General Procedures:
Pursuant to Administrative Order 2021-38 all proceedings will be held in
person unless advance
permission is obtained from the Court upon written Notice of Motion and
Motion for good
cause shown.
Before court begins for the day or during periods of court recess,
counsel shall check-in with
the Court Clerk for the case(s) counsel has scheduled before the Court. The Clerk shall not be
distracted while court is in session.
When addressing a case before the Court, counsel shall
first state the case line number from that day’s Court docket sheet,
followed by the case name
and number.
Once a contested hearing or trial commences it will proceed day to day,
except on Fridays,
unless for good cause shown otherwise ordered by the Court.
Communication with the Court:
All communication with the Court must be via writing with all parties
copied in on the
communication. The Court does not
accept nor will the Court respond to any unsolicited email
correspondence. The Court does not accept ANY documents via email.
Courtesy Copies:
The Court shall not accept courtesy copies of Motions/Petitions in
advance of Court unless
otherwise directed by the Court.
Orders:
Statuses, case management conferences, and agreed prove-ups are scheduled
in Court via
minute entry only unless otherwise directed by the Court.
A written Order shall be submitted to the Court electronically via
Odyssey for all matters
scheduled for hearing, pre-trial or trial. All Orders, except for Orders pertaining to
Orders of
Protection, shall be submitted via Odyssey within 24 hours of the case
being addressed. The
Orders shall be properly dated, list the parties who were present before
the Court and names
of any attorneys of record. If setting hearing or trial, the Orders shall
list each Motion/Petition
and the date of filing. If an
Order is required and not submitted timely it will be rejected and
counsel must immediately appear before the Court to re-present the
proposed Order. Failure to
submit and obtain from the Court a signed Order may result in
cancellation of the intended
future court date.
A computer and scanner are
available in the courtroom for use in submitting proposed Orders
through Odyssey, but all Counsel are encouraged to bring their own lap
tops to Court to assist
in the timely submission of Orders.
The Court will accept for presentment agreed Orders presented off-call only
on cases where
each party is represented by counsel of record and there is a
corresponding underlying Motion
pending.
All Orders of Protection shall be submitted directly to the Judge in
court before counsel/self-
represented litigant(s) leave the courtroom.
It typically takes approximately one (1) business day from the day the
Judge signs a
proposed Order on Odyssey for that Order to be available for obtaining
copies through the
Clerk’s Office.
Prove-ups:
Prove-up dates will be scheduled only after settlement documents have
been signed by all
parties. All prove-up documents
including, but not limited to, the proposed Judgment for
Dissolution of Marriage, Marital Settlement Agreement, Name Change Order,
Support Order,
Certificate of Dissolution of Marriage, etc. shall be submitted
electronically under one
envelope via Odyssey no more than two (2) business days prior to the
scheduled court date.
Each document must be scanned in as its own separate pdf image.
Pre-Trials:
See the Court’s standing Order dated September 1, 2022.
Trials:
Trial memoranda and trial exhibits shall be exchanged between the parties
and print
copies tendered to the Court seven (7) days prior to commencement of
trial. Trial exhibits
shall include any agreed stipulations of the parties and all exhibit
notebooks shall be properly
marked and bound with a corresponding exhibit list located in the first
page of the binder. The
first day of trial shall be scheduled to start at 10:30 a.m. and each
subsequent day of trial shall
begin at 1:30 p.m. unless otherwise ordered by the Court.