Chief justice announces changes in Supreme Court staff

Chief Justice Marla Luckert announced changes in job duties for four Supreme Court staff.

General counsel

Ashley Jarmer is named general counsel to the chief justice.

She has been a research attorney for the chief justice since August 2019. She previously was a research attorney for Supreme Court Justice Lee Johnson and Court of Appeals Chief Judge Richard Greene.

Jarmer is a native of Cimarron. She graduated summa cum laude from Kansas State University and received her law degree from William & Mary Law School in Williamsburg, Virginia, where she was president of the Honor Council.

Jarmer previously worked for the Kansas Department of Transportation Office of Chief Counsel as a personnel attorney.

Director of Supreme Court appeals

Sarah Reichert is named director of Supreme Court appeals.

She will report directly to and assist the chief justice in the management of the Supreme Court docket and processing of cases. She will supervise the court’s central research staff that is charged with researching and preparing memoranda for the court on death penalty appeals, original actions, petitions for review, motions, and special projects.

Reichert is a native of Mankato. She graduated cum laude from both Kansas State University and Washburn University School of Law.

Reichert clerked in the Kansas Court of Appeals for two years before joining the Supreme Court's staff in 2006. She has served in the court's central staff, as a research attorney for Justice Luckert, as the court's motions attorney, and as assistant general counsel to the chief justice. She chairs the Supreme Court Rules Committee.

The positions filled by Jarmer and Reichert have been vacant for several months.

Deputy special counsel

Sarah Hoskinson, deputy special counsel to the chief justice, will have expanded duties assisting with special projects and committees.

She has been deputy special counsel to the chief justice since 2017 and works to organize and develop the Kansas judicial branch's legislative program. She previously was a staff attorney for the Office of Judicial Administration.

She will continue to work with Shawn Jurgensen, who is special counsel to the chief justice.

Hoskinson is a native of Burrton. She graduated from the University of Kansas with highest distinction and the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law.

Hoskinson also has worked as an attorney for the City of Manhattan, the U.S. Department of Labor, and the Bar Association of San Francisco's Homeless Advocacy Project. She completed three years of national service in AmeriCorps VISTA and Equal Justice Works programs.

Research attorney

Jonathan Ruhlen will fill the chief's staff as research attorney II.

He was a research attorney for Justice Johnson from 2016 to 2019, when he joined the chief justice's staff.

Ruhlen is a native of Valley Falls. He graduated from Emporia State University in 2005 and worked as a reporter for various daily newspapers in Kansas. He graduated from the University of Kansas School of Law in 2012.

Ruhlen worked in bankruptcy law, including a clerkship with now-retired Judge Janice Miller Karlin, chief of the Bankruptcy Court of the District of Kansas and chief of the 10th Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel.

Supreme Court issues administrative orders, guidance for courts to safely resume jury trials

The Kansas Supreme Court today issued two administrative orders and a mandates and guidance document to give direction to courts as they prepare to safely resume jury trials.

The orders and the guidance document incorporate best practices recommended in the report Resuming Trials Amid COVID-19 the Supreme Court received last week from the Ad Hoc Jury Task Force.

“At the beginning of the pandemic, we canceled jury trials to comply with statewide efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19,” said Chief Justice Marla Luckert. “Since then, through innovation and access to videoconferencing technology, state courts have resumed hearing most cases with the exception of jury trials.”

The Supreme Court created the Ad Hoc Jury Task Force in early June specifically to recommend best practices courts will follow to protect the health of jurors and other courtroom participants so jury trials can resume.

"I speak for the entire court when I say I am grateful for the time task force members devoted to this project and for the speed at which they produced their report," Luckert said.

The Supreme Court Mandates and Guidance Regarding Resuming Jury Proceedings spells out the Supreme Court’s requirements for courts based on recommendations made in the report from the Ad Hoc Jury Task Force.

“Many variables impact which task force recommendations a court will need to adopt, including the physical layout of the court, local needs, and available resources,” Luckert said. “The mandates and guidance document articulates the Supreme Court’s expectations to provide for juror education and safety, and public and media access to proceedings.”

Administrative Order 2020-PR-093 requires each judicial district to submit a plan for resuming jury trials to the Office of Judicial Administration, which will review the plans to verify that the Supreme Court’s mandates are met.

