photo by: Nick Gerik

City offices, including Municipal Court and Planning and Development Services, are pictured at 1 Riverfront Plaza, Monday, April 15, 2019.

The City of Lawrence announced Wednesday that it will introduce a night court pilot in the Municipal Court later this month.

The court is adding a night court docket from 5 to 6:30 p.m. on the third Wednesday of the month beginning Aug. 16, the city announced in a news release. The night court session will be staffed by Municipal Court Judge Christopher Kopecky, a prosecutor, courtroom clerk, a customer service clerk, a court security officer and a supervisor.

“By adding a night court docket, the city is hoping to reduce the amount of failures to appear,” the release reads. “The ‘add-on’ docket allows the court flexibility to handle almost any type of case and provides defendants with access to nearly all court services during the session.”

Douglas County’s Criminal Justice Coordinating Council floated the idea of piloting a night court session earlier this year, and City Commissioner Brad Finkeldei, Douglas County District Attorney Suzanne Valdez and Chief District Court Judge James McCabria all expressed interest in doing so. The idea stemmed from a 2022 study from the Vera Institute, a Brooklyn-based criminal justice reform nonprofit, which examined bookings at the Douglas County Jail during the past five years and found that the majority were for minor, nonviolent charges like failure to appear.

According to the release, Lawrence residents who want to be added to the docket will need to do so between 5 and 5:30 p.m. on the day of the night court session. Then, those individuals will be seen by the judge in a court docket setting from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. If residents wish to use night court to pay a citation, they’ll be able to do so any time during the 5 to 6:30 p.m. night court window.

Members of the public can contact the Municipal Court at 785-832-6190 for more information.