13 November 2006

Contact:  Sandra Skinner, Clerk of Court
(417) 895-6811

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- The Missouri Court of Appeals, Southern District, will convene en banc  at 2:15 p.m. Monday, November 20, 2006, in the new gymnasium at Thomas Jefferson Independent Day School in Joplin, Mo., to administer the oath of office to Daniel E. Scott as a judge of this court.

"This is the first time our court has convened in Joplin," Southern District Chief Judge Jeffrey W. Bates said. "We are pleased to share this special occasion as a court with Judge Scott's friends and family, and with the area's bench and bar." This court session is open to the public, and the public is invited to attend.

The court sits in Springfield, hearing and deciding appeals from 44 counties in southern Missouri. There are seven judges on this court and a total of 39 appellate judges in the state. Gov. Matt Blunt appointed Scott to the court in September.

Scott is a graduate of Central Missouri State University (now the University of Central Missouri) and the University of Missouri- Columbia School of Law, where he was a member of the Missouri Law Review and Order of the Coif. Before his appointment to the bench, he spent 26 years practicing law in Joplin and as an assistant and special prosecuting attorney for Jasper County. He is a member of the Jasper County Bar Association and The Missouri Bar, where he served on the Board of Governors and chaired both the Young Lawyers Section and The Missouri Bar Special Committee on Professionalism and Ethics. He is a recipient of the Lon Hocker Trial Lawyer Award and is admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court. He has served as a trustee of Thomas Jefferson Independent Day School, as a founding director and secretary for the Ronald McDonald House of the Four States, and in various other civic activities.  

Scott and his wife Trina, an attorney and a professor at Missouri Southern State University in Joplin, have three children: Allison, Angela and Joe.

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