§ 135.365 Withdrawal of plea of guilty or no contest

If you plead guilty or no contest, you are not necessarily stuck with that decision forever. As long as the judge has not yet entered a final judgment in your case, the court has the power to let you take back that plea and change it to a not guilty plea instead.

This gives you a window of time to change your mind. Maybe you learned new information, realized you made a mistake, or want to fight the charges after all. The judge does not have to allow this change, but the law gives them the option to say yes if you ask before judgment is entered.

Once the judge signs off on a final judgment, though, this option is no longer available under this rule. So timing matters a lot here. If you are thinking about withdrawing a guilty or no contest plea, you need to act quickly and talk to a lawyer before the case moves to judgment.