Recently I visited the Detroit Bar Association archive-in the DBA office/Lawyers Lounge, on the 12th Floor of the City County Building (n/k/a CAYMC). Among the material was a huge white board, filled with newspaper clippings and DBA notices from the 1980s. I have no idea what occasion motivated the creation of that board, but for me, it was like stepping back to the early part of my career.
It is hard to believe now, but for a long time, judges in the Wayne County Circuit Court did not have individual case dockets. I have described this arrangement in a post on www.lexfugit.com. I will not describe the features of that unique system here.
The clipping above is from 1986 when individual dockets first began as a pilot program. 6-8 judges brought on every 6 months or so until every judge had an individual docket.
I remember there was some kinks in the new system. In the beginning there was an in person status conference on every case, held at 11:30am on Fridays, after the fun and frolic of Motion Day. Dates for Witness lists, discovery, mediation (n/k/a case evaluation), and a Settlement Conference were set. Much later, the in person hearings were abandoned in favor of standard tracks assigned in orders mailed to the attorneys. But in those early days, judges didn’t know what a status conference was. Some judges breezed through the hearings, while others went into great detail on case facts, theories, witnesses, proofs and so on.
I do remember one of my first status conferences, which was set, along with many other cases for 11:30 was not completed until 2:45. The extended proceedings resulted in me having to appear, on a later date, to answer a show cause in Bankruptcy Court for my alleged failure to appear at a first meeting of creditors scheduled for 1pm. I had been there, though. Unfortunately, I had spent a whole lot of time running between the CCB and the Federal Courthouse trying to be at both hearings when called. The result was that each hearing was eventually called while I was in the other place. But that is a story for another time.
While I reminisce about the days when all proceedings were in person, I don’t include that day in 1986. Thank goodness, Judge Rhodes was a very understanding person, and I didn’t have to include “inmate” on my CV.
