-day appeal period follows, then execution and sheriff scheduling or posting. Current forms, fees, and exceptions are not published as a fixed online schedule. Confirm them with the court, the clerk, or qualified counsel. A docket event is not procedural advice.
Note: Franklin County publishes no general Civil Process fee or service-turnaround promise. Confirm current costs with that office directly.
Hearings on the Civil Docket
A civil setting marks a court date on the Franklin County docket. It might be a hearing. It might be mediation or a trial. Case-management events appear too. Read the case header and docket entries in date order before relying on any single line. For a current event, Case.net offers a scheduled-hearings-and-trials mode worth checking. A calendar line is never a judgment. Dated entries can also be continued or cancelled later.
Keep the case number and division with the setting. If a hearing is close and the online entry looks stale, confirm it with the court or the Circuit Clerk. The county itself warns that Case.net can lag after court, so direct contact is the safer path for an imminent civil event. Once the case and division are clear, the separate Franklin County Court Schedule reference gives the fuller scheduling picture.
Franklin County Civil Docket File Access
Not every docket event comes with a document image online. In the Missouri File Viewer, a hyperlink signals an attached document. An entry without one may mean no attachment exists. It may instead mean the file is not public. The “(ECASE)” label marks an electronic case record. The 20th Circuit also splits remote access by filing date: documents filed on or after July 1, 2023 differ from older electronic material, which stays available at a courthouse public terminal.
That makes the Franklin County Circuit Clerk the fallback for an older image, an unlinked filing, or a certified copy. Bring the case number, the document name, and the filing date. Confidential cases may require photo ID. Some inspection applications need a judge’s approval.
Who Can See Civil Dockets
Missouri access rests on court rules and the Sunshine Law together. Court Operating Rule 4.03 defines the official court record. It includes filed documents and docket or backer sheets. Rule 4.24 governs confidential records. Rules 4.25 and 4.26 cover sealed and expunged ones. A public case header or document title still does not authorize access to a withheld document.
Key rules:
RSMo § 610.022 provides Sunshine Law request and open-record procedure context.
RSMo § 610.026 supplies public-record copying and production fee context.
RSMo § 610.120 limits general-public access to closed records.
Send a precise civil record request to the right office. Missouri’s Sunshine Law request rule sets out how a public body must handle and answer such a request.
Request steps aside, court rules still control confidential, sealed, and expunged material.
Franklin County Civil Docket Copy Fees
State copying law gives context, but the local form controls a Franklin County court-file request. The Circuit Clerk charges $1 per page for copies. Certification adds $1.50. Wait for the clerk’s estimate before paying. Civil Process keeps its own separate fee schedule in the county. The copy price is not a service fee.
Name each filing by case number, document title, and filing date. The form allows up to three named document requests. Its required first document-and-date pair anchors a precise request. Ask the clerk for an estimate rather than assuming a total or a turnaround time. A clear request speeds the local civil record channel.
Missouri’s public-record copying rule sets the statewide fee framework behind the local civil docket copy process.
Know which copy you need first. Telling the clerk whether it is plain or certified helps the estimate, and no fee rule ever promises access to the record.