March 28, 2023

Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District to convene at Northwest

The Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District, is returning to Northwest Missouri State University, where it is scheduled to convene court Tuesday, April 11. 

The session, which is free and open to the public, is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. in the J.W. Jones Student Union Ballroom.

A three-judge panel, consisting of Presiding Judge Douglas Thomson, Judge Lisa White Hardwick and Judge Karen King Mitchell, will hear oral arguments in three cases on the docket. Summaries of the cases are accessible by clicking this link.

After the oral arguments, the judges will take time to discuss the court system, explain the proceedings and take questions from the audience.

Pictured during their session at Northwest last year, three judges with the Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District, listened to oral arguments. The court will convene at Northwest again on April 11. (Photo by Lauren Adams/Northwest Missouri State University)

Thomson, who will preside over the proceedings, joined the Western District in 2020. Previously, he served as an associate circuit judge for Nodaway County in the Fourth Judicial Circuit for more than five years.

Hardwick was appointed to the Western District in 2001. Immediately prior to her appointment, she served as a circuit judge in the 16th Judicial Circuit in Jackson County.

Mitchell joined the Western District in 2009. Previously, she spent more than 20 years in the Missouri attorney general’s office and then served as Missouri’s director of revenue.

The court, which has convened regularly at Northwest since 2010, typically convenes court in Kansas City. For more than 20 years, however, the court has held dockets in several of the 45 counties in its jurisdiction, which includes all of northwest Missouri and most of central Missouri. The court hears oral arguments outside Kansas City to give individuals an opportunity to observe a part of the judicial system they normally do not see and to familiarize attendants with the court’s role in the judicial system.