The Benton County Court Calendar
Benton & Franklin Counties Superior Court posts a weekly grid broken into daily docket categories. Felony, civil, domestic, probate, guardianship, juvenile, protection-order, ex parte, and treatment-court settings all appear there. The grid gives you the time and courtroom context you need. Just remember the court's own warnings. Assignments change often. Holidays can reshape a day, and names may not be called in the order listed.
District and municipal cases take a different route. Washington Courts' Find My Court Date covers those. Limited-jurisdiction cases from Kennewick, Richland, Prosser, and West Richland run through Benton District Court. City residents should search the court named on the citation or notice. Don't hunt for a separate city calendar.
| Calendar need | Best starting source | Final check |
|---|---|---|
| Superior hearing | Case notice and Benton Superior daily schedule | Benton County Clerk or Superior Court |
| District or city hearing | Find My Court Date and case docket | Benton District Court |
| Remote appearance | Superior WebEx instructions | Order, attorney, or court coordinator |
| Changed setting | Newest docket entry or order | Clerk confirmation |
Benton’s Daily Schedule Is Not Hearing Order
A spot on the Benton County court calendar is not a promise about timing. The county says plainly that the docket is not necessarily the order in which matters will be heard. A grouped 8:30 a.m. docket can hold many cases. The judge may call them based on courtroom needs instead of webpage order.
Calendar fact: use the published time to arrive or join as directed, but do not treat the list position as a precise appointment time.
This matters for criminal dockets, motion calendars, trial readiness, and other grouped sessions. Follow your notice. Check in as directed, and stay available until the court handles the matter.
How to Find Your Benton County Court Date
First, find the court named on your most recent notice, citation, or order. For Superior Court, open the county's Dockets & Daily Schedule. Then match the date, setting category, and courtroom. Compare that with the case docket. District or municipal cases go through Find My Court Date instead.
- Read the court name and cause number on the latest notice.
- Select the official Superior schedule or District and municipal date tool.
- Search with the requested court and party-name fields.
- Match the setting type, date, time, and courtroom to the case.
- Call the court when any source conflicts or omits the case.
The official Find My Court Date explanation identifies the limited-jurisdiction coverage.
The form asks for Court Name, first name, last name, and a captcha before Verify and Search. Calendar data refreshes daily, so recent changes still deserve a phone check.
Tomorrow’s Benton Calendar Is Draft
Benton Superior updates today's schedule after 3:00 p.m. Tomorrow's schedule is a draft expected to change. That warning is practical. A courtroom can shift, and a matter can reset. Holiday needs can change a whole category. Printing tomorrow's grid does not freeze it.
Check again close to the hearing and compare the newest case setting. If a remote link, room, or date conflicts with an order, call the clerk. The coordinator or attorney can also help. Never assume a matter vanished from a draft means dismissal. And never treat an old date as an excuse to skip a newer order.
Reading a Benton County Court Setting
A setting entry pairs a weekday and date with a time, a docket label, and a courtroom or link. The label tells you what kind of work the session handles. It does not reveal the full procedural posture of one case. The cause-number docket holds that event history.
| Date and time | The start of the grouped calendar, subject to a later reset or current order. |
|---|---|
| Docket label | Criminal Docket, Prelims, CPO, Ex Parte, motion category, or other named session. |
| Courtroom | A current assignment that Benton warns can change frequently. |
| Remote link | WebEx access where permitted, subject to the court’s participation rules. |
| List position | A schedule display, not a guarantee of hearing order. |
Always read the newest dated entry. A continuance can leave the original setting visible in case activity while a later line carries the current date.
Benton Court Calendar Terms in Plain Words
Skip the invented abbreviations; local labels are what count. The Benton schedule runs on named sessions. Each one points to a different type of courtroom work.
Prelims: preliminary criminal appearances, published Monday through Friday at 1:15 p.m.
Trial readiness or priority: a setting used to prepare and sequence cases before trial.
CPO: the civil protection-order docket.
Under-ten motions: civil motions expected to take less than ten minutes.
Summary judgment and over-ten: longer civil motions and summary-judgment matters.
