MEETING MINUTES
Monday, MARCH 19, 2001
PRESENT: Bill Burd, Prothonotary, Jack Humphrey, Dave Wilk, Joe Campagna, Cliff Rieders, Leo Klementovich, Joe Rider, Gary Weber, Kevin Way, President Judge Smith, Judge Kieser, District Attorney Tom Marino, Bill Knecht, Judge Brown, Judge Butts, Judge Anderson, Thomas Raup and Marc Lovecchio.
1. Bill Burd - Prothonotary - Cliff explains that we all have the highest faith and confidence in the Prothonotary. We have been very successful in interfacing the Prothonotary’s office with the court, the bar and all of the other many demands.
Bill Burd then commenced to give a status report with respect to the operation of the Prothonotary’s office. There are four new people within the last year. There has been some errors made in the past but Bill has talked to personnel in that office about those glitches and the problems are worked out.
Kevin Way mentioned that things are more complicated now. The Court Administrator’s office has no real role in the distribution of papers.
Judge Kieser indicated that there ought to be some generally expected guidelines. How soon should a filed order get to the judge’s desk? How soon should the order get back to the attorney? The judge also mentioned that the court is getting about 90% compliance with L1007 and L206 forms. There is some confusion however about whether the filing party is to serve. The form says this on the bottom but Bill Burd’s office has been making the distribution to the attorneys. Number 4 at the bottom of 206 coversheet should not have a space for checkmark. As it now stands that is an instruction from the court, for the filing party to serve an executed copy of the scheduling order on counsel or unrepresented parties.
Gary Weber, head of the rules committee, mentioned that the judges wanted this number 4 at the bottom of 206.
Bill Burd said he is willing to continue serving and therefore the item would be unnecessary. The attorneys would not have to do any service themselves. Again Bill indicating he is willing so to do and there did not seem to be any opposition to that.
Bill Burd also pointed out the number of people involved and the number of issues that he has to deal with. Bill did ask that the bar let him know if there are any problems. He feels the office is up to snuff.
Bill Knecht suggested color coding and Bill Burd said that would be a good idea but when something does need to be expedited, it is clear to the Prothonotary’s office and they take care of it in an expedited manner.
2. Jack Humphrey - Present as a member of the Executive Board and wanted to get up to speed on Bench/Bar activities. Nothing to report.
3. David Wilk - Civil - Nothing to report.
4. Joe Campagna - Lycoming Law Foundation update - Currently the total stands at approximately $60,000.00 (over five years) for pledges or contributions. Thanks go to Bill Nichols, Joe Rider, Gene Yaw.
Legal Services. Often Legal Services gets calls that a lawyer will not go to trial usually in a domestic matter because he did not get paid or for some other such reason. Joe said he assumes that the court will look at these withdrawals with care.
5. Leo Klementovich for Jan Yaw - Domestic - No issues.
6. Joe Rider - POA’s must be witnessed by at least two people. People who sign as makers cannot also be witnesses. There must be three parties involved.
7. Gary Weber - Rules Committee - Distributed summary of use statistics for www.Lycolaw.org. Site visits are high. Cases are up to date. He can include articles on legal issues that are hot. Will try to get more court information on the site. Minutes of the Bench/Bar are put on the website. Gary also said that it would be great if people would write articles or other information that he could put on the site.
8. Kevin Way - Court Administrator - Update on PFA database. It’s up and running. Working out procedural issues. If filing PFA for first abuse petition, when the judge signs the first order, be sure that Kevin Way gets the order so it can be put on the PFA system. Most cases are through Wise Options which already are on the system. Jack thinks that information should come from the scheduling technician rather than depending upon the lawyers. Apparently this would not be a problem.
Kevin mentioned that there is an Emergency Services Training session.
Judge Kieser thought that Jack’s idea was a good one and suggested that the parties also go through Wise Options.
When an attorney is in for a second hearing, the attorney can bring a draft of the second order to the hearing so that he/she can go through the options with opposing counsel. There are a whole list of things to go over in that second order.
Kevin Way just mentioned that a grant was given for the drug court. We are up to about $300,000.00 and things are going well. This makes us financially sound for the next 18 months. PCCD is the grantor.
Judge Smith said that the number of Defendants participating are down. Tom Marino says that he will look into whether there are more eligible persons out there.
9. Bill Knecht - Nothing to report.
10. Judge Smith - Lycoming Mediation - Very useful and will continue to refer matters to it.
April 30, 2001, Judge Brown will start a 3-4 week capital case. Will take up the entire month of May. He has backed up custody cases.