The latest local news, weather and high school sports from the Heartland

KIRKSVILLE, MO -- The Adair County Courthouse played host to three special guests on Thursday.  Judges from the Missouri Court of Appeals were on hand listening to cases from right here in the heartland.  Each year they try to travel to all of Missouri’s 114 counties allowing the public to gain a better knowledge of the appeals process.

“Any case of any kind, whether it’s a criminal case, a domestic case, a civil case, a probate case, whatever it may be, that is tried in a traditional courtroom to a final judgment in one of the counties on our 45 counties in our district, if an appeal is taken from that case it comes to our court” said Judge Cindy Martin.

Martin said they represent one of three districts of appellate level courts in the State of Missouri.  Their jurisdiction is over the Western District, which covers approximately 45 counties, including Adair County.  While working in a courtroom is part of the daily responsibilities, Martin said the appeals process works a little differently.

“When we hear a case, we’re not hearing it as if it is a new trial” said Martin.  “We don’t take evidence, we don’t hear witnesses; we’re looking at a record from the case below to determine whether there were errors of a nature that would require the case to be re-tried or sent back for other proceedings.”

One of the concepts the judges try and stress is the amount of time they spend preparing for a case.

“I think what people don’t appreciate about the appeals process is how much effort really goes into taking the time to study the case” said Martin.  “To study the evidence, to study all of the information that would have been made available to the jury or to the trial judge if the trial judge was the one making the decision; to independently research the law to make sure that we have a good context for what law applies to the issues in that case.”

At the appellate level, all decisions are made in writing by opinion.  The decisions are then published at which time lawyers can use to study the law.