33rd / 424th District Courts

The visiting judge crisis (lack thereof) has again loomed large for us. The master schedule is being revised and you should see the major revisions be the end of the day on 12/17/04. The purpose of this note in the online forum is to (a) advise you of the changes that we believe need to be made to try to cope, and (b) to get your reactions and alternative suggestions. As always, I am open to ideas from the practicing bar.

As is always the case, the civil side of the docket will suffer most because priority must be given to criminal and juvenile cases. There is the additional specter of CPS cases that require jury trials that Associate Judge Hoffman cannot reach in his schedule and which I must hear.

We have been using 15-20 days per month and have now been cut back to 7 days per month in the number of days that a judge can be assigned into the District.

Here is the master "plan" around which the master schedule will be revised:

1. We will seek contributions of days from some of the judges who have regularly sat for us.
2. Judge Hammond will be continuing his normal docket due to some special accomodations that have been made.
3. Judge Shaver will continue to be assigned to a specialty sexual assault docket which is expected to take 3-4 days per month on the average.
4. I will be sitting on all other jury weeks. That will be almost every week.
5. Starting in February, there will be no separate civil jury weeks. All civil trials will be set subject to the criminal and juvenile trial dockets.
6. It will no longer be possible to assign a visiting judge for convenience of scheduling such as in the past when this was done in order to give a preferential setting or to 'make a hole' for a longer than average trial.
7. The new Drug Court will be held on Mondays commencing at 4:00p.m. and for as long as I'm hearing those, juries will be picked and adjourned so that I can attend the Drug Court docket.
8. Motion practice will be limited to the following hearing schedule:
   1. Thursdays and Fridays -- with Thursday (morning especially) being subject to the jury trial.
   2. Mornings at 8a.m. before the jury returns.
9. Mediation will be an absolute requirement for any case announcing for more than one hour. We will also be implementing the mediation prior to Temporary Orders procedures that Judge Savage has been using in Burnet County.
10. Certain steps will be taken to minimize wasted time in trial. Those may include (without intending in any way to limit the possibilities):
    1. A trial management order may be imposed.
    2. A standard Order in Limine will be used in civil jury trials, thereby eliminating most other needs.
    3. Time allocations will be made to each side -- in both civil and criminal cases -- (don't worry, they'll be negotiated and reasonable).
    4. Jury charges will be due in the Court's hands on Thursday prior to trial, including any special requests from the criminal defense -- the proposals will be kept confidential from the other side until ready for a charge conference.
    5. You must instruct your witnesses with at least the Court's Witness Instructions so as to lessen the wasted time that often occurs.
    6. Lastly, I will do whatever it takes, regardless of how draconian it seems, not to 'burn' a jury week.

As mentioned above, I'm all ears for your reactions, comments, and suggestions.

"JJ"