 One of the first things I've tried to do in each case where I have Several defendants is is to see if I can get the defendants to agree on a lead defense counsel who will coordinate with the other Counsel I have a case in the vitamin a trust litigation where I have over Think the last time we count about 85 certificates of service that have to go out every time I sign an order They have some coordination Responsibility so that they try to present what they can in a unified motion and what they can is separate motions Judge Hogan in his vitamin case has recently implemented Notifying counsel by email Now we have a system that is working wonderfully where I have got counsel to stipulate that they can get notice of the Court's actions when I sign an order and issue an opinion By an email that we sent out from the clerk's office and then they have the obligation to go to our internet web page on that there is a link that says Vitamin any trust case they hit that and up comes all the orders and all the opinions and the most recent one We now do not spend all day sending out copies of orders in a multi-defendant case I have found it very successful to use a jury questionnaire Especially if it's going to be a lengthy trial then you go to your normal by-deer process once they're in but the jury you Get in if you do that processes knows they're going to be here for two months And it's already cleared for that and that's then saves you days and a lot of your questions in almost every case where I've done this I've been able to do the jury selection in two days or less. We have a case going on right now where we have three defendants They're all Spanish speaking but We also have to take into logistic into account the logistics involved with that in most instances You'll notice that courtrooms were not designed with interpreters in mind. I've had a courtroom deputy who sat in a trial recently With nine defendants and he was really exhausted towards the end of the case and just keeping him re-energized is A major concern of an operations manager. The judge cannot sit back during a long trial The judge has to be on top of everything that goes on and see or he has to have their antennae up in that courtroom at all times There are that many parties something invariably can happen. They have to be alert if you're not Something can happen in the courtroom that Wouldn't ordinarily happen in a regular case, but because there's so many defendants You have to pay attention if you combine these techniques along with good organization and with good court and technology Working with your court staff your court Deputy with your systems people in the technology area and the jury people you can put together a case in reasonably decent time frame This segment deals with the challenges that court staff face and the effective practices that courts have utilized during trial in a Multi-party case our second panel consists of Colleen Ligas who we've already met Angela Caesar Moby Mobile operations manager of the US district court in the district of Columbia and Jim Woodward clerk of the US district court Eastern district of Missouri and as in the first session will turn to a few pushed to talk courts for their thoughts Okay, Angela. Let's start with you, please in the video clip reference was made to the use of a lead defense attorney How does that impact the challenges you face in the courtroom as a as an operations manager? Well as an operations manager it makes the job of a courtroom clerk a lot more manageable Because a lot of times the lead counsel will follow the motions and then co-counsel adopts the motions Therefore as a courtroom clerk you have less motions that you need to keep track of also Lead counsel will take the responsibility of notifying chambers like usually before eight o'clock in the morning to let chambers know That they will have preliminary matters that need to be addressed before the jury can come into the courtroom This gives the courtroom deputy time to get prepared for the day And now they don't have to run around and find out from the attorneys if they have matters that need to be taken Care of before the judge takes the bench Also When objections come from lead counsel It helps the courtroom clerk because she now doesn't have to make space for all of the attorneys to approach the bench Because with the electronic courtroom we can make sure that the attorneys have headphones And they can listen to what's going on at the bench from counsel table So you can actually focus your resources elsewhere. That's right with having lead counsel our resources are focused on other things Such as ordering jury snacks making sure our jury has everything that they need assisting the attorneys with Using the equipment electronic courtroom and just focusing on our exhibits Colleen does it work the same way in your court? Not all the cases we handle have a designated lead counsel However in cases with a large number of parties such as an environmental case that might be an issue the judicial officer may Consider at its initial conference Sometimes the parties may agree amongst themselves and designate a lead attorney on their own to handle Matters before the court however a lead attorney in a multi-party case has its advantages such as a time saver When lead counsel has been designated It's much easier to convey the information that the judge wants to give the parties say to two or three attorneys versus having to Advise 20 different attorneys 20 different times the same information that the judge wants them to have and anyone who knows The duties of a courtroom deputy can't agree that time is a precious commodity Jim is that also an effective practice utilized in the