Gov. Nixon signs bill undoing 2009 Missouri traffic law

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon signed legislation Thursday designed to fix problems with a 2009 law that placed thousands of traffic cases into limbo.

At the urging of court officials, the legislature last year made some minor traffic offenses infractions rather than misdemeanors. It also stated that infractions should be handled in court as a "civil action."

Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle said the 2009 law only caused confusion.

If a person didn't appear in court for a traffic offense, he said, it became unclear whether a warrant could be issued. Prosecutors and judges throughout Missouri came to different conclusions on the matter.

"Warrants only apply to a criminal procedure. If they didn't pay it voluntarily, there was a real question whether or not the judge could issue a warrant for that matter," Swingle said. "I'm glad the legislature worked on this quickly."

Last year's law took effect Aug. 28. Missouri's statute of limitations for filing infraction cases is six months, so state officials needed to resolve the confusion by the end of February or thousands of infractions could not have been prosecuted.

Lawmakers gave the legislation final approval Thursday. Several hours later, a spokesman for Nixon said the governor had signed the bill.

This year's bill restored some of those infractions to misdemeanors and deleted the wording describing infractions as a "civil action."

The 2009 law was designed help courts operate more efficiently by letting them more easily dispose of what were considered to be relatively minor offenses.

When charges are filed as misdemeanors that can result in jail time, defendants are entitled to attorneys. By reducing some offenses from misdemeanors to infractions -- and treating all infractions as civil actions -- lawmakers created a lower standard of proof for guilt and took away the state's requirement of supplying defendants with lawyers.

Staff writer Erin Hevern contributed to this report.