Welcome to our Court!

Visit and Learn with our Court

The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Kansas has three court locations:

Each city holds court hearings at least monthly, if not more. If you wish to attend a hearing to “listen and learn” about how court hearings proceed, please click here to view the court’s calendar. You may also use the Docket Tool for a more detailed list of cases that are being heard on a particular day. Please contact the numbers listed above to verify whether the court hearing is remote or in-person.

For more information on how to access case information or for more information on tips for entering the courthouse, click here.

Judge Julie A. Robinson Award for Outstanding Community Leadership

Each year the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Kansas recognizes a distinguished leader in the community by presenting the Judge Julie A. Robinson Award for Outstanding Community Leadership.  Recipients of this award have these qualities:

• Demonstrates admirable character by exhibiting humility, professionalism, compassion, unbiased temperament, and ethics.
• Serves others by teaching the local community about the legal system, serving the underserved or underprivileged, or positively impacting the relationship between the federal court system and the local community.

This award was named after Judge Julie A. Robinson because of the significant contributions she made to the legal profession and community as a lawyer, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge, and U.S. District Judge.  To learn more about Judge Robinson and how to nominate someone to receive this award, click here.

Law Day

Law Day is a national day to celebrate the rule of law and the freedom that a just legal system affords.  It provides an opportunity to learn about the law, legal processes, and the legal profession, and to reflect on how our legal system impacts liberty as we aspire to achieve justice.

Thousands of Law Day programs are celebrated every year by legal organizations, courts, schools, and community organizations.  May 1 is the official date for Law Day, but many of the organizations conduct their Law Day programs in the weeks before or after that.

The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Kansas celebrates Law Day on or near May 1 each year.  High school and college students have participated in highly interactive programs such as mock trials where the audience members act as jurors and render a verdict based on evidence, followed by lively question and answer sessions.  Students are also introduced to the wide variety of career options available in the federal Judiciary.

In 1958, President Dwight D. Eisenhower instituted Law Day as a day dedicated to celebrating the principles of government under law.  Three years later Congress designated May 1 as the official day to celebrate Law Day.  Each year a new theme is selected to spotlight a certain facet of the legal system and its impact on people.

If you are interested in attending the U.S. Bankruptcy Court’s Law Day program, please contact the court to make arrangements to attend in person or remotely.  Click here for the court’s telephone numbers.

Court Orders and Opinions

Each year the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Kansas issues thousands of orders in cases before the court.  Orders may be relatively brief, providing procedural instructions such as setting deadlines and scheduling hearings, or approving procedural and substantive proposals that the parties negotiated and proposed to the Judge.  Other orders decide the merits of a case.

Some court orders are designated as “opinions.”  Opinions are orders that the Judge issues with the expectation that they may also serve as guidance about how the law should be interpreted and applied in future cases.  In an opinion, the Judge lays out in detail the facts of the case and the governing law.  The court then provides a methodical explanation about how the Judge applied the law to the facts of that case.  When an order is designated as an opinion by the Judge who issued it, the opinion may be published.  Published opinions are frequently quoted, or “cited,” by lawyers and judges as “precedent” or legal authority to demonstrate how the law should be interpreted and applied in later cases.

Opinions issued by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Kansas are posted to the public website and are available free of charge here https://www.ksb.uscourts.gov/judges-info/opinions.