eastern district of Missouri? Well, I agree that it can be a useful technique to use in a multi-party case And I think that our judges in the eastern district use it occasionally But it's still a fairly uncommon practice Although just a recent example is one of our judges has an admiralty case with about 475 parties and 60 or 70 attorneys And that is an instance where appointment of a lead attorney has made a lot of sense It's actually a group of attorneys who are serving in the capacity of lead counsel And they are assisting in the management of the pretrial discovery process and they'll help coordinate exhibits and Matters like that prior to trial But I think there's a legal hurdle that occurs met very often in multi-party cases that makes appointment of lead counsel sometimes troublesome It is very often the case that defendants May have inconsistent legal positions in the case inconsistent defenses Even worse they may have cross claims against each other and it may make it very impractical for the judge to expect them to Cooperate very well in the pretrial stage So it becomes a delicate judicial determination in some of those instances. That's a real good point. In fact Colleen what about the distribution of orders in a multi-party case? Do you distribute it to all the parties are only to the lead defense attorney? Well, when we're distributing orders in a multi-party case all the parties get served with the order However, if there is a lead counsel in a particular action that I would contact that counsel convey the Necessary information that needs to be disseminated to the parties and that and now the responsibility shifts from me to his or her Who's the lead counsel in the case to relay that information? The judge wants the parties to be informed about Anja I understand you have a different practice in the district of Columbia It's just a little different If we have a judge that enters an order late in the evening when the clerk gets in first thing in the morning She will contact lead counsel and then lead counsel will get all the details of the ordering contact co-counsel Just as it's done in Colleen's court, but The one thing that is very helpful sometimes when our judges enters an order late in the evening They will have their chamber staff contact the attorneys and then they'll either fax it to them or tell them that the logistics of the order So with lead counsel it does give us it gives us spare time to do other things Let's talk to let's ask the same question to one of our push-to-talk courts the district court in New Jersey Do you designate a lead attorney when involved in a multi-party case? And how do you handle noticing in the distribution of orders Kent Marshall? I believe you're out there Yes, we are Bob. I'd like to turn that over to Kelly Miller who's a courtroom deputy for Judge Cooper with this court Great. It is not our practice to appoint lead counsel here We do appoint them however in class action suits and some consolidated actions the counsel is responsible For mailing the notices the orders and coordinating a discovery plan In those cases we do not appoint counsel. It is the clerk's responsibility to have to mail out all notices to the parties Although counsel is not formally appointed at trial. We do find that the more seasoned attorneys will assume the lead role Thank you so much. Angela. What about the use of email noticing a judge Hogan mentioned it in the little clip We just saw how does that work? Well, it's judge Hogan mentioned he does currently have a multi-district litigation case with approximately 85 attorneys and Our systems office has prepared a master list and then his courtroom clerk will email the attorneys Informing them that an order has been signed and will appear on the website And then the attorneys can go on the website and review the order and then act upon the order from the website This as judge Hogan mentioned saves a lot of time the clerk doesn't have to stand at the Xerox machine and do tons and tons of Xeroxing and His saved a lot of trees in the district of Columbia also That sounds like a real effective practice and speaking of effective practices I want to bring to your attention on the last page of your handout the effective practices form Let us know about an effective practice that your courts instituted in working with multi-party cases We'll compile them and give a copy to your clerk chief probation or pretrial officers and the court training specialists And we think it's a great mechanism for sharing We talked a little bit about lead attorneys and noticed by email Let's move forward a little bit and talk about selecting a jury in a multi-party case Jim, what do you think are some of the challenges that court staff face in dealing with selecting juries in a in a multi-party case? Well with multi-party cases are two things that are usually true in addition to there being many participants One of those is that the trial can usually be expected to be a lengthy Matter rather than a two or three day trial that would be more typical in the civil case The other thing that is generally true is that these are cases that have a higher public profile There may have been a great deal of media and public and community interest in the case When both of those things are present that generally means you're going to have a more difficult time in the selection of a jury to sit In the trial of the case it requires a significant amount of advanced planning One of the things that our judges have have come to use very often in these types of cases are pre-screening Questionnaires this allows us to send out questionnaires sufficiently in advance of the trial We have an opportunity to identify people who have