From Mike Keeley, Chief Judge
I am the Chief Judge in the 20th Judicial District. On Monday, March 16, 2020, I sent a news release explaining what the 20th Judicial District would be doing in regards to the COVID-19 pandemic and how it was affecting the court system.
On March 18, 2020, the Kansas Supreme Court issued Administrative Order 2020-PR-016, which sets out specifically the duties and obligations of the district courts throughout the state. This order supersedes any and all other orders, including the previous order I sent on March 16.
The basic difference that has occurred is since March 16th the Kansas Supreme Court has indicated the offices of the clerks of the district court will be closed to the public. The courts in the State of Kansas will be closed, for the most part, to the public in that no regular dockets, jury trials, trials or hearings will be held until further notice.
The Supreme Court set out a situation for emergency operations that are outlined in the attached press release. These emergency operations allow the courts to continue to monitor and handle cases that are set out specifically in the Administrative Order and the press release.
The offices of the clerks of the district court will be open, although not to the public. There will be skeleton crews to continue to answer the phone, process e-filed documents, accept payments by mail and complete as much work as allowed by the Supreme Court. Judges will be available to handle the emergency operations as defined.
This will be reviewed every two weeks by the Supreme Court. At that point, the order will either be modified, extended or rescinded.
If anyone has any questions, please call.