Municipal Judge Kavanaugh outlines court operations, support docket and staffing needs

Municipal Judge Kavanaugh told the City Council Wednesday that Columbia’s municipal court, a division of the 13th Judicial Circuit of Boone County, handles the city’s municipal violations and has focused recent work on speeding case processing and expanding problem-solving dockets for people experiencing homelessness.

Kavanaugh described the court’s role and routine operations, saying, “Municipal court is a division and part of the thirteenth Judicial Circuit of Boone County that does the municipal violations for the City Of Columbia.” He outlined office hours (7:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m., Monday–Thursday, plus two night courts per month), a mix of video and in-person dockets, and expanded arraignment and pretrial processes meant to reduce wait times and encourage resolution without trial.

Kavanaugh told the council the court uses the state-mandated Show Me Courts case-management system and that about half of eligible cases are being resolved by online pleas and payments. He said processing delays occur when tickets take time to move from the Columbia Police Department to the prosecutor’s office; that delay prevents some defendants from finding and paying their cases online. “The faster we can make that mechanism work where it goes seamlessly in the system, the faster you’re given an opportunity for someone not to be frustrated,”…