Missouri residents pay $6.8M for new courtrooms

INDEPENDENCE, Mo. -- Jackson County taxpayers will spend $6.8 million for courtroom additions in part because of an obscure Missouri law blocking Independence cases from being tried in Kansas City.

County officials say five new courtrooms are badly needed in the Independence courthouse, even though there's space in the Kansas City court 9 miles away, The Kansas City Star reported.

Circuit Judge Marco Roldan, who recently completed a term as presiding judge, said there's space now for the current caseload with 31 courtrooms between the two locations -- downtown with 22 and nine in Independence.

At issue is a law passed in 1985 that bars most Independence cases from being tried in Kansas City, and vice versa. An exception allows every fifth civil case originating in Independence to be transferred to the downtown Kansas City courthouse.

No other county is subject to the split venue law, which requires the Jackson County Circuit Court to assign cases based only on geographical lines, not courtroom space.

That's frustrating for Jackson County Executive Mike Sanders, who said the law played a "significant role" in his decision to support the $6.8 million renovation project.

Money set aside for the past few years will pay for the project, and Sanders said no additional money will be borrowed.

The money also will be used to renovate the public entrance to the courthouse annex -- fixes Sanders called "long overdue." Major work hasn't been done on the court since 1972.

Some former lawmakers who helped pass the law said it protects Independence residents from a longer drive.

Jackson County is one of only four of Missouri's 114 counties with more than one courthouse, said Republican Bob Johnson, a former lawmaker who co-sponsored the bill.

Lawyers lobbied unsuccessfully to split the county into two circuit courts for decades until lawmakers compromised with Johnson's bill.

"It was all about convenience," Johnson said. "For the litigant, not the lawyers."