Administrative Order 2020-PR-094 extends the requirement that masks or facial coverings be worn in all court offices and courtrooms to any outdoor court proceedings.

The report Resuming Trials Amid COVID-19 from the Ad Hoc Jury Task Force includes recommendations on these key topics:

• adding numerous safeguards to protect jurors;
  
  
• communicating with jurors pretrial and during orientation;
  
  
• securing adequate jury pools;
  
  
• using pretrial measures to minimize the length of jury service;
  
  
• conducting a fair trial while protecting juror and court participant safety; and
  
  
• best practices for virtual trials.

In its report, the task force acknowledged there is no single approach and that the state's 31 judicial districts are vastly different in terms of facilities, technology, and resources.

Keynen "KJ" Wall Jr., Lawrence, will be sworn in as a justice of the Kansas Supreme Court in a private ceremony at 11 a.m. today, August 3, at the Kansas Judicial Center.

Chief Justice Marla Luckert will preside at the ceremony, which will be broadcast live on the Supreme Court YouTube channel.

The ceremony will be considerably smaller than a typical swearing-in due to the need to allow for physical distancing. Wall's immediate family will attend the ceremony, as will Supreme Court Justices Eric Rosen and Evelyn Wilson. Assistant Secretary of State Catherine Gunsalus also will attend to present the certificate of appointment.

Justices usually are sworn in in the Kansas Supreme Court courtroom filled with current and past Supreme Court justices and Court of Appeals judges, federal judges, district court judges, members of the legislative and executive branches, law related organizations, and the justice's family members and friends. An overflow audience would view a livestream of the event in a secondary courtroom.

Governor Laura Kelly appointed Wall in March to fill a vacancy on the court created when former Chief Justice Lawton Nuss retired in December.

Wall has a bachelor's degree in communication from Kansas State University, a master's degree in scientific and technical communication from the University of Minnesota, and a law degree from the University of Kansas School of Law.

He had been in private practice with the Forbes Law Group of Overland Park since 2015. From 2013 to 2015 he was special projects counsel to the Supreme Court, which involved managing the court's capital appeals office. From 2008 to 2013 he was senior legal counsel for Federated Insurance in Owatonna, Minnesota, and from 2004 to 2008, he was an associate attorney with a law firm in Greeley, Colorado. He was a judicial law clerk from 2002 to 2004 for Judge John Lungstrum, when Lungstrum was chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas.

Chief justice gives update on plan to reinstate time limitations and deadlines for court proceedings

Chief Justice Marla Luckert said today she has adjusted her plan to reinstate statutes of limitation and statutory time standards or deadlines that apply to conducting or processing of judicial proceedings.

Luckert had announced June 29 she planned to reinstate most time requirements effective August 3, based on the assumption that all district courts would be providing in-person service at that time.

Due to rising numbers of COVID-19 cases in some jurisdictions, some courts have closed offices to the public. In response, Luckert is adjusting her timeline and now plans to provide an update on August 3 about a projected date to reinstate some time limits, deadlines, and time standards. She emphasized reinstatement will not be before August 17.

“My actions to suspend some deadlines and time limitations at the beginning of the pandemic were to uphold peoples’ legal and constitutional rights while courts made changes to case processing to adhere to public health guidelines,” Luckert said. “All district courts are now able to process cases remotely, but I need to be sure all courts can also provide some level of in-person service before I reinstate timelines and deadlines.”

Luckert said she’s providing this update because she wants to be sure Kansans and their attorneys have adequate notice of her plan to reinstate statutes of limitation and statutory time standards or deadlines. Once reinstated, courts, attorneys, and self-represented parties must be ready to move cases forward or accept consequences for missing deadlines or statutes of limitations, which can cause cases to be dismissed.

Luckert plans to continue the suspension of some time limitations. Those would include statutory speedy trial deadlines in criminal cases, the time requirements for filing actions under K.S.A. 60-1501 and K.S.A. 60-1507, and the time requirements for processing limited actions cases in K.S.A. 61-3002(b).

Even while statutes of limitation and statutory time standards or deadlines have been suspended, courts have continued to process cases. All state courts are conducting many types of proceedings using teleconferencing technology, greatly reducing the need for in-person hearings.

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Visit Kansas Courts Reponse to COVID-19 for information about court operations during the pandemic.