How to Request a Telephonic Hearing in Alaska Small Claims Court

When You Can't Get to the Courthouse

Alaska is enormous. A defendant in Bethel served with a lawsuit filed in Anchorage faces a 500-mile trip to attend a hearing in person. Someone working a fishing shift in Kodiak or a mining rotation on the North Slope may not be able to take a day off for court. Even within a city, a disability or medical condition can make a courthouse visit impractical.

Alaska small claims court lets you participate by telephone, but only with advance judicial approval. Telephonic hearings are not automatic — you must file a request and the judge must sign an order granting it.

Filing Form SC-31

The form you need is Form SC-31, titled "Request and Order to Participate by Telephone." You can download it from the Alaska Court System's forms page.

On the form, you'll state:

• Your name and case number
• The hearing date you want to attend by phone
• The reason you're requesting telephonic participation — distance from the courthouse, disability, work schedule conflict, or other hardship
• A phone number where the court can reach you at the scheduled hearing time

File Form SC-31 with the court clerk and serve a copy on the other party. File it well before the hearing date — don't wait until the last minute. Judges need time to review and sign the order, and if the request is denied, you need enough notice to make alternative arrangements.

What the Judge Considers

The court has discretion. Explain the distance, disability, or hardship that makes in-person attendance difficult. Examples include:

• You live a significant distance from the courthouse
• You have a documented disability or medical condition
• Your work schedule (shift work, remote-site employment) makes in-person attendance genuinely impractical
• Travel costs would be disproportionate to the amount in dispute

A request based solely on convenience — "I'd rather not drive across town" — is less likely to be granted.

Evidence Logistics for Phone Hearings

This is where telephonic participation gets complicated. At an in-person hearing, you hand the judge your evidence binder directly. By phone, you can't do that.

If you're appearing by phone, you must get your evidence to the court before the hearing date:

• Physical exhibits (contracts, photographs, receipts) must be mailed or delivered to the court clerk and to the opposing party in advance
• Organize and paginate your documents sequentially so you can reference them by page number during the hearing ("Your Honor, please turn to page 4 — this is the signed contract")
• Keep your own copy so you can follow along during testimony

The judge may have questions about specific documents. If you're on the phone and your evidence isn't at the courthouse, you can't present it. Preparation and timing are everything.

How the Telephonic Hearing Works

On the hearing date, follow the phone instructions in the court's signed order. The judge runs the same informal hearing — taking sworn testimony, asking questions, reviewing evidence — just with one or both parties participating remotely.

Speak clearly, wait your turn, and don't interrupt. The audio recording of the hearing becomes the official court record, and crosstalk makes it unintelligible.

If a witness also needs to appear by phone, the witness must request participation on Form SC-31 and obtain advance judicial approval.

Alternatives to Consider

Before filing Form SC-31, consider whether a venue transfer might solve the problem entirely. If the case was filed in a court location far from your home, you can request a change of venue in Section 2 of Form SC-3. The case moves to a closer courthouse, and you attend in person.

For the full process of requesting telephonic participation, organizing remote evidence, and managing a phone hearing, the Responding to a Small Claims Case in Alaska guide includes a preparation checklist specifically for remote defendants.

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