Almost nobody wants a trial, and almost everyone imagines one anyway. If you are picturing a jury box, a courtroom of strangers and a verdict read out loud, that is not what a Missouri divorce trial looks like. Here is what it actually is.
Will a Missouri Divorce Trial Have a Jury?
No. A Missouri divorce is decided by the judge, not by a jury.
Here is why, because the reasoning is worth understanding. RSMo 510.190 says “The right of trial by jury as declared by the constitution or as given by a statute shall be preserved to the parties inviolate.” So the right exists where the constitution or a statute grants it.
Missouri’s dissolution statutes grant none. They assign every decision to the court. Under RSMo 452.305 it is the court that enters the judgment and the court that finds “that there remains no reasonable likelihood that the marriage can be preserved and that therefore the marriage is irretrievably broken.” Under RSMo 452.330 it is the court that divides marital property “in such proportions as the court deems just.”
One judge decides all of it. That is the whole answer, and it is the same in the Clayton, St. Louis City, St. Charles and Jefferson County courts.
What Is a Bench Trial?
A bench trial is a trial where the judge decides both the facts and the law, with no jury involved.
The judge does the job a jury would do, weighing testimony and deciding what to believe, and also does the job only a judge does, applying the law to those findings. Every family law trial in Missouri is a bench trial.
Practically, that changes the room more than people expect. There is no jury to select, no jury instructions, and no verdict announced in the moment.
What Actually Happens at a Divorce Trial?
Evidence goes in, witnesses testify and get cross examined, and then the judge takes it away to decide.
The usual shape of the day.
- Opening statements, often short or skipped entirely, because the judge has the file.
- Exhibits and documents. Financial records, statements, valuations, communications. In most family cases the documents carry more weight than the speeches.
- Witnesses. Usually the two spouses, sometimes an expert on a value or an income question, occasionally a third party with something specific to add.
- Cross examination. The part people dread and the part that is usually less dramatic than expected.
- Closing, either spoken or in a written submission the judge asks for afterwards.
- Under advisement. The judge takes the case away and issues a written judgment later.
It is far quieter than television. It is mostly documents, dates and numbers.
When Do You Find Out What the Judge Decided?
Usually not on the day. Family judgments are almost always taken under advisement and issued later in writing.
We are not going to give you a number of weeks, because it depends on the court’s docket and on how much the judge has to work through, and a figure we invent would just be one more thing to be disappointed by. Ask your lawyer what that particular court has been doing lately.
**Here is the part that catches people out**, and it matters more than the wait. The clock for an appeal does not start on your trial date. Under RSMo 512.050, a notice of appeal has to be filed “not later than ten days after the judgment or order appealed from becomes final,” and finality is its own defined moment that is generally not the day the judgment is signed either.
So if you read the judgment and your reaction is that something has gone wrong, that is the week to say so, not next month. Our page on appealing a divorce case goes through the timing.
Is a Bench Trial Better or Worse for You?
It is different rather than better, and the differences are structural rather than anything about individual judges.
Four honest ones.
- Your audience already knows this area of law. Explaining the law matters less. Proving your facts matters more.
- There is nobody to persuade emotionally. A jury can be moved by how a story feels. A family court judge is deciding on a record.
- You get reasoning in writing. A jury returns a result. A judge produces a judgment you can read, which is also what makes review possible.
- It is one decision maker rather than twelve. That cuts both ways and there is no honest way to say in advance which way it cuts for you.
What we will not tell you is what any particular judge tends to do. That is not something to publish, and anyone offering it to you is guessing.
How Do You Prepare for a Divorce Trial?
Almost all of the work is documents and deadlines, and a missed deadline can decide more than a bad day of testimony.
The cautionary case is Hutcherson v. Hutcherson, 909 S.W.2d 403 (Mo. App. W.D. 1995). A spouse missed a thirty day local rule deadline for filing a property statement. That circuit’s local rule said the noncomplying party “shall be deemed to have accepted the Schedule filed by the other party and the stated values therein, and at trial the noncomplying party shall not be permitted to offer evidence contradicting the filed Schedules.”
The trial court held that “the values stand as set forth on Petitioner’s statement of marital and nonmarital property” and refused to hear contradicting evidence. The Court of Appeals affirmed.
Read that again. **A calendar entry decided the value of a marital estate.** No argument about what anything was worth, because the deadline had already answered it.
That was another circuit’s rule, not St. Louis County’s, and the numbers differ. The lesson does not. Every court in this area has filing requirements with dates attached. In St. Louis County, under Rule 68, the responding party’s financial statements are due “within sixty (60) days of service or entry of appearance, whichever is earlier,” and where there are children, certification of the parent education program is due “on the first day of a contested hearing.”
So preparation looks like this.
- File everything the local rule requires, on time. This is the cheapest protection in the case.
- Get your documents in order early. Statements, returns, valuations, and a clear list of what you say each asset is worth.
- Know your own numbers. Being unable to explain your own finances under questioning is the most common avoidable problem at trial.
- Deal with the parenting class well beforehand if children are involved.
- Prepare as if it will be tried. Not because it probably will be, but because that preparation is what produces a settlement worth accepting.
Do Most Divorce Cases Actually Go to Trial?
Most resolve without one, and preparing properly is a large part of why.
We are not going to quote you a percentage, because we have not got a verified one. What is true is that a case where both sides have their documents together and a realistic view of the range tends to settle, and a case where one side has not done that work tends to drift toward a hearing.
Where the two of you are close but stuck, mediation resolves a lot of what would otherwise get tried. Our page on contested divorce covers the litigated path, and how long a divorce takes covers the schedule.
Who Can Help With a Divorce Trial in St. Louis?
The most useful thing early on is an honest read of whether your case is likely to be tried and what it would turn on if it were.
Bardol Law Firm practices only family law, and we are in the St. Louis County Family Court and the City of St. Louis, St. Charles and Jefferson County courts regularly. If a trial date is on your horizon, we will tell you plainly what the contested issues really are, what evidence decides them, and what the deadlines are between now and then. Our other family law questions and answers cover the rest of the process.
Every client gets a named paralegal on the file, and we generally return calls within one business day. Call 314.918.0100 or reach us through our contact page. Family Law, Simplified. Fill out the form or call to set up a consultation.
This page is general information about Missouri law and is not legal advice. Every case turns on its own facts. The choice of a lawyer is an important decision and should not be based solely upon advertisements.