It’s going to take time to catch up after most court cases were put on hold in Knott County. The courthouse was only able to handle the most serious matters while they were closed to recover from the aftermath of this summer’s flooding.
The court now has a reopen date of Monday, October 31st.
Lisa Bolen is Knott County Circuit Court Clerk. She said her staff is ready to hit the ground running.
“Once we open, we’ll be back in full swing and hopefully it’ll take us maybe… you know, we were out of commission for around three months, so I imagine it’ll take that long to get us back on the same track,” said Bolen.
There is a massive number of civil cases and motions to go through once they resume that work.
Bolen added court officials did what they could to make sure the closure did not hurt claimants.
“The statute of limitations were put on hold by the Administrative Office of the Courts. That way nobody’s case was saying, ‘ok, no you can’t file that case because your statute of limitations ran out.’ So that’s been put on hold,” said Bolen.
The courthouse in downtown Hindman suffered damage to their parking garage and elevator. Bolen said people who cannot climb the stairs can participate remotely.
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