legitimate Conflicts with the dates that the trial is expected to be in progress It also allows us to identify people who are already in some fashion acquainted with the case in a way that would would disqualify them So we don't end up bringing them in and taking up the time of the Vordyre That we can use on other people who who meet the requirements in For service on the case, but even even when you use a technique like this I think you have to anticipate that the jury selection is going to take a longer amount of time that it normally would a Multi-party case frequently could take two sometimes three days to actually seat a jury Again joining us as one of our push-to-talk courts is Betsy Paray Chief Deputy for administration of the district court in the district of Columbia Betsy What are some of the practices your court has adopted in the selection of a jury in a multi-party case? Bob there are four techniques that we've adopted in this court one is as I mentioned in the first panel discussion I'm having a meeting with the judge as early in the the The advanced planning for the trial as possible using the pre-screening questionnaire use of a pre-Vordyre questionnaire and also managing Vordyre here in Washington DC We are a one-step court so we mail out our jury summons and our jury qualifications questionnaires at the same time We like to get eight weeks advanced notice for high-profile trials or trials that are expected to last more than three weeks multi-party cases Usually meet one or both these criteria and we would identify these types of jury panels as specials The jury administrator and I would have already met with the judge Well in advance of the the trial actually starting to talk about jury issues and at that meeting We determine how many summons will be mailed how many jurors the judge needs for Vordyre How many jurors the judge wants to serve and how many alternate jurors will be needed We determine if the judge would like to have a pre-screening questionnaire mailed out with the summons and the juror qualification form and this questionnaire will advise the prospective jurors of the expected length of time That the trial will last and invites jurors to note any hardship issues that may prevent him or her from serving and again The trials are usually much much longer than the regular trials that were that were scheduling when the completed juror Qualification questionnaire and the request for excuses start coming in the jury administrator will start sending the excuse request to the judge Who will decide who will be excused and who will not the attorneys? Of course have an opportunity to review the excuses and usually coordinate the time to do this with chambers The jury administrator will also begin preparing weekly status reports for the judge Advising him or her of the response rate and the number of qualified disqualified excused deferred and non-response jurors as well as the mail that has been returned as undeliverable This way the jury administrator and the judge will know early in the process If it appears we might have trouble getting enough qualified jurors for the actual Vordyre process And if we need to do a second mailing of summons The judge may then want to have qualified jurors come in before Vordyre begins to complete a lengthy Pre-Vordyre questionnaire that contains questions related to the substance of the case The jury administrator would meet with the judge and make some recommendations as to how many people should come in How many can be seated comfortably to complete forms and how the process would work? Once the judges and the attorneys review the pre-Vordyre questionnaires completed by the jurors We will then and we've already done this in advance. Of course talk to the judge about Vordyre and What our recommendations would be for how that process should work the judges usually Ask the questions during the Vordyre and limit the amount of talking the attorneys do We always recommend that the judge limit the number of jurors who report to ensure that jurors are not kept waiting around too long Usually we suggest 20 jurors in the morning and 20 in the afternoon If the judge is moving quickly will then adjust for the following day and bring in more people And if things are taking longer will adjust and call in fewer people in the morning the following day and in the afternoon We've found that the judges appreciate getting our advice and hearing about our experiences with other specials before other judges And as has been stated throughout this entire program Communication is key in every stage of the case and this process is no exception Thank you so much Betsy Cullian is there anything else that you might add regarding the care of jurors in a multi-party case? Bob is a courtroom deputy in a small divisional office. One of my responsibilities is to orient the jury I review with the perspective jurors the type of case We're going to be conducting that day the anticipated trial length their conduct is jurors and try to familiarize them with the court Surroundings for some people this could be their very first time serving jury service Another issue that we have to contend with in multi-party cases is there could be a lots of family members involved if it's a high-profile case Or media coverage It seems the press loves to go to straight to the jury So as a courtroom deputy and it's important that I be sensitive to who is coming in contact with the jury Outside of dealing with the jury Courtroom deputy has coordination responsibilities Such as to ensure that all the parties are in the courtroom When the judge is ready to take the bench the more parties there are the more difficult the task becomes Jim I know you're