Following up on Senate Bill 5 from last year, which reacted to the DOJ's critical report of the Ferguson Municipal Court system, this year Senate Bill 572 was passed and has been signed by the Governor.

The Governor's staff prepared the following statement for him to proclaim: "The purpose of municipal courts is to protect our communities, not profit from them," said Gov. Nixon. "This bill builds on the landmark reform legislation I called for and signed last year, and will help ensure all our municipal courts operate with fairness, openness and accountability."

So, what does SB572 really do?  First, understand that it has a lot of provisions and is not a focused bill.  It requires municipalities in St. Louis County to review their construction codes by 2018, but not to adopt any particular updates.  So, just not sure what that will accomplish or why the Missouri Senate needed to tell municipalities in St. Louis County to do that.

But the meat of the SB and what Gov. Nixon was talking about is that the act changes the definition of court costs to exclude any certified costs, and to include fines added to the annual real estate tax bill or a special tax bill of a property owner for the cost of nuisance abatement and removal. The definition of minor traffic violation is modified to include traffic ordinance violations for which no points are assessed to a driver's driving record and amended charges for any minor traffic violation and adds a definition for municipal ordinance violations.

The maximum allowable fine for minor traffic violations has been lowered from three hundred dollars to two hundred twenty-five dollars. For municipal ordinance violations committed within a twelve month period beginning with the first violation: the maximum allowable fine is two hundred dollars for the first offense, two hundred seventy-five dollars for the second offense, three hundred fifty dollars for the third offense, and four hundred fifty dollars for the fourth and subsequent offenses. No court costs shall be charged to defendants found to be indigent. Municipal courts are also required to not charge defendants for costs associated with community service alternatives.

Municipal ordinance violations and amended charges for municipal ordinance violations are added to the calculation limiting the percentage of annual general operating revenue that can come from fines and court costs for minor violations and to provisions regarding fines, imprisonment, and court costs in municipal court cases. Municipal ordinance violations are also added to municipal disincorporation provisions if a municipality fails to remit excess annual general operating revenue to the Department of Revenue for the county school fund and the disincorporation threshold has been lowered from sixty percent to a majority of participating voters.
This act also specifies that the state is not liable for the debts of a municipality that is financially insolvent.  So, Missouri has effectively limited the amount of proceeds that municipalities can generate through policing  and the Courts, which will put many municipalities into financial jeopardy so the State needed to clarify they weren't going to be responsible for those messes.

While SB572 does impose a limit on the number of municipalities one can be a judge in - 5 (remember we are talking about a lot of small communities here where muni court is once or twice a month at night), it does nothing to address the requirement for being a municipal court judge.  That's right, if you are between the ages of 21-75 and live in the State of Missouri, you can be a municipal judge.  A law degree is not needed - maybe that would be a good place to start on reforming our municipal court system.

Tim West, LAKC Board of Directors
MO Legislative Monitor

The LAKC-YLS will hold elections for the 2016-17 YLS Board of Directors on Thursday, June 23rd at Char Bar.

Members may vote by ballot (link below) by 5pm on June 23rd. Please return this ballot to Molly Keppler by e-mail to molly.keppler@stinson.com, or by U.S. mail to Molly Keppler, Stinson Leonard Street LLP, 1201 Walnut St., Suite 2900, Kansas City, MO 64106. Ballots, whether sent by e-mail or U.S. mail, must be received prior to 5 p.m. on June 23, 2016, to be counted.

If you prefer to vote in person, you may do so at the LAKC-YLS Elections on June 23, 2016, from 5:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at Char Bar, 4050 Pennsylvania Avenue, Kansas City, Missouri. There is no cost to attend and reservations are not required. Link to event listing: LAKC-YLS Annual Elections 

LAKC-YLS 2016-17 YLS BOD Ballot.pdf

LAKC's Annual Meeting will be held Wednesday, May 25th from 5:30-7pm at Amigoni Urban Winery. The meeting portion of this happy hour event will begin at 6pm; all members are welcome and encouraged to attend.

There is no cost to attend; registration is not required.

