Cline, Braddock & Basinger LLC

01/21/2025

MO’s expungement law has been updated in 2025.

Missourians can now expunge three misdemeanors and two felonies.

Waiting periods have also been decreased: three years after sentencing is complete for felonies, and one year for misdemeanors.
If no charge was brought, the wait is 18 months.

You can call our office at (573) 443-6244 if you believe you may qualify for an expungement.
Clearing your record can be a life changing decision!

MISSOURI (KOAM) --On January 1st, Missouri will update its expungement laws, making it easier for individuals to clear their criminal records.

03/13/2023

We apologize if you are unable to contact our office this morning. Our phone lines are down. Waiting on Mediacom Business to fix the problem on their end.

11/18/2022

This has long been a problem for low-income parents in custody cases. They are ineligible for the full benefit of child tax credits, so the Court often awards the credits to the other parent.

Many of the lowest-income families nationally earn too little to qualify for the $2,000 federal benefit for each child.

08/29/2022

New laws concerning voter id requirements went into effect yesterday. Please review the requirements before the upcoming election to make sure you can cast a ballot November 8, 2022!

Changes for the November 8, 2022 General Election:

Photo ID Requirements

To vote in person, voters will need to show one of the following forms of ID:
1. A Missouri Driver license that is not expired;
2. A Missouri Nondriver's license that is not expired or does not have an expiration date;
3. A U.S. Passport that is not expired;
4. A Military ID that is not expired or does not have an expiration date; or
5. A document issued by the United States or state of Missouri that includes your photograph and name that matches your voter registration record. This document must not be expired or, if it is expired, it expired after November 2, 2020.

If you don't have one of these IDs, you can still vote a blue provisional ballot, which will be counted if you come back to your polling place on Election Day with your ID or if your signature matches the signature on your voter registration record.

New No-Excuse Absentee Voting Period

Any registered voter can vote in person at the Boone County Clerk's Office between October 25th and November 7th.

Note: These changes are part of a new law, House Bill 1878. There are several court cases challenging the new law. The Clerk's Office will keep all voters informed of any potential changes.

10/28/2021

It is great to continue to be able to work with legal aid through the Judicare program. They help a lot of people that otherwise would not get help. - Jeff

Wills, POA, and Advanced Directives - It’s Pro Bono Celebration Week! THANK YOU to our all our volunteer attorneys over the years who have drafted wills, powers of attorney, and advanced directives for seniors over age 65, people with disabilities, and people facing a terminal illness. You provide low-income individuals the reassurance that someone they trust will be making decisions about care and the peace of mind that they have made their wishes known in their will. A special thanks to Jeff Basinger who handled wills, powers of attorney, and advanced directives for MMLS in the last year. You can VOLUNTEER TODAY at https://www.mmls.org/volunteer/.

10/06/2020

https://www.komu.com/news/increase-in-divorce-rates-due-to-pandemic

In Boone County, 433 people have filed for divorce in 2020.

08/06/2020

Thank you, Judge Baker, for your candid remarks and capacity for admitting a mistake. Judge Baker advises Missourians that SB1 needs to be opposed, since it would open the door for Judges to treat children as young as 12 as adults:

When I was a judge, in 1997, I sentenced Bobby Bostic, a sixteen-year-old child at the time of his offense, to 241 years in prison....

07/21/2020

Charges have been brought against the STL attorneys for waving a semi-automatic weapon and gun at protestors. No conviction is likely due to a planned diversion recommendation:

Mark and Patricia McCloskey are charged with unlawful use of a weapon over the incident in St Louis.

04/21/2020

https://www.nola.com/news/courts/article_e446e44e-35f3-11ea-8b1c-8705ca5b3db9.html

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Monday that juries across the nation must be unanimous to convict or acquit a criminal defendant, outlawing the split verdicts that had persisted in

04/15/2020

The majority of the bar and public probably do not know that Missouri has no formal “rules” for determining attorney ethics sanctions. Instead, after using Supreme Court Rule 4 to determine violations, the ABA model rules are merely one of multiple sources that the Court may use as “guidance” for sanctions. An article on our site endorsed formally adopting the ABA Standards as rules, given the potential for mistakes like the unfortunate sua sponte decision in the 2016 Krigel case.

This article advocates for formally adopting the ABA Standards for Imposing Lawyer Sanctions (the “Standards”) in Missouri attorney ethics discipline cases. Since the Standards have not been adopted in Missouri, the Missouri Supreme Court is essentially left with total discretion in the rules fo...

03/24/2020

https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/488996-supreme-court-rules-states-can-eliminate-insanity-defense

The Supreme Court on Monday ruled that states can effectively eliminate the insanity defense for criminal defendants who suffer from mental illness.The 6-3 ruling holds that a Kansas law preventing the exoneration of defendants who claim a diminished mental state is not unconstitutional.In an unusua...