Public Input on Court Summonses
One of the stated objectives of Kansas City’s public engagement project was to better understand and decrease failure to appear for court. The team presented participants with a sample municipal court summons document and asked participants to identify what they liked or disliked about the document’s language. They were also encouraged to identify solutions to failure to appear. Participants provided suggestions for developing a new summons document and related follow-up activities.
KCMC Court SummonsPotential Changes to Summonses
Engagement participants suggested potential changes to a new summons document, including:
- Using plain language throughout the document
- Adding additional information, such as Spanish-language content, specific details about time commitments, court contact information, and information about consequences of missing a court date
- Including a QR code to allow court users easy access to more detailed information by way of their smartphones
Participants also suggested new procedures for administering summonses to decrease failure to appear, including:
- Developing new methods to verify that summonses were received by people
- Developing additional ways to communicate and follow-up with individuals who have received summonses
- Providing summonses to homeless individuals without an address
- Considering the addition of more lead time for people to appear in court