Kirkwood · St. Louis County

A walkable downtown.
Two generations of clients.

Kirkwood is one of the few St. Louis suburbs that still feels like a town — the historic Amtrak depot, the Saturday farmers’ market, the brick storefronts along Argonne. The legal work that comes out of Kirkwood reflects that texture. Estate planning for families that have been in the same home for forty years and want to keep it that way for their children. Personal injury claims along Manchester and Big Bend. Routine traffic and DWI matters from a town with restaurants people walk to.

49 YearsSame Office · Same Phone
MOState Bar Admissions
FreeInitial Consultation · Same-Day Reply
From Kirkwood

Twenty minutes north,
two highways away.

Our Florissant office is about twenty minutes north of downtown Kirkwood — I-44 to I-270 and up to Highway 67. Most of the Kirkwood work we do is handled by phone, video, and the occasional in-person signing at a Kirkwood home or coffee shop. We drive to Kirkwood for estate-plan signings, witness conferences, and accident-scene visits when those serve the case.

Local Courts

Where Kirkwood
cases get decided.

Two courts handle Kirkwood matters — the city's own municipal bench and the county courthouse twenty minutes north in Clayton.

Municipal

Kirkwood Municipal Court

139 S. Kirkwood Road · Kirkwood, MO 63122

Ordinance matters, traffic citations from Manchester, Big Bend, and Lindbergh inside city limits, careless driving, no insurance, and minor misdemeanors.

County Circuit

St. Louis County Circuit Court

105 S. Central Ave · Clayton, MO 63105

Felony cases, dissolution and family law, larger civil disputes, and probate. About twenty minutes north on I-170.

Probate

St. Louis County Probate Division

105 S. Central Ave · Clayton, MO 63105

Estate administration, conservatorships, guardianships. Same Clayton courthouse as the Circuit Court.

The Probate Division's workload matters for Kirkwood specifically because Kirkwood has so many long-tenured homeowners. Probate is unavoidable when an estate plan is missing or incomplete. A Missouri beneficiary deed costs a few hundred dollars and keeps the family home outside of probate entirely — we recommend it for nearly every Kirkwood homeowner who walks in without one.

Verify Before Relying Court addresses, hours, and procedural information above are believed accurate but may change. Verify current details with the court directly — addresses, dockets, filing windows, and clerk hours can change without notice. Statute citations and procedural references on this page were believed accurate at the time of writing; Missouri law changes regularly.

What Brings Clients In

Eight practices.
One firm.

Kirkwood work skews heavily toward estate planning and probate for long-tenured residents, alongside personal injury from the Manchester and Big Bend corridors. The other practices fill out the calendar.

A Note on Kirkwood

Why a Kirkwood case
looks different.

Kirkwood’s population is around 28,000, and the demographic mix is unusual for the metro — long-tenured homeowners, often in homes their families have owned for decades, alongside a steady stream of younger families drawn by the schools and the walkability. That mix shapes our caseload. The estate plans we draft skew toward families whose largest asset is a Kirkwood home appreciated well above its purchase price, and the probate work skews toward second-generation administration where the underlying plan has not been updated in twenty years.

On the personal injury side, Manchester Road and Big Bend Boulevard produce the bulk of Kirkwood collisions we see. These are not interstate-speed cases, generally; they are intersection collisions, parking lot incidents, and the occasional pedestrian accident from the walkable downtown. Damages tend to be more about lost wages and medical bills than catastrophic injury, but the same investigative discipline applies.

What we ask first when a Kirkwood family calls: when the existing will or trust was last updated, whether the family home is titled in the trust, and whether a beneficiary deed has been recorded. The answers usually reveal whether the existing plan is current or whether twenty years of life have outpaced the documents.

Kirkwood is a town where people stay put. Our job is to make sure the legal foundation under that life — the deed, the will, the trust, the insurance — stays put with them.
Common Questions from Kirkwood

Kirkwood legal FAQ —
straight answers.

The questions Kirkwood residents and businesses ask most often. General information; specific facts always change the analysis.

What court handles felony cases for Kirkwood residents?

Felony charges originating in Kirkwood are filed in the St. Louis County Circuit Court at 105 South Central Avenue, Clayton. Initial appearances, preliminary hearings, and bond review are heard there before the case is assigned to a trial division. We appear in St. Louis County regularly.

Where is Kirkwood’s municipal court located?

The Kirkwood Municipal Court at City Hall handles ordinance violations. Speeding citations, careless-and-imprudent tickets, accident citations, and minor ordinance matters are heard there rather than at the St. Louis County Circuit Court.

How far is your office from Kirkwood?

Our office at 580 N. U.S. Highway 67, Suite 4 in Florissant is about 25 minutes south of Florissant via I-270. Many Kirkwood clients meet us in person; others handle the entire matter by phone and video, with in-home signings available for estate planning.

What is a Missouri beneficiary deed?

A beneficiary deed under RSMo §461.025 lets a Missouri homeowner name who receives the property on death, outside probate. It is one of the most cost-effective planning tools available and is signed and recorded with the recorder of deeds.

Does my Kirkwood home have to go through probate?

Not if it is properly titled — joint tenancy, trust ownership, or a recorded beneficiary deed all keep the home out of probate. We review the deed at the first meeting and recommend the smallest plan that achieves the goal.

Neighboring Communities

Nearby cities we also serve.

Kirkwood · Free Consultation

Counsel for
the long haul.

(314) 831-9350
Most calls returned the same business day
Call · Free Consultation