ACCESS TO COURTS REQUIRED

To many disabled Missourians, getting their day in court may seem like a climb up Mount Everest.

But Missouri Bar President W. Dudley McCarter says that's got to change. Steps must be taken to make Missouri's courthouses accessible to the handicapped, he said, both for moral reasons and to comply with federal law.

Said McCarter: "The Missouri Bar believes that courthouses must lead other entities in becoming accessible to disabled people -- not merely because county governments must comply with the law, but as an example of leadership.

"If the doors to a courthouse are inaccessible to a person with a disability, what does that say about the caliber of justice beyond those doors?"

Inaccessible courthouses and courtrooms "sends the wrong message, in our view, about the justice being carried out in Missouri courts," he said Wednesday.

Most of Missouri's county courthouses are old, some having been built more than a century ago. Typically, such courthouses have a wealth of stairs, with the courtrooms on the second floor.

Some courthouses have been renovated over the years and elevators added, but others, such as the Bollinger County Courthouse at Marble Hill, still have no elevators. Restrooms, in many cases, are inaccessible to disabled persons, McCarter said.

Cape Girardeau's Common Pleas Courthouse has no elevator and its bathrooms are not accessible to the disabled. However, both the Jackson courthouse and the county's administrative office building are accessible to the handicapped.

Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle said that cases involving handicapped persons can be heard at the Jackson courthouse.

Rather than make costly renovations to the Common Pleas Courthouse, if it came to that, it might be more cost effective to close the Cape Girardeau courthouse and just use the Jackson facility, he said.

At this point, he said, it's yet to be seen as to exactly how ADA will be applied to county courthouses.

Under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, public entities must meet handicapped accessibility requirements.

State and local governments have until Jan. 26, 1995, to make any structural changes needed to meet federal requirements, according to the Missouri Bar. But McCarter doubts all of the state's courthouses will meet the deadline.

The financial burden, he said, falls on counties to pay for the needed improvements. "Frankly, what we think needs to happen is that counties need to start budgeting and planning for improvements to the courthouses."

Many counties, he said, are not in compliance and do not have any immediate plans to come into compliance.

"Although everyone is aware of it, there hasn't been the initiative taken by any particular group to move into the next step," said McCarter.

So the Missouri Bar has moved into the picture. McCarter said the association plans to conduct a survey of the state's courthouses next year to determine how many of the buildings don't meet handicapped accessibility requirements and to what extent.

"Then we are going to try to assemble a task force consisting of design people, construction people, lawyers and judges, and maybe kind of develop a prototype course of action that we can give to the counties," he said.

McCarter and local officials acknowledge that many of Missouri's counties don't have the tax base to pay for costly renovations.

"In some smaller counties, many times it would be simpler to purchase a building or lease a building on the courthouse square and renovate it into a courtroom," said Cape Girardeau County Collector Harold Kuehle. The wheelchair-bound Kuehle has been a paraplegic for 41 years, the result of a high school football injury.

He recently served as chairman of the Governor's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities.

Kuehle said an elevator was installed in the Jackson courthouse when he was first running for office in 1966.

As to the Common Pleas Courthouse, Kuehle said county officials looked at putting in a wheelchair lift at one time, but the idea was abandoned because the second-floor landing was too small.

Kuehle said he supports ADA as a way to make facilities accessible to the handicapped because efforts to get people to voluntarily make such improvements have not worked.

"I think everyone is in favor of courthouse accessibility," said Circuit Judge William Syler. "It's one of the things you would like to provide the litigants, attorneys and the jurors."

Syler's circuit comprises Cape Girardeau, Perry and Bollinger counties.

Perry County's courthouse was recently renovated. The project included installation of an elevator.

But no such improvements have been made at Marble Hill. "Bollinger County does not have an elevator, and I have from time to time handled matters on the main floor to allow individuals access there. There is a small hearing room downstairs and that has worked in the past," said Syler.

In Cape Girardeau, the 140-year-old Common Pleas Courthouse has some handicapped-accessibility problems, although disabled persons can be accommodated in non-jury cases in a first-floor courtroom.

"But it's difficult for a (disabled) juror to serve in the courthouse because the jury room is upstairs," the judge said.

Syler said that even with an elevator, handicapped persons would have difficulty getting around upstairs because "it's such a maze up here."

"Even if you gutted the thing and started from the shell, you would have a tough time making it really workable," he said.

"What it gets down to is money in situations like this and the matter of allocating it effectively."