Staggered court appearances are a mechanism to increase
efficiency in the courts and to decrease lawyers' time waiting for a matter to
be called by the courts. While this rule is intended to streamline the
litigation process, it will be ineffectual without the cooperation and
participation of litigants. Improving the process of litigation by instituting
staggered court appearances, for example, requires not only the promulgation of
rules such as this one, but also, and more importantly, the proactive and
earnest adherence to such rules by parties and their counsel and the
court.
(a) Each court appearance for
oral argument on a motion shall be assigned either a set time or a time
interval during which the appearance is expected to be held. The assignment of
time or time interval, and the length of time allotted to a case is solely in
the discretion of the court.
(b) In
order for the court to be able to address any and all matters of concern to the
court and in order for the court to avoid the appearance of holding ex parte
communications with one or more parties in the case, even those parties who
believe that they are not directly involved in the matter before the court must
appear at the appointed date and time assigned by the court unless specifically
excused by the court.
(c) Since the
court is setting aside a specific time or time interval for the case and since
there are occasions when the court's electronic or other notification system
fails or occasions when a party fails to receive the court-generated
notification, each attorney who receives notification of an appearance on a
specific date and time is responsible for notifying all other parties by e-mail
that the matter is scheduled to be heard on that assigned date and time. All
parties are directed to exchange e-mail addresses with each other at the
commencement of the case and to keep these e-mail addresses current, in order
to facilitate notification by the person(s) receiving the court
notification.
(d) Requests for
adjournments shall be transmitted in writing to the court and to all parties,
in such manner as the court may direct, so as to be received no later than 48
hours before the hearing and shall set forth whether the other parties consent
to the adjournment.
