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 Monday, March 31.

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 panel of judges listens to an argument when the Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District, heard a series of cases on the Northwest campus last year. The court will convene on the campus again this year. (Photo by Chloe Timmons/Northwest Missouri State University)

A three-judge panel, consisting of Western District judges Doug Thomson and Tom Chapman and Supreme Court of Missouri Judge Zel M. Fischer, 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 and take questions from the audience.

Thomson 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.

Chapman was appointed to the Western District in 2018. Before his appointment, he served for seven years as a circuit judge for the 43rd Judicial Circuit serving Caldwell, Clinton, Daviess, DeKalb and Livingston counties. Before becoming a judge, he practiced law in the Chillicothe area.

Fischer was appointed to the Supreme Court of Missouri in 2008. He served as an associate circuit judge in Atchison County in the Fourth Judicial Circuit and practiced law in Atchison, Holt, Nodaway and Platte counties prior to his appointment to the Supreme Court.

The court, which has convened regularly at Northwest since 2010, typically convenes court in Kansas City. For more than 25 years, 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.