What is the 20th Judicial Circuit?
Missouri has 45 judicial circuits or subdivisions for the orderly administration of justice. I am a Circuit Judge in the 20th Judicial Circuit which consists of Franklin, Gasconade and Osage Counties. These are the three adjacent counties bordered by the Missouri and Osage Rivers on the north and west and Jefferson County on the east. The circuit contains a population of over 125,000 people and a land mass of over 200,000 square miles, almost twice the size of the State of Rhode Island. I have courtrooms in Union, Hermann, and Linn and travel to each at least once each month. Because it has the largest population and the largest number of cases, I spend more time in Franklin County than in any other county. I have a beautiful, large, new office in Franklin County in the Judicial Center that opened in May of 2008 and I spend much of my time in that office.