Unlawful detainer: the schedule’s term for eviction-related civil settings.
Other labels you will see often include Domestic Docket, Paternity or Parentage, Child Support Contempt, Ex Parte, Adoption, Minor Guardianships, Criminal Motion Docket, Drug Court, and Juvenile Offender. Each names the work of that session.
Resets, Continuances, and Benton Cancellations
A reset or continuance moves a setting to a new slot. The older activity stays in the docket history. Read newest to oldest. Look for a later notice, order, or hearing line. The Superior grid is a snapshot. So it cannot prove that a case was excused, canceled, or resolved.
Benton District's ticket guidance allows one reset of a contested hearing. Call 509-735-8476 and wait for a new pink notice. That instruction belongs to the District process alone, not to every Superior or civil setting. Local Superior rules also let some trial dates be advanced or reset when the calendar permits. Notice requirements apply in the cited civil context.
Conflicting dates: call Benton Superior at 509-736-3071 or the County Clerk at 509-735-8388 for a Superior matter. Call Benton District at 509-735-8476 or the Prosser office at 509-786-5480 for a limited-jurisdiction matter.
Benton Friday Civil Calendar Changes
A June 2026 announcement reshaped the Friday Benton civil schedule. Starting June 26, under-ten motions moved to 8:30 a.m. Summary judgments and over-ten motions now sit at 10:00 a.m. Unlawful detainers stayed at 1:30 p.m. An old bookmark can be wrong even if it came from an official page.
That local change is exactly why the underlying court record matters. Read it together with the current schedule. Verify the live county grid before you attend. Rely on the filed notice or order for your particular case. Never carry a published time into a future week unchecked.
What to Do If You Miss a Benton Setting
Call right away if you miss a setting. Reach out to the court, and to your attorney if you have one. A missed criminal or infraction date can trigger failure-to-appear consequences or a warrant. A missed civil date is different. The judge may move ahead, strike a request, or enter some other lawful result. What actually happens depends on the case itself. A blank line on the calendar tells you nothing about the outcome.
- Locate the cause number and most recent notice.
- Call the court that held the setting without waiting for the portal to update.
- Ask whether a new date or order has been entered.
- Follow counsel’s or the court’s instructions for the next step.
- Get the filed order or docket entry when proof of the result is needed.
Check permission and timing before joining any WebEx link. Benton's remote-hearing rules want your name and case number displayed on screen. Want to appear by phone only? That exception request is due seven calendar days before most hearings. For CPO and unlawful-detainer matters the deadline is three days. Once roll call starts or the docket begins, late entry is off the table.
Benton WebEx Calendar Access
WebEx changes how you attend, not how you learn your date. Begin with the signed order and the Benton County court calendar, then read the Superior Court WebEx instructions. That page covers naming rules, phone exceptions, deadlines, and live-stream links. Permission and participation rules vary by matter.
Join early so roll call finishes without you. If your link is missing or dead, call the court fast. The calendar, docket, notice, WebEx page, and clerk phone each open a different door. No single channel beats a signed order.
Attending remotely is not the same as reading the file. The WebEx page handles attendance, not the case record. Joining a hearing does not hand you the filed notice, motion, or final order. Those records stay with the Benton County Clerk for Superior matters, or Benton District Court for limited-jurisdiction ones. Need proof of what the judge decided? Request the filed order or docket entry after the hearing ends.
Location still counts when the calendar lists no remote option. The Justice Center at 7122 W Okanogan Place in Kennewick holds the main Superior Court, County Clerk, and District Court functions. The historic Prosser Courthouse at 620 Market Street remains the county-seat courthouse and District branch. Call before driving over. The category on a published list may not say which counter keeps an older file or where a moved courtroom now sits.
For a final confirmation chain, work in order. Compare the newest notice against the case docket, check the live daily schedule once it updates, then contact the right court. Superior questions: 509-736-3071, or the County Clerk at 509-735-8388. District questions go to 509-735-8476, and the Prosser branch is 509-786-5480. Each source does one job best: the notice states the duty, the calendar tracks current logistics, and the clerk confirms with authority.