Two past bar presidents, several prosecutors and public defenders, one judge and one former lawmaker make up the Criminal Justice Task Force, which will study prosecutor and public defender funding problems and come up with solutions for the Legislature.

Tagged with: Missouri State Public Defender System Skip Walther

Missouri Bar President Skip Walther finalized a task force this week that will ponder solutions to ongoing resource problems for all parts of the criminal justice system. Two past bar presidents, several prosecutors and public defenders and one former lawmaker ...

Tagged with: Cat Kelly Dwight Scroggins J.R. Hobbs Missouri Bar public defenders Skip Walther

At the urging of a new Missouri Bar governor, the Missouri State Public Defender System may try to recoup some of the $70,000 the system raised to pay for a comprehensive study of its caseload problems. The governor, Marie Kenyon, ...

Tagged with: Cat Kelly Dwight Scroggins Missouri Bar Board of Governors prosecutor public defenders Skip Walther Spangenberg Group

A group of Missouri prosecutors urged bar officials to conduct a review of the state’s entire criminal justice system – one that doesn’t focus just on public defenders. In a press release sent Thursday, Buchanan County Prosecutor Dwight Scroggins said ...

Tagged with: Dwight Scroggins Keith Birkes prosecutors Skip Walther Spangenberg Group The Missouri Bar

Incoming president ‘will push the bar to get things done'

A colorful map of Missouri is perhaps the most striking object in Harold "Skip" Walther's office. Each county is shaded in bright colors on the map, a gift to Walther in the 1980s. It may be the best harbinger for his impending endeavor. A Columbia attorney who focuses on real estate and property law, Walther is set to assume the presidency of The Missouri Bar this week.

Tagged with: Skip Walther The Missouri Bar

The Missouri Bar will scale back its midyear meeting, with the new leader calling the switch a nod to the difficult economy and a way to ensure more time for work. The bar’s Board of Governors has come under criticism ...

Tagged with: Keith Birkes Missouri Bar Missouri Bar Board of Governors Skip Walther

Lawyers among possible replacements for Brown, Smith

The resignations of state Sen. Jeff Smith and state Rep. Steve Brown (pictured) signal the departure of two legislators intimately involved with issues involving lawyers and the judiciary. Already, the names of a few new lawyers are being circulated to replace them. Smith was a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, a body that often reviews legislation pertinent to the legal system. Brown, an attorney, was a member of the House Judiciary Committee and the House General Laws Committee.

Tagged with: Jeff Smith Nick Adams Skip Walther Steve Brown T.D. El-Amin The Missouri Bar

Going forward, Missouri attorneys may have to pay a little more attention to ethics. The Missouri Bar approved a proposal at its meeting earlier this month to increase the requirement for continuing legal education credits on ethics to two hours ...

Tagged with: Alan Pratzel CLE Missouri Bar Missouri Supreme Court Office of Chief Disciplinary Counsel Skip Walther

Politicians know that people would believe almost any claim if it is simple and if it is repeated many times. It is Messaging 101: the sound bite. In the debate over judicial selection, politicians pushing for changing our system repeat ...

Tagged with: judicial selection Missouri Plan Nonpartisan Court Plan Skip Walther

After a legislative push to alter the Nonpartisan Court Plan faltered on Wednesday, opponents of how some judges are selected in Missouri see the initiative petition process as the vehicle to achieve their aims. A proposed constitutional amendment altering the ...

Tagged with: Appellate Judicial Commission Jim Lembke Missouri Bar Missouri Plan Nonpartisan Court Plan Skip Walther Stanley Cox

As debate looms in the Missouri Senate on a constitutional amendment altering the Missouri Nonpartisan Court Plan, The Missouri Bar is reiterating its opposition to changing the way the state chooses some of its judges. Bar President Tom Burke and President-elect Skip Walther held a press conference on Tuesday morning to skewer proposed changes offered in House Joint Resolution 10. The two attorneys portrayed the alterations as a way of injecting politics into the plan and giving more power over judicial selection to the governor.

Tagged with: Appellate Judicial Commission Charlie Shields Matt Bartle Missouri Bar Missouri Plan Nonpartisan Court Plan Skip Walther Stanley Cox Tom Burke