How Lead Filtering Works Across Multiple Missouri Circuits

Missouri is divided into 46 judicial circuits, each covering one or more counties. If you practice in the St. Louis metro area, for example, you're looking at the 21st Circuit (St. Louis County) and the 22nd Circuit (City of St. Louis) — two separate circuits with very different filing volumes and case mixes. You probably want leads from both, but you might not want the same kind of leads from each one.

Legal Leads lets you configure each circuit independently, so you control exactly what you receive from each area. This guide explains how multi-circuit filtering works and how to set it up for maximum efficiency.

How Circuit Settings Work

When you subscribe to Legal Leads, you choose which circuits to monitor. For each circuit, you get an independent set of filters:

• Case types — Criminal, Traffic/Municipal, Civil, Probate, Family, or any combination
• Locations — specific courthouses within the circuit (or all of them)
• Keywords — include or exclude leads based on offense descriptions or case details
• Mail outsourcing — automate mailing for some circuits while keeping others manual

Each circuit is a completely separate configuration. Changing the filters on one circuit doesn't affect any other.

Why Different Circuits Need Different Filters

Not every circuit is the same, and your practice strategy may differ by area. Here are common scenarios:

You Practice Different Case Types in Different Areas

Maybe you handle DUI defense in St. Louis County but also take drug cases in the City of St. Louis where you have court relationships. With per-circuit filtering, you can set:

• Circuit 21 (St. Louis County): Traffic/Municipal only, keyword filter for "DWI" and "DUI"
• Circuit 22 (City of St. Louis): Criminal only, keyword filter for "possession" and "distribution"

Same subscription, completely different lead profiles from each circuit — even though they're just miles apart.

You Want High Volume in Some Areas, Targeted in Others

In your core market, you might want every criminal and traffic filing — cast a wide net because you have the staff to handle the mail volume. In a secondary market where you're testing the waters, you might only want felonies or specific offense types to keep volume manageable.

• Home circuit: All case types, all locations, no keyword filters — full firehose
• Secondary circuit: Criminal only, keyword include for "felony" or specific charges

You Have Multiple Office Locations

Firms with offices in different parts of Missouri can route leads from each circuit to the office that covers that area. Each circuit's leads are delivered independently, so your Clayton office handles St. Louis County leads while your downtown office covers City of St. Louis filings.

Case Type Filtering in Detail

Missouri courts categorize filings into several broad case types. For each circuit, you choose which types you want to receive:

• Criminal — felonies, misdemeanors, and other criminal charges
• Traffic/Municipal — DUI/DWI, speeding, moving violations, municipal ordinance violations
• Civil — lawsuits, contract disputes, personal injury filings
• Probate — estate matters, guardianship, conservatorship
• Family — divorce, custody, child support, orders of protection

Most criminal defense attorneys start with Criminal and Traffic/Municipal. Family law attorneys focus on Family. Some attorneys subscribe to everything and let keyword filters narrow the results.

Keyword Filtering: Include vs. Exclude

Keywords give you fine-grained control within a case type. For each case type in each circuit, you can set keywords with either "Only these" or "Everything except" logic:

"Only These" (Include Logic)

Only deliver leads where the offense description or case detail contains one of your keywords. Use this when you want a narrow, targeted set of leads.

Example: Criminal case type with keywords "DWI, DUI, driving while intoxicated" — you'll only receive DUI-related criminal filings, not assaults, thefts, or drug charges.

"Everything Except" (Exclude Logic)

Deliver all leads except those containing your keywords. Use this when you want most leads but need to filter out specific types you don't handle.

Example: Criminal case type with exclude keywords "sex offense, child" — you'll receive all criminal filings except those involving sex offenses or cases with "child" in the description.

Keywords are matched against different fields depending on the case type:

• Criminal and Traffic: matched against the offense description
• Civil, Probate, Family: matched against the case type detail

Multiple keywords are comma-separated, and matching is case-insensitive. A lead matches if any of your keywords appear in the relevant field.

Location Filtering Within a Circuit

Some Missouri circuits contain multiple courthouses. The 21st Circuit (St. Louis County), for example, has dozens of municipal courts in addition to the main county court. If you only want leads from specific courthouses within a circuit, you can select individual locations.

If you leave locations blank, you'll receive leads from all courthouses in that circuit — which is what most subscribers choose. Location filtering is most useful when:

• You only practice in certain municipal courts within a large circuit
• You want to avoid courts where you have conflicts or don't appear
• You're testing a new circuit and want to start with just the main courthouse

How It All Flows Together

Here's what happens when a new case is filed in Missouri:

1. Legal Leads scrapes the filing from the court system — capturing the defendant's name, address, charges, case type, court location, and more
2. Circuit matching: The lead is checked against all subscribers who have that circuit enabled
3. Case type filter: Does the lead's case type match what you've selected for that circuit?
4. Location filter: Is the courthouse one you're monitoring (or are you set to "all")?
5. Keyword filter: Does the offense description pass your include/exclude keywords?
6. Conflict filter: Is the defendant on your conflict list?
7. Delivery: If the lead passes all filters, it's included in your daily delivery — and routed to your mailing partner if you use outsourcing

Every filter is optional. You can have circuits with broad, unfiltered coverage alongside circuits with precise, keyword-targeted leads — all in the same subscription.

Real-World Multi-Circuit Setups

Getting Started

Setting up multi-circuit filtering takes just a few minutes in your Legal Leads portal:

1. Subscribe to Legal Leads and select your circuits
2. Configure each circuit — choose case types, set keywords, select locations
3. Set up your conflict list — applies across all circuits automatically
4. Optionally enable mail outsourcing — per circuit or for everything
5. Adjust as you go — add circuits, tweak keywords, expand or narrow as you learn what converts

Your filters run automatically every day. As new filings come in across your circuits, only the leads that match your criteria make it through — so your daily delivery is always relevant, always actionable, and never cluttered with cases you don't handle.