Unless you're a litigator who spends his/her time going to, in, or coming from court -- you probably have a fairly vague notion about the role of state judges. Unless you're a Civics teacher, the odds are that you have an even blurrier notion about something called the Missouri Non-Partisan Court Plan.
Missouri lawyers would like to bring the Non-Partisan Court Plan back into focus. It seems that most of us heard something about the Non-Partisan Court plan back in the eighth grade -- if we were paying attention, or if it made any sense to us. In a nutshell, the Non-Partisan Court plan is considered Missouri's gift to the art of governing. It's a way of selecting judges and then letting the people vote whether or not they should be retained on the bench.
The Plan was adopted by Missouri in 1940, and since then -- more than 30 other states have modeled part of their state court systems on the Plan.
Would you like to learn more about the Non-Partisan Court Plan? The Missouri Bar Speakers Bureau is currently providing groups throughout the state with 20-minute presentations about the Plan. As a public service, the Speakers Bureau provides its educational services for free.
To schedule a presentation for your group, call The Missouri Bar at 573-638-2251 or email Jack Wax at [email protected]
