Ron Werkmeister, Clerk Magistrate and Deputy Clerk of District Court of Frontier County, was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award for his nearly 50 years of service to the Nebraska Judicial Branch on August 1, 2017. Chief Justice Michael Heavican visited Frontier County Courthouse to present the award. Judge Kent Turnbull outlined Werkmeister's history of service beginning with his election as county judge in 1968, his 1973 appointment as Associate County Judge, and his 1976 appointment...Read more

The Judicial Ethics Committee has released an opinion addressing a question regarding disqualification when an attorney is related to a judge. Question Posed: Is a district judge whose brother is county attorney for one of the counties in the judge’s judicial district disqualified in the following situations: from cases in which the deputy county attorney for the county is the attorney for the State and the judge’s brother did not appear in the case, nor sign the complaint, or participate in...Read more

Juvenile Justice was the focus on the international stage at the 17th Annual Melaka International Youth Dialogue Conference in Maleka, Malaysia July 10-13th, 2017. Monica Miles-Steffens, Director of Placement, Juvenile Division of the Administrative Office of the Courts and Probation and Dr. Anne Hobbs, Director of the Juvenile Justice Institute, University of Nebraska at Omaha shared the stage as plenary speakers to an audience representing over 40 different countries. The conference is...Read more

The Nebraska Court Improvement Project received a grant from the Sherwood Foundation to study the creation of a Unified Family Court in Douglas County. A Unified Family Court combines the elements of traditional family and juvenile courts into one entity and includes other resources, such as social services, critical to the resolution of a family’s problems. It is a comprehensive court with jurisdiction over all family related legal matters, such as divorce, custody, child support, domestic...Read more