30 September 2022

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District, will convene court Wednesday, October 19, 2022, at Missouri Western State University in St. Joseph, Missouri. The oral arguments are scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. in the Leah Sprat Hall on campus. 

A panel consisting of Presiding Judge Lisa White Hardwick, Judge Thomas Chapman, and Judge Janet Sutton will hear oral arguments in four cases. After the oral arguments, the judges will take time to discuss the court system and take general questions from the audience.

Judge Lisa White Hardwick will preside over the proceedings at Missouri Western. Judge Hardwick joined the Western District in 2001. Immediately prior to her appointment, she served as a circuit judge in the 16th Judicial Circuit (Jackson County). Previously, she practiced law with the Shook, Hardy & Bacon law firm in Kansas City. Judge Chapman was appointed to the Western District in 2018. Before his appointment to the court of appeals, he served as a circuit judge for the 43rd Judicial Circuit of Missouri (Caldwell, Clinton, Daviess, DeKalb and Livingston counties) for over seven years. Judge Sutton was appointed to the Western District in 2021. Prior to that, she served as a municipal judge for the City of Excelsior Springs and as an associate circuit judge and a circuit judge in the 7th Judicial Circuit (Clay County).

The court regularly convenes court in Kansas City. However, for more than 20 years, the court has held sessions in several of the 45 counties in the court’s jurisdiction, which includes all of northwest Missouri and most of central Missouri. The court convenes 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.

Attachment: summaries of cases to be argued

Contact: Kimberly K. Boeding, clerk of court

Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District

(816) 889-3600