Douglas County, Kansas


Saturday, July 05, 2008

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Court Departments


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This page contains a list of departments in the District Court of Douglas County, Kansas.

Citizen Review Board (CRB)
The CRB staff operates six boards composed of volunteers that assist the juvenile court by reviewing cases involving children in need of care or juvenile offenders.

Clerk of the District Court
The clerk issues court processes which establishes the power of the court to act in a case and keeps a record of the date and time subpoenas, summons, and warrants are returned to court endorsed with evidence of service on potential litigants and witnesses.

Community Corrections
The Community Corrections Deptartment is a state funded, county controlled intensive supervision probation (ISP) program.

Court Administration
The district court administrator supervises and coordinates the administrative functions and operations of the district court, supervises and directs the activities of non-judicial employees of the court and performs other duties that are designated by the chief judge, required by law or by the state Judicial Administrator.

Court Services
Court Services Officers (CSOs) are responsible for adult and juvenile supervision in misdemeanor and felony probation cases. They regularly perform drug screens, meet with offenders in the office and community and make sure all conditions imposed by the court are being followed. The CSOs also research and write pre-sentence investigation reports which aid the court in determining the sentence a defendant receives. The CSOs may also supervise individuals pretrial to ensure compliance with bond requirements as well as interview individuals on a daily basis to obtain information used by the court to determine the appropriate bond for an individual.

Court Trustee
The Court Trustee enforces child support and spousal support orders as well as modifies child support orders. In addition, the Trustee collects court-ordered court debts and victim restitution in criminal cases and court debts in traffic cases.

Divisions
The District Court is divided into seven divisions. District judges preside over Divisions 1 through 6, and a pro tem judge presides over the Pro Tem Division. Most criminal and civil cases are distributed fairly evenly among the divisions, except for Division 3 and the Pro Tem Division. In addition, some divisions are assigned a particular caseload as follows:
  • Division 1: court administrative issues
  • Division 2: probate
  • Division 3: divorce, child-in-need-of-care cases, adoptions, child custody
  • Division 4: small claims appeals
  • Pro Tem: juvenile offenders, support enforcement, parenting time enforcement, criminal first appearances