Justice Matters commentary: Judiciary promotes transparency for Missourians to access their courts

From time to time, friends and acquaintances ask me if they can come watch the proceedings of the Supreme Court of Missouri in Jefferson City. I reply, “of course, we love having people visit the Court and see us in action.”

I am always surprised when I hear people say they think they need a special invitation or permission to view court proceedings. They don’t! That is because all Missouri courts are open to the public (except confidential proceedings like certain juvenile cases). If you have a large group, however, it is helpful if you let us know just to make sure there is enough seating.

We also try to find other ways to make it more convenient to watch court proceedings. For example, when I was on the court of appeals, we enjoyed taking our dockets on the road, bringing live court cases into a multitude of communities. This “appellate roadshow” has been happening for decades, with the judges holding oral arguments in schools, colleges, courthouses and even senior living centers all across the state. You can discover where the court of appeals is going next by checking the Today in the Courts tab of our Missouri Courts website for “Appellate Roadshow” information, and learn more about their visits from our Newsroom.

The Supreme Court of Missouri, however, cannot take its dockets on the road because our state constitution mandates the Court to hear all its cases in Jefferson City. So we have to rely on technology to help bring our arguments to you. In fact, earlier this month, our Court started live video streaming of our oral arguments, vastly increasing transparency and access to the Court’s procedures.

Now the public can watch oral arguments from their computers or mobile devices, without having to travel to come to the Supreme Court. You can find our calendar of arguments and the “LIVE Video Streaming button on our website. If you haven’t watched arguments yet, I encourage you to do so.

But don’t worry if you aren’t available to watch when the arguments are live. We are posting archives of our oral arguments – in both video and audio formats – from our “Cases scheduled” pages online.

Making our Court’s proceedings transparent and accessible is nothing new. We were one of the first states in the country to offer live streaming audio of our Court’s oral arguments, starting in 2000 via a statewide radio network. The Court itself has provided a live audio stream and archived audio files for more than 17 years. We hope this new option to watch arguments, and not just hear them, will make our proceedings more meaningful for the public.

We want Missourians to feel like their state courts are relevant in their daily lives. After all, more than 95 percent of all litigation happens in state courts, not federal courts. And we know it is not enough to say that justice is being done. The public must see first-hand it is being done before they will begin to believe it is being done.

We also use our Missouri Courts website as a primary way of connecting with Missourians. Our most-popular online tool the public can use, for free and without having to travel to a courthouse, is Case.net. It provides access to more than 28 million public case records and has had more than 2.1 billion hits to date.

More than 6,500 new users sign up every month for Case.net’s “Track This Case” tool, allowing them to receive case updates by e-mail or text message. And since July 1, 2023, people have been able to view docket entries about updates in a case as well as the public case documents themselves.

I am proud of the commitment our Missouri courts and judges have shown throughout my nearly 30 years on the bench to improve accessibility and transparency, so the public better understands our justice system. I hope you find these online resources not only convenient but also informative in helping you see for yourselves the work of your Missouri courts. And I personally invite you to come observe court proceedings at any court in Missouri, but, if you can’t, please utilize our online video streaming to access proceedings at the Supreme Court.

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Justice Matters commentary: Judiciary promotes transparency for Missourians to access their courts

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