Kansas Supreme Court conducts special session in Concordia

As part of is ongoing outreach program to familiarize Kansans with the overall role of the judiciary, the Kansas Supreme Court conducted a special session Tuesday night in the Concordia High School gymnasium.

The seven Supreme Court justices, Chief Justice Marla Luckert, Eric Rosen, Dan Biles, Caleb Stegall, Evelyn Zabel Wilson, Keynen Wall Jr. and Melissa Standridge, heard oral arguments in two caes, one civil and one criminal during the session.

Since 2011, the Supreme Court has conducted special sessions in communities across the state to give Kansans a glimpse how it functions.

Luckert, during an interview Tuesday afternoon, said that the justices started noticing data from polls showing that most Americans couldn’t identify the three branches of government.

“When asked specific questions about how courts function, it was very apparent that people didn’t understand how that worked,” Luckert said, “As a court we felt it was important that we do what we could to help remedy that and increase Kansans’ understanding of courts and what the importance of fair and impartial courts are in our state and in our republic. So one thing we thought we could do was let them see a court in action by taking it to communities and actually hold court.”

For the past several years, Kansas residents have been able to listen to broadcasts of the Supreme Court sessions or watch a livestream.

“So that has been accessible, but it is different to be right there with the court and feel what it is like as opposed to watching it on a livestream or listening to a recording.”

Luckert said that taking the court on the road has been well received.

“We have always felt like we have had an incredible turnout,” Lukert said.

Over 700 people attended a session in Hays and around 800 were in attendance when the justices visited Lawrence.

Originally, the sessions took place during the day, but then they were moved nights to allow more people to attend.

There are universities and college in the state that have students routinely follow the court during its stops outside of Topeka.

“It is almost like we hvae groupies,” Luckert said.

Luckert said that students from Sterling College will travel to to three hours to attend sessions, and some were planning to make the trip to Concordia.

The court likes to present one civil and one criminal case during each of its road sessions.

“We are often able to give them (audience members) a case taht we think they could see how they could be in the same situation. How it could impact them,” Luckert said.

The civil case heard in Concordia was Cathy L. Stroud v. Ozark National Insurance co. and Stephen I. Guinn.

In the case heard, Stroud contends that Guinn, her deceased husband’s former insurance agent, violated a fiduciary duty to her husband and her when advising about converting her husband’s term life insurance into whole life insurance.

“Tha is something that almost all of us go through in life. So that gives u a real live picture of how the courts can resolve disputes in a peaceful way with rules that govern how we look at those kind of relationships and the duties that one person owes to another in that kind of situation,” Luckert said.

The criminal case heard was State of Kansas v. Frank Raymond Crudo.

Luckert said that case center around a car stop because of tag light was not working that led to the search of a pickup and a fifth-wheel camper.

“Even law abiding citizens have their tail lights out and that leads to a stop and in some cases leads to people who are not doing anything wrong having their care searched and possibly even their camper searched. I think without having to be a criminal, you can understand that importance of the constitutional protections from search and seizure, what the limits are,” Luckert said, “I hope they (audience members) walk away having thought about how some of those kinds of things and recognizing that our Constitution does give us protections as American citizens a lot of people throughout the country don’t enjoy.”

The road sessions provides the opportunity for the justices to show the citizens of Kansas the process that leads to a decision.

“What we hope is that by seeing us in action, and hearing that, they understand that we are not just rolling the dice to see which of the sides wins. We are trying to go through it in a reasoned way, and asking questions, getting as much information as we can and then basing that decision on the law an don't on our personal belief,” Luckert said.

As Chief Justice, Luckert signed an order in December 2022 creating the Kansas Rural Justice Initiative Committee to examine unmet legal needs in rural Kansas related the shrinking number of attorneys living and working in rural areas.

“Our ultimate goal here is to find ways to meet the legal needs of Kansans,” Luckert said.

The 35-member committee includes representatives from all three branches of the state government, the legal and business communities, law schools and organizations that serve victims of sexual and domestic abuses.

Over 35 months, the committee is studying general population trends, as well as trends related to attorneys and other legal professionals who support court and court-adjacent programs. It is also looking for differences in unmet legal needs related to population density.

The committee is also exploring efforts to recruit and retain legal professionals in rural areas.

At the end of 18 months, the committee will submit its initial recommendations to the Supreme Court.

“We have to find ways this week next week, to help people with their legal needs, so that is the major focus of all of this,” Luckert said.

Senator Elaine Bowers, representing the 36th District, is serving on the committee.

“I would like to call out Elaine Bowers, who is on the task force and is anxious to help with some legislative initiatives,” Luckert said.