LAKC 2016-17 Slate of Officers and Directors.pdf

Circuit Court of Jackson County Job Posting # 043 - Coordinator/Attorney

043_CoordAttorney job posting 4.16.pdf

Missouri Senate Bill 661 has been perfected and is on the Senate's formal calendar for third reading today.  This bill is proposed by Senator Bob Dixon (R) of Greene County.  The bill would create a private cause of action for those persons injured by "[any] person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of the state of Missouri or any political subdivision thereof, subjects, or causes to be subjected, ... to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Missouri Constitution and laws of this state...."  The bill also adds significant language to the existing law concerning an officer's use of force.  Specifically, it adds language stating that the use of physical force in making an arrest is not justified unless "the amount of physical force used was objectively reasonable in light of the totality of the particular facts and circumstances confronting the officer on the scene, without regard to the officer's underlying intent or motivation."  The bill also proposes important limitations on deadly force.  For instance, the where the statute currently permits deadly force when effecting arrest if the suspect has "committed or attempted to commit a felony" the words "offense involving the infliction of threatened infliction of serious physical injury" has been added.

Tim West, LAKC Board of Directors
MO Legislative Monitor

Current RSMo 537.762, often referred to as the Innocent Seller's Statute, provides in part, that an order of dismissal as to a "defendant whose liability is based solely on his status as a seller in the stream of commerce" does not "divest a court of venue or jurisdiction otherwise proper at the time the action was commenced" and that "[a]n order of dismissal under this section shall be interlocutory until final disposition...."  These provisions allowing for cases to be heard in Circuits that would not otherwise be appropriate are currently the subject of Senate Bill 792.  SB 792 seeks to strike subsections 6 and 7 from RSMo 537.762.  The practical effect which would be to allow defendants to remove cases to federal court or seek to transfer venue where "innocent sellers" were added for the purposes of eliminating diversity jurisdiction or establishing venue in a particular county.  This bill, proposed by Senator Ron Richard (R), is current on the "for perfection" Senate calendar.  It is the same as SB487, which was proposed in 2015.

Tim West, LAKC Board of Directors
MO Legislative Monitor

The Circuit of Jackson County announces the following Staff Attorney position: 037_Attorney_04132016 (1).pdf

Governor Nixon has signed SB 585, which, as of January 1, 2017, splits the 38th Judicial Circuit into two Circuits, leaving Christian County as the sole county in the 38th Judicial Circuit and moving Taney County to the newly created 46th Judicial Circuit.  An election for the single Circuit Court Judge position for the 46th Judicial Circuit will be held later this year.  This is a significant development for the greatly overworked 38th Judicial Circuit.

Timothy R. West, Berkowitz Oliver LLP
LAKC Board of Directors MO Legislative Monitor

The Young Lawyers Section of the Lawyers Association of Kansas City will be hosting the Missouri State Mock Trial Tournament this year, the weekend of April 1 through April 3.  The Lawyers Association of Kansas City is looking for attorneys to serve as judges for the competition, which will take place downtown at the Jackson County Courthouse.

The first round of the tournament will be on Friday, April 1, 2016, beginning at 6:00 pm.  The second round and quarterfinal round of the tournament will take place on Saturday, April 2, 2016.  The second round will begin Saturday morning at 8:30 am.  The quarterfinal round will begin Saturday at 1:00 pm.  The semifinal and final round of the tournament will be on Sunday, April 3, 2016.  The semifinal will begin Sunday morning at 8:30 am.  The final round will begin Sunday at 12:30 pm.

Judges are encouraged to arrive 30 minutes before each round and will be provided breakfast, lunch and/or dinner before each round.  Each round is expected to last approximately 2.5 hours or less.  This is a great opportunity to see how enthusiastic these high school students are about the law, and can reenergize and remind us why we love what we do!

If, instead, you would like to contribute financially, we would appreciate that as well.

If you are interested and would like to participate, please contact Allison Greenfield at agreenfield@bjpc.com or Tyler Scott at Tyler.Scott@huschblackwell.com.

Missouri House Representative Robert Ross (R - District 142) has introduced a bill that specifies once a person has served two years as a member of the General Assembly, such person is qualified to practice law as an attorney and to serve as an associate or circuit judge in Missouri without further education requirements or other qualifications being met.  This bill was read twice on February 24, 2016.  As of March 1, 2016, the bill is not currently scheduled for hearing or on the House calendar.

Timothy R. West
Missouri Legislative Monitor
LAKC Board of Directors