The Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District, plans to convene court on Monday, March 31, 2025, at Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville. The oral arguments are scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. at J.W. Jones Student Union on campus.
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. After the oral arguments, the judges will take time to discuss the court system and take general questions from the audience.
Thomson will preside over the proceedings at Northwest Missouri State. He joined the Western District in 2020. Prior to that, he served as an associate circuit judge in Nodaway County (in the 4th Judicial Circuit) for more than five years. Chapman was appointed to the Western District in in 2018. Before his appointment to the court of appeals, he served as a circuit judge for the 43rd Judicial Circuit (Caldwell, Clinton, Daviess, DeKalb and Livingston counties) for more than seven years. Prior to becoming a judge, he practiced law in the Chillicothe area. Fischer was appointed to the Supreme Court of Missouri in 2008. Prior to his appointment to the Supreme Court, he served an associate circuit judge in Atchison County (in the 4th Judicial Circuit) and practiced law in Atchison, Holt, Nodaway and Platte counties.
The court regularly convenes court in Kansas City. For more than 25 years, however, the court has held dockets in several of the 45 counties in the court’s jurisdiction, which includes all of northwest Missouri and most of central Missouri. The court hears oral arguments outside of Kansas City to give individuals an opportunity to observe a part of the judicial system they normally do not see and to familiarize those attending with the court's role in the judicial system.
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