GroundRules
Ark. Code Ann. § 16-13-222: Private hearings by circuit courts
Where this section sits in the code
- AR Code
- Title 16
- Chapter 13
- Subchapter 2
(a) (1) The circuit courts of the various judicial districts of the state shall hear the case or matter in privacy, upon application of all litigants to a divorce action, proceeding for alimony or separate maintenance, proceeding touching the maintenance or custody of children, proceeding for annulment of marriage, adoption proceeding, or any other proceeding pertaining to domestic relations. (2) To this end, circuit judges are empowered to exclude from any such hearing and from the courtroom all individuals other than the litigants, their counsel, and the officers of the court. (b) A circuit judge, upon his or her own initiative, may hear such cases and matters in chambers or in privacy where he or she deems it in the best interests of the parties and the best interests of society. Acts 2003, No. 1185, § 79.
(a) (1) The circuit courts of the various judicial districts of the state shall hear the case or matter in privacy, upon application of all litigants to a divorce action, proceeding for alimony or separate maintenance, proceeding touching the maintenance or custody of children, proceeding for annulment of marriage, adoption proceeding, or any other proceeding pertaining to domestic relations. (2) To this end, circuit judges are empowered to exclude from any such hearing and from the courtroom all individuals other than the litigants, their counsel, and the officers of the court.
(1) The circuit courts of the various judicial districts of the state shall hear the case or matter in privacy, upon application of all litigants to a divorce action, proceeding for alimony or separate maintenance, proceeding touching the maintenance or custody of children, proceeding for annulment of marriage, adoption proceeding, or any other proceeding pertaining to domestic relations.
(2) To this end, circuit judges are empowered to exclude from any such hearing and from the courtroom all individuals other than the litigants, their counsel, and the officers of the court.
(b) A circuit judge, upon his or her own initiative, may hear such cases and matters in chambers or in privacy where he or she deems it in the best interests of the parties and the best interests of society.
Collected 2026-09-17T21:35:43Z. Source file · JSON
Compilation CC BY 4.0, Open US Law (Vaquill AI). GroundRules uses only the releases published under CC BY 4.0: from v2026.09 the compilation is licensed CC BY-NC 4.0, and GroundRules does not use those releases. Each affected row names its release in its vintage label. GroundRules parsed and filtered the compilation to retain enacted text. Source · License
Arkansas electronic product files were republished by Public.Resource.Org under a public-domain mark. GroundRules uses enacted text from Release 78 only as a labeled supplement to the newer Open US Law rows. Source