especially concerned about first-time jurors and their responsibility Especially in a multi-party case I think we have to be concerned about the fundamental fairness of the trial itself And one of the things that I think jurors are troubled by in a multi-party case is that they They understand when there's one side of a lawsuit and another side and that they listen to both sides And then proceed to their decision-making in a multi-party case They may have to sit through days and days and days of testimony from one party and followed by a series of other parties And I think jurors sometimes get confused about You know when the trial is going to be concluded and at what point they can start Mentally making up their own minds one of the things I do when I conduct a jury orientation is to remind jurors that it is their solemn obligation to listen attentively To the last party who has the opportunity to present evidence to them just as they did to the first party Even though they may be freshest and most interested in the trial process at the very beginning of the case I think they have to understand that these cases are a little bit more demanding on their attention span than A regular case might be right still communication and coordination those key elements Angela speaking of coordination you're responsible really for operating the technology in the two electronic courtrooms that Exist in the District of Columbia making sure that whoever needs to see the exhibits sees them When they're supposed to see them has access when dealing with multiple parties What do you find as the greatest challenge it must really keep you on your toes? Oh, it does the biggest challenge was I'm getting over the fear of that courtroom and Just buckling down and learning how to use the equipment for myself The electronic courtroom saves a lot of time Because photos that are admitted for example no longer have to be passed around to each and every juror with the use of the Exhibit one system which we call the Elmo which is the click of a button everyone can see the exhibit also The comprehension of the jurors has increased they now can hear and see the exhibit at the same time And I think that has been a great asset Witnesses now can testify right from the witness stand They no longer have to step down to point things out on the exhibit because they can use an annotator which we call a John Madden pen okay for those of us who are not great fans of Professional football the Madden pen is well the Madden pen is if you do watch football You see John Madden would always draw little arrows and little lines and circles of what he was trying of different plays And that's what the witness can do They can draw a little arrows and lines around certain things that they're testifying to Colleen you also use the evidence presentation systems and in multi-party cases What do you think of the advantages of these these systems? Well technology has certainly become an important tool in today's courtroom Unlike Angela the courtroom that is generally used in our location is an older courtroom It has been somewhat retrofitted Represently are using the doer presenter which is similar to the Elmo system that Angela just mentioned I find it interesting that the first trial we use this equipment in which happened to be a death penalty cake that after the trial The government informed me That this not only helped them present their case faster But by not having to make several duplicate copies of photographs that were necessary for them to do so That that savings alone had paid for the entire cost of the equipment So the cost-saving obviously was tremendous outside of the cost effectiveness I believe that the use of this technology really helps a jury to follow along during the course of trial When testimony and evidence is being presented because they can follow along the points that the attorneys may be making As it relates to a particular exhibit. They're seeing it. They're hearing the testimony and I think it sticks in their minds a little bit more overall For the case again with logistics Let's turn our attention to Dealing with exhibits and we have on the line here one of our push-to-talk courts the district court from the southern district of California Ray Blanchard. I believe you're there. How do you deal with all the exhibits that exist in a multi-party case? Yes, Bob. Good after good. Good morning from San Diego. Let me put a plug in from America's finest city to begin with some of our courts here Require the attorneys to Put their exhibits in binders when there's plenty of them being used for trial And they bring in the binders in some of them put them on bookshelves and some of them put them on carts and then bring the carts into the courtroom and Let me first of all say that Some of our newer courtrooms have exhibit book Cabinets that they put the exhibits in which are locked up You know during the day or at night time when the court is not in session Not all the courtrooms are elf-hitted that way, but we're in the process of getting them Contraband is not kept in the courtroom at any time either marijuana drugs or weapons of any kind Basically that's about it Okay, thank you Ray. Colleen. How does your court deal with space challenges as a result of exhibits in multi-party cases? Well, just previously as mentioned space is always a limiting factor when dealing with multi-party trials Due to the number of the people involved the boxes of exhibits demonstrative evidence and other materials the attorneys Need during the course of trial can really constrain your working environment In a recent trial we conducted one exhibit alone took the entire well area of our courtroom So that was quite