The District Court of Payne County is one of two member courts of the Ninth Judicial District of Oklahoma. The other member court is the District Court of Logan County. Donald L. Worthington is the District Judge serving in both counties. Stephen R. Kistler is Associate District Judge and Michael E. Stano and Phillip C. Corley are Special District Judges. Lisa S. Lambert is Court Clerk for Payne County. Louis A. Duel is a Special Judge for the Ninth Judicial District with offices in Logan County, but active in the District Court of Payne County two days each week.

Felony dockets are conducted each Friday. Domestic, probate and small claims dockets are held weekly. Civil and misdemeanor dockets are scheduled bi-weekly, and a traffic docket and a preliminary hearing docket is conducted one day each month.

The Courts collect $4,800,000.00 per year in court costs, fees and forfeitures, the majority of which is paid to 30 various state and local agencies as required by law.

The Court Clerk has court files and documents commencing from the early 1900's to the current time. The Court Clerk’s office is open Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m., and the office is open during the lunch hour. The office is closed on holidays.

Court files, documents and other information can be found on the internet at: www.oscn.net. This free web site offers extensive case information.

All court records, excluding Juvenile, Mental Health and Adoption records, are available for public inspection. And, court records are stored at the courthouse for easy access, with the exception of older criminal records which are available at an alternate site.

•   Civil: Cases involving personal injury, property and contract disputes, mortgage foreclosure, property damage, eminent domain and other cases not involving crimes or criminal acts.
  
  
•   Small Claims: Cases of a civil nature where monetary amount does not exceed $6,000.00 in damages.
  
  
•   Probate: Wills, Guardianships, Administration of Estates.
  
  
•   Domestic: Divorce, Annulments, Custody of Children.
  
  
•   Juvenile: Deprived Children, Delinquent Children.
  
  
•   Adoption, Mental Health, Victim Protective Orders.
  
  
•   Criminal: Felony, Misdemeanor, Traffic, Search Warrants, Extraditions
  
  
•   Licenses: Beverage, Marriage, Pool Hall, Process Server, Transient Merchant, Going out of Business, Bingo, Minister Credentials
  
  
•   Passport: The Court Clerk office serves as a U.S. Passport Service Acceptance Agency. (For further information, check U. S. Passport Services web address at http://travel.state.gov/passport/passport_1738.html.)
  
  
•   Jury Summons: The Court Clerk office issues 2000 jury summons each year. Names of jurors are selected from Division of Motor Vehicle driver license records. Jurors serve a two-month term, can serve up to eighteen days during the term, but usually serve four to six days during that time period. Jurors are paid $20.00/day and mileage for each day of service, and serve on civil and criminal cases set on Judges Worthington, Kistler, Stano, Corley and Wheeler’s dockets.