24 February 2025
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District, is scheduled to convene court in Columbia, Missouri, in March at Columbia College and the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Law.
The arguments at Columbia College will be held at 1 p.m. Monday, March 17, 2025, at the Brouder Science Center in Bixby Lecture Hall on campus. The panel for the Columbia College docket will consist of Judge Janet Sutton, Judge Mark Pfeiffer, and Judge Gary Witt. The arguments at the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Law will be held at 9 a.m. Tuesday, March 18, 2025, in Hulston Hall on campus. The panel for the University of Missouri-Columbia docket will consist of Sutton, Judge Alok Ahuja, and Pfeiffer. For both dockets, the judges will take time after the oral arguments to discuss the court system, explain the proceedings, and take questions from the audience.
Sutton will preside over the proceedings at Columbia College and at the University of Missouri-Columbia. She 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). Ahuja joined the Western District in 2007. Previously, he practiced law in Washington, D.C., and Kansas City. Pfeiffer was appointed to the Western District in 2009. Before his appointment to the judiciary, he practiced law in Springfield and Columbia. Witt joined the Western District in 2010. Immediately prior to his appointment, he served as an associate circuit judge in Platte County (6th Judicial Circuit). Previously, he practiced law in Platte County and served in the Missouri House of Representatives.
The court typically 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 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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Attachments:
Contact: Kimberly K. Boeding, clerk of court
Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District
(816) 889-3600