MEETING MINUTES
October 3, 2005
By C. Edward S. Mitchell, Chairman
Present were: Judge Kenneth Brown, Judge Nancy Butts, Judge Dudley Anderson, Judge Richard Gray, Kevin Way, Joseph Campagna, Robert Elion, William Knecht, Norman Lubin, Ed Mitchell, Darryl Wishard.
Judge Brown discussed the judge rotation which will take place at the end of this year. Criminal gets the most pressure. There are five pending homicide cases for trial next year. More than two judges are necessary. Next year there will be two and a half criminal court judges. They will be Judge Kieser and Judge Anderson full time.
Judge Gray will remain in family court doing the main family issues such as equitable distribution and custody. Judge Gray will also do criminal work part time.
Civil will be done by Judge Brown and Judge Butts. Judge Brown’s terms will be three weeks. Judge Butts’ terms will be two weeks. Judge Brown and Judge Butts will also do some domestics.
Judge Anderson will do pretrials in custody cases.
Judge Butts will do juvenile drug court. Judge Anderson will do DUI court.
PFA’s and summary appeals will be handled by all judges. Judge Butts will handle orphans’ court.
Beginning in 2008, for two years, Judge Butts and Judge Brown will do criminal. Judge Gray will do civil. Judge Kieser or Judge Anderson will be the main family court judge.
The use of dates certain for civil trials will continue in 2006.
Judge Kieser discussed scheduling in criminal court. A draft planned operating procedure for criminal court for 2006 was circulated. A copy is attached.
Under the proposed scheduling procedure, attendance at the first pretrial conference to be held on the arraignment date is mandatory. Arraignments will be scheduled so that those being handled by the public defender will be scheduled in one week and those being handled by private counsel will be scheduled on the alternate week. The schedules will be published. A trial track will be established at the pretrial conference held after the arraignment.
It is hoped this procedure will reduce the times for criminal monitoring.
Judge Butts. The Committee congratulated Judge Butts on her recent award for her work in juvenile drug court. Judge Butts informed the Committee that she has recently been appointed to the statewide task force for drug court.
Judge Anderson. The statewide rules pertaining to juveniles and Children & Youth have been changed to limit the amount of involvement of masters. In summary, any proceeding which involves a possible change of goals needs to be handled by a judge. This will cause additional burden on the courts.
Judge Gray. A meeting of the family court bar will be held October 25 to go over calendaring.
During his first year, Judge Gray tried 25 custody trials. In the second year, that number has been substantially reduced even though custody filings are up.
Kevin Way. Kevin discussed the scheduling procedure to be implemented in criminal court in 2006. Kevin will publish a chart of how the system works. The plan is to take early control of cases to attempt to get less severe cases out of the system more rapidly to reduce back log.
The Superior Court scheduled a session for Williamsport on May 1-2, 2006. The Superior Court will be open to social events. The Association will consider planning a dinner. It was noted that the Superior Court will be here on May 1 so that a Law Day program can be incorporated into the Superior Court session.
Robert Elion. No report.
William Knecht. No report.
Joe Campagna. No report.
Norm Lubin. The PBI Seminars in Williamsport will no longer be handled by Rick Vanderlin. The Law Association has assumed that responsibility. The Law Association is an approved provider for CLE and will continue to have Lunch & Learn sessions. These sessions are scheduled for the third Wednesday of each month.
Darryl Wishard. No report.