Seneca Municipal Court

November Court CANCELED Due to COVID-19 Quarantine Guidelines, Seneca City Hall will be CLOSED until Monday, November 23. Therefore, the NOVEMBER 18th COURT is CANCELED. If your court date is for November 18, it will be continued to December 16 at 9:00 A.M. PLEASE NOTE that court will begin in the MORNING, not the afternoon, to accommodate the November court that was canceled. Defendants originally scheduled for December will have their cases heard at 1:00 p.m. Letters with ...the new court date will be mailed out to the last known address. Payments can still be placed in the drop box at the front of City Hall and will be checked on daily. You can pay by credit/debit card on the Missouri courts website under the Pay-by-Web tab. If you want to mail your payment in, send your money order to: Seneca Municipal Court P.O. Box 485 Seneca, MO 64865 Your payments are still due even if court is canceled. Please watch this page in case there are further updates. Thank you.

We have been striving to catch up on court cases due to COVID shutting us down for 3 months. At this time, we are starting to go through files of defendants who have a payment agreement with the court which states they will a pay a certain amount on a certain day. Whatever the situation is, some will be getting Fail-to-Pay letters to come to court to explain to the Judge why payments have not been made. HOWEVER, some will be getting WARRANTS because of repeated reinstatement ...payment agreements and still failing to pay. The options are: 1) catch up on payments 2) pay off complete balance 3) or come to court if you get a FTP letter and can't pay at all If one chooses to ignore the letter and payments, then warrants will be issued after the missed court date. It is your responsibility to keep the court informed of new addresses. If a letter comes back, you are still held accountable for that letter. Please make wise decisions.

We will open up tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. if you want to catch up on your payments so you don't have to come to court or to plead and pay on eligible tickets.

Court is coming up fast..... this Wednesday, July 15. Court time has permanently moved to 1:00 p.m. However, we are transitioning to this time, so if you appear at 2:00, it will be okay. This court will be our biggest ever!!! You may want to plead guilty and pay ahead on eligible tickets. If you are scheduled for a payment review, you still have the option to pay your balance or catch up on your payments to skip court. This is strongly urged due to the case load. Please bring... your cell phone, if you have one, as we will be taking your name and number and will call you when it's your turn to appear before the judge. Face coverings/masks are recommended. Approximately 200 letters were sent out to the last known address after court last time for non-appearance. If you were among one of these and do not appear on July 15, you will be eligible for a warrant that will be issued some time after court.. Again, if that warrant is because of non-payment, a fully paid balance or a catch-up on payments will make that warrant go away. In the meantime, stay safe and we will see you on Wednesday.

June 17, 2020 Municipal Court will begin an hour earlier at 1:00 to help spread out the volume of defendants that should be appearing. Please bring a PHONE, a MASK and an INK PEN. We will have someone take your name and cell number at the door. No one will be allowed in the building until your name or cell number is called. You will be able to wait in your car or thereabouts. If you don't have a phone, you will need to stay close by so that you can hear your name. When you en...ter, please have your mask on and please bring a pen to sign any necessary documents. There will be a very limited number of people at one time in the building, so no one can bring family or friends in with them. If there are extenuating circumstances, we will take that into consideration. If you have an eligible ticket that can be paid without coming to court, we will be open at 10:00 a.m. for those individuals. Please bring the gold copy of your ticket with your signature on the back which is your plea of guilty and full payment. You can find a partial listing of eligible offenses in an earlier post. Please do not ask to speak with the Prosecuting Attorney before court. You will see the Judge first and you can make your request known then. We will NOT be taking a list of names to see the PA... we will let the Judge make that arrangement. Please observe social distancing at all times, whether it's inside or outside the courtroom. This is an all new process for everyone, so changes will be made, if necessary, for a workable solution.

Court WILL be held this month - June 17, 2020. Guidelines and procedures will be posted later. Please check back later for updates. This court docket is quite large due to the COVID-19 shutdown of in-person court hearings.Therefore, if time is an issue, pleading guilty before court might be an advantage to you. If you have an offense that meets the criteria of pleading guilty without appearing in court, you may do so by SIGNING the BACK of your ticket and sending in TOTAL PAY...MENT before your court date; otherwise, you will need to appear. Below is a PARTIAL LISTING of common offenses that meet the requirements of a written plea of guilty. Animal at Large Defective Equipment Expired Plates Fail to Drive on Right Half of Roadway Fail to Register Vehicle Fail to Stop at Stop Sign Fail to Yield Illegal Turning Improper Registration of Vehicle Obstructing Traffic Seatbelt Speeding (1-19 miles over the limit) U-turn / J-turn Please send a money-order with signed ticket to: Seneca Municipal Court P.O. Box 485 Seneca, MO 64865 - OR - Payment can be put in the drop box to the right of City Hall's front door. No checks are accepted. We accept payment by debit/credit card, but your signed ticket will need to be mailed and received by the court before a call-in payment is made. You have to come to court if you have received a more serious citation such as.... assault, possession of marijuana/paraphernalia, DWR/DWS, DWI-Alcohol/Drugs, Obstruction. You also have to come to court if you received a NO INSURANCE citation as this can affect your driving privileges. If you're not sure of your court date, check the Missouri court website (casenet) periodically and search your name or case number. If you miss your first court date, you will receive a Fail-to-Appear summons with a new court date. This will actually be your 2nd summons to court as your ticket is your 1st summons. If you miss the new scheduled court date, a warrant may be issued. Again, please check back. There will be more information about the upcoming court.

If sending a money order for fine payments, please send it to: Seneca Municipal Court P.O. Box 485 Seneca, MO 64865