challenging However with the use of technology and the attorneys growing knowledge of how to utilize it I believe it'll help eliminate the amount of materials they bring into the court because instead of bringing boxes and upon boxes of materials Evidence that it can now be reduced to the simple size of a CD-ROM Well speaking of technology and exhibits answer one of the challenge Oh, I should say one of the great things about technology is you can have instant access to information One of the challenges obviously is that everybody wants it right away? And I'll have to assume that the press is no no exception to that Well, how do you deal with the press wanting access to all this information in multi-party cases? Well, you're right. The press wants it even faster now We just had two trials where the press did want the exhibits as soon as they were admitted And what we can do on the attorneys can provide copies of the exhibits to the press or The attorneys can provide copies of the exhibits to our vending service And they will make copies and then notify the attorney the press and they can come and pick them up a course for a small fee The clerk's office just does not have the resources to provide copy work. That's a real challenge. It is a challenge Let's hear from another of our push-to-talk participants back again to the district of a Columbia Joe Burgess What would you emphasize as one of the challenges you face in dealing with multi-party cases once in a trial? Good afternoon Hi, Joe Challenges that I think that our major are keeping the courtroom deputy Alert and keeping the courtroom deputy from getting burnt out After being in trial for many hours a day and for many months the courtroom deputy gets tired So I suggest the solution is to make sure that the operations manager keep a handle on the Courtroom deputy to make sure they're not getting burnt out and to make sure they get relief when they need it and Another thing about being alert The marshals although we have them in the courtroom the courtroom deputy also has to keep an eye open to see what's going on We've had witnesses be intimidated. We've had jurors being intimidated by the audience and The courtroom deputy has to be an assistant. So those are the things that I think that are challenges to a courtroom deputy Has to be has to be attentive and also notify the judge. I'm sure when something happens, right? That's correct Bob Angela reactions to what Joe has said well What Joe has just said is true. We in the District of Columbia. We have some very experienced courtroom deputies We have some that have been here 15 even 30 years So not only do we have burnout, but we also have leave as an issue and when their judges are in trial all the time It is difficult to find the time for them to be able to take off and use up their leave So Joe is actually my co-operations manager. So together we try to if that means we go to court for them So that they can get off. We'll do that We tried Joe actually has something called a buddy system on his on his unit I don't have it done on my side, but what we what we do there a lot of times I have volunteers to say I'll do the paperwork and you just focus on the trial So that has been a big help The one thing and I think Joe would agree with me is as operation managers We have to be creative and sensitive to the needs of our courtroom deputies because months and months in trial can really burn you out Colleen in the northern district of New York. You've developed a mentoring program. Can you explain a little bit about that? Well, just as Angela just raised Protracted trials can be very demanding on a courtroom deputy So what our district has done is we've developed a mentoring program which allows a seasoned individual such as a courtroom Deputy to take an individual and give them step-by-step in-depth training on how to handle the duties responsibilities of a courtroom deputy From a courtroom deputy standpoint This is great because it certainly frees me up during the course of trial To get away from the courtroom and to address other issues on other matters that can't be handled while I'm sitting in trial And Jim you have another different even a different practice in the Eastern District of Missouri if you could explain that sure I certainly agree that having one person Staffing a lengthy trial can be very tedious and exhausting and I think we have to take steps to try to guard against that our approach in the Eastern District of Missouri however has been to Essentially abolish the position the separate position of courtroom deputy our judges are served by case management teams Consisting of three persons who are fully cross-trained and cross-functional so that they able to they are able to perform All of the support services that the judge is going to need Whether the judge is in trial or not in trial that allows us maximum flexibility to Interchange people from the case management team into the courtroom whenever necessary and it also gives the judge What amounts to a back office support so that other matters that are that are pending before the judge are still getting appropriate attention Because there are two other people in the team who can keep up with things that are going on in the unit and keep in mind with The system that that we have in the Eastern District of Missouri The judge is not concerned about seeing strangers in his courtroom who may or may not understand how to conduct courtroom proceedings The people who are serving the judge in this capacity are all trained to perform the courtroom support role It's two great examples of effective practices meeting a real challenge Judy I understand that you have a question or a fax that came