Missouri Court of Appeals

The Missouri Court of Appeals is the intermediate appellate court for the state of Missouri. The court handles most of the appeals from the Missouri Circuit Courts. The court is divided into three geographic districts: Eastern (based in St. Louis), Western (based in Kansas City), and Southern (based in Springfield). For example, appeals taken from trials in St. Louis County will go to the Eastern District, and appeals taken from trials in Jackson County (Kansas City) will go to the Western District.

After a case is decided in the Court of Appeals, the losing party may chose to accept the result, or to appeal further to the Supreme Court of Missouri. In most appeals, the Supreme Court of Missouri may, and often does, reject an appeal from the Court of Appeals (called "discretionary jurisdiction"). Historically, less than ten percent of the appeals heard by the Missouri Court of Appeals are transferred to the Supreme Court. Thus, for the vast majority of appeals, the Court of Appeals decision is final.

The Missouri Court of Appeals has jurisdiction over all appeals which do not fall under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of Missouri. The five categories of appeals over which the Supreme Court exercises exclusive jurisdiction are:

Therefore, if an appeal falls within one of these five categories, the appeal must go directly to the Missouri Supreme Court. If an appeal does not fall within one of these five categories, the Missouri Court of Appeals may hear the case.

The Missouri court of appeals functions by issuing written judicial opinions. These opinions create precedent for future cases within each District's geographic region.

These opinions are available to the public. The court publishes the opinions to its website when they are issued.

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