6 February 2024

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District, will convene court Tuesday, February 27, 2024, at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law in Kansas City, Missouri. The arguments are scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. in the courtroom at the law school on campus.

A three-judge panel consisting of Judge Alok Ahuja, Judge Cynthia Martin and Judge Thomas Chapman will hear oral arguments in three cases on the docket. After the oral arguments, the judges will take time to discuss the court system, explain the proceedings and take questions from the audience.

Ahuja will preside over the proceedings at UMKC. He was appointed to the Western District in 2007. Previously, he practiced law in Washington, D.C., and Kansas City. Martin joined the Western District in 2009. She practiced law in Kansas City and Lee’s Summit before joining the court. She is a 1984 graduate of the UMKC School of Law. Chapman was appointed to the Western District in 2018. Immediately prior to his appointment, he served as a circuit judge in the 43rd Judicial Circuit of Missouri (Caldwell, Clinton, Daviess, DeKalb and Livingston counties) for more than seven years. He received his masters of law in taxation in 1995 from the UMKC School of Law.

The court regularly convenes court in Kansas City at its downtown courthouse. 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 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 scheduled for argument

Contact: Kimberly K. Boeding, clerk of the court

Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District

(816) 889-3600