in Yes, Bob. I do as a matter of fact. We have two faxes The first one starts with a question for Jim Jim, I know st. Louis is building a new courthouse What accommodations have you made to take care of your multi-party cases and then a question for Colleen and Angela? What's happened in retrofitted courts? Well, I do think we are much better prepared in the new Thomas Eagleton Courthouse in st. Louis, which we will be occupying This summer we are much better prepared to accommodate multi-party cases for one thing We've increased the size of the well in every courtroom So there is more room now for additional numbers of parties counsel tables if we need to bring them in All of these courtrooms also have the infrastructure for courtroom technology and while we are not planning to equip every courtroom With evidence presentation technology the systems we have are a roll-about feature We can roll them into any courtroom where these types of equipment will be helpful in a multi-party case We also have much better security systems in place that have been a real concern in our existing courthouse Particularly the multiple defendant criminal cases the security systems are now state-of-the-art in the new st. Louis courthouse and I think the last thing that we that we are very proud of is a Ceremonial courtroom that will also serve as a courtroom to accommodate larger trials the exceptionally large trial It's a 3,000 square foot courtroom It has a greatly increased well that will allow us to accommodate virtually any kind of case that would come up We also have the ability to enhance security in that particular courtroom in ways that we cannot in the other courtrooms So those are some of the things that we've done in st. Louis to try to To bring online a new courthouse that will really enable us to deal very effectively with multi-party cases Well what we've done in our divisional office is that we have Basically the presenter equipment the dual equipment is on a freestanding cart that equipment is very mobile in the courtroom We do have TV monitors that are set up throughout the courtroom So that's basically how it's been retrofitted however, I know that as new courtrooms are being built within the district that the The electronic courtrooms are now starting to be developed So we they'll already be incorporated in the courtroom Just like Colleen's we have mobile systems the only thing we had to do prepare for that was upgrade our sound system And the only thing that's different from our two electronic courtrooms is each juror does not have monitors, but it works the same Okay, great We just about have a minute left and that's all in this so if we just going to want to go around Jim Let me start with you for just a quick final thought I think the point we've been trying to make in this segment is that the presence of multiple parties Effects almost every dimension of a case from start to finish But I think more particularly it affects the conduct of the trial Our job is to try to anticipate where we're gonna have to apply special procedures Consult with the judge about what's going to work best and then apply those solutions And I the goal is to try to avoid any unexpected surprises that are related to the logistics of those kinds of cases Holy I believe the technology and automation in the courtroom has proven to be a definite benefit during the course of trial We hope to see the bar start familiarizing themselves with technology available to them as It can really enhance the quality of the case being presented Angel you have the final word That it's important if you do have the counsel to to let the counsel be the focus point and that so that the courtroom Deputies could focus on other duties that they have assigned to them and that if you are fortunate enough to have Electronic courtroom to use it become familiar with it because it is a great asset for the courts great. Thank you I want to thank our second panel and the push to talk Participants and thanks to everybody for your participation as we get ready for our last panel We'll leave you with some of the challenges and practices. We just discussed Before we move into our last segment one note of interest here You heard Colleen speak on New York, Northern's mentoring and cross-training program While court-to-court will be paying a visit to Syracuse to tape their story You can learn more about their innovative program on court-to-court's either October or January broadcast Watch the FJT and bulletin for details Thanks again for your faxes and please keep them coming in now. It's time for our last panel It is our practice to Process J&C's as judgment and commitments within 24 hours If you sentence five or six defendants in one day, that's not gonna happen. It's very important To have the expertise of the probation office in ruling on any of these sentencing and pre-sentence report questions My law clerks really I do not utilize to get into these questions. I'm gonna rely upon probation They have training. They have constant updates. They get updated on our circuit law constantly about what issues there are in pre-sentence reports And I really do Expect to rely on the probation office to give me the advice that I want the FJC the federal district center puts out some great Materials there's a books in complex litigation civil litigation which is very helpful Their books and managing complex criminal trials which are very helpful The nice thing about the federal judiciary is everyone's seen it before and if you haven't someone out there has and Always is willing to share advice council and guidance to make the process easier for you Post trial issues is the topic of the moment and I'd like to welcome back