(A) On or before January 1, 2022, the county court, district court, and separate juvenile court judges within each judicial district shall jointly adopt a local rule setting out the procedures governing emergency modified court operations in their judicial district.
§ 6-1528.Emergency Modified Court Operations.
Article 15: Uniform District Court Rules of Practice and Procedure · Last amended November 24, 2021 · Last verified July 22, 2026
In one sentenceThis rule required county, district, and separate juvenile court judges in each judicial district to jointly adopt, by January 1, 2022, a local rule setting out how their district decides to start, run, and end emergency modified court operations.
Full Text of § 6-1528
(B) Such local rule shall include, but not be limited to:
(1) Establishing criteria for how the judicial district will determine when emergency modified court operations should be implemented, and when normal court operations should resume;
(2) Listing the stakeholders within the judicial district to include in planning and implementing any emergency modified court operations.
(3) Identifying who within the judicial district will coordinate and facilitate communication with the group of justice stakeholders to plan and implement any emergency modified court operations plan;
(4) Listing all mission essential functions to be considered and addressed in any emergency modified court operations plan; and
(5) Identifying how court users and the public will be informed when emergency modified court operations are implemented and when they are discontinued.
Amendment History
§ 6-1528 adopted November 24, 2021.
Plain-English Summary
Courts sometimes cannot run on their normal schedule — a natural disaster, a public health emergency, or some other disruption can force a district to scale back or change how it operates. Section 6-1528 required every judicial district to get ahead of that possibility by adopting a joint local rule, with county court, district court, and separate juvenile court judges all participating, by January 1, 2022.
The rule lists what that local plan has to cover at a minimum: criteria for deciding when to start emergency modified operations and when to return to normal, the stakeholders to bring into planning and carrying out the plan, who coordinates communication among those stakeholders, the district’s mission-essential functions that any emergency plan needs to address, and how the court will let the public and court users know when modified operations begin and end. The local rule itself has to follow the general local-rule procedure set out in Section 6-1501.
In effect, this rule pushed the planning work for a courthouse emergency to before the emergency happens, so a judicial district is not improvising in the middle of a crisis.
Frequently Asked Questions
What did judges in each Nebraska judicial district have to do under this rule?
Jointly adopt a local rule, on or before January 1, 2022, setting out the procedures governing emergency modified court operations in their district.
Which judges had to participate in adopting the local rule?
County court, district court, and separate juvenile court judges within the judicial district.
What topics does the local rule have to address?
At minimum, criteria for starting and ending emergency modified operations, the stakeholders to involve, who coordinates communication, the mission-essential functions to be addressed, and how the public and court users will be informed.
Does this rule set out the specific emergency procedures a district will follow?
No. It requires each judicial district to adopt its own local rule containing those procedures; the substance of the plan is left to the district.
What governs how the local rule itself gets adopted?
Section 6-1501 governs the process for adopting the local rule required by this section.
Source & verification. Section text and amendment history are
reproduced verbatim from the Nebraska Judicial Branch, adopted by the
Supreme Court of Nebraska. Last verified July 22, 2026. ·
Official source
Also known as: emergency court operations plan nebraskadistrict court disaster planning rulecourt closure procedure local rulemission essential functions courtjoint local rule judicial district