Thunderbeat reporter Brooke Jones (January 31, 2019) Junior Taegan Jacobs won first place in the student reporter contest at the annual Nebraska State Mock Trial Competition. She made history by being the first student journalist to win the award and was the first reporter from Bellevue West to compete. Reporters are eligible to compete once a school’s mock trial team qualifies for state. Jacobs said she took as many notes as possible and documented the entire trial, then wrote a report on it...Read more

The Information Technology Division of the Judicial Branch has created a new position of IT Support Supervisor. The branch’s first IT Support Supervisor, Shane Smith, will have an important role in the ongoing integration of technology support across the branch. As the Judicial Branch has grown, steps have been taken toward efficient consolidation of technology support for all of the administrative offices/divisions, field probation, appellate courts and trial courts. Smith will take...Read more

The Judicial Branch Website experienced much activity in 2018 resulting in nearly 3.5 million pageviews on the main page. While the items and pages noted below aren’t necessarily the newest or biggest items hosted on the site, they are some of the most visited pages. It is no surprise that the Judicial Branch main page is at the top of the list as it hosts a slideshow of recent activity, media releases, recent news, appellate court opinions, rule changes and links to other pages. Other areas...Read more

Trial court judges have been hosting new state senators through a Judicial-Legislative Visit Program since 1999. For twenty years, the program has fulfilled its purpose of providing legislators a personal understanding of the daily duties and responsibilities of the trial court judge and judicial branch personnel. The program encourages new legislators to visit their local courthouse for a half-day session followed by meetings with court and probation staff. The program began with new state...Read more