Rick Hout Kathy Gould Feldman Angela Caesar Mobley and Jim Woodward He will talk about some of the challenges that court staff face when working with multi-party cases once a trial has been completed Again, we encourage you to participate ask questions and share your thoughts with us We still have a lot of time left. So keep those cards and letters coming a Rick Let's start with you in the segments opening clip judge Lamberth refers to his reliance on the expertise of the probation office To deal with pre-sentence report questions and also objections from attorneys. How does that work? Well first Bob? Let me express my appreciation for judge Lamberth and the judges of the District of Columbia Who respect support and enforce our critical role as Independent players in the sentencing process our role is defined by rule 32 of the federal rules of criminal procedure sentencing commission guidelines Local and national policy, but it is the requirements of the district judge that really set our practices for their court Judge Lamberth charges us with determining to the best of our ability The facts of what happens separate and apart from any agreements or stipulations that the parties may have entered into Determinations about actual events and culpability are critical in multi-defendant cases It is important to determine an individual Defendants role in the offense for guideline calculations restitution information and victim information The offense that is under consideration Is it's critical that we determine? With the code offending its actual role was because some may have pled to lesser offenses Or they may have entered into agreements that distort actual events Our report is prepared in draft and is circulated to counsel to disclose contents and solicit objections Further investigation may be warranted and we attempt to resolve all issues prior to sentencing in In those issues that have not been resolved We try to clearly present those to the judge so that he can or she can determine those at the time of sentence How do you coordinate all this? I would imagine especially with multi-party cases You must be under some mighty tight deadlines indeed. We are as judge Lamberth had said about a lead attorney It's useful for us to assign a lead probation officer to coordinate critical elements in the investigation Communicating with the many parties Reliably and regularly and keeping the judge informed is also critical Our timeline is set by a local rule and rule 32 of the federal rules of criminal procedure This gives us about 70 days to prepare the report between 35 and 45 days is required to come up with the first draft We disclose that to the parties and then they have 10 days to respond We make sure that we investigate and clarify any issues and then provide a final report to the court at least five days Prior to sentencing we have local databases to keep us informed and also to hold us accountable for that timeline Objections and issues first brought up at Sentencing can be showstoppers as you can imagine and are to be avoided in multi-party cases And we attempt to avoid such situations by actively encouraging objections before we get to that stage also in the District of Columbia, we have something called a five-day order which Commands a response from delinquent parties and make sure that the sentencing requirements are met Again communication and coordination Angel I understand that it's an effective practice in the District Court in the District of Columbia It's a sentence one defendant per day. Why do you believe that such an effective practice? I believe that in the District of Columbia we sentence only one defendant per day in multi-party cases for security reasons we it's if we have a multi-party case and say one defendant decides to interplay if guilty and the others go to trial and Say on that sentencing day Family members are going to be present other defendants may be present if they're on PR or whatever Security issues could rise if you hear that someone so is going to get Three years and someone else is going to get maybe 120 months. I'm sure that it could cause a great Lot of trouble. So we try to do it for security reasons also as Rick mentioned earlier The probation office has 70 days to prepare their pre-sentence report So a lot of times I think we do this to accommodate the probation office so that they can get their reports timely to Jim in the Eastern District of Missouri Do you have a similar practice of sentencing one party? There is no formal practice of limiting sentencing in multi-party defendant cases to one per day More often these kinds of matters are clustered under sentencing on on a few days And there may be defendants from the same case sentenced on the same day However, our judges certainly are very concerned about some of the security issues that can arise by having Defendants co-defendants from the same case present in the courtroom or family members present in the courtroom But a sort of different effective practice that one of our judges has developed that helps deal with the issue that Rick mentioned about the Judge needing to understand where everybody is in the case what sentencing alternatives are available and what sentencing ranges Were actually imposed one of our judges has developed a multi-party matrix document That she uses to display ever the name and defense counsel of every defendant in a multi-party case This document is created at the beginning of the case and it is updated at every stage of the case all the way up to And including trial if there are any for any of the defendants So the judge knows at a glance when sentencing defendant number six that what sentence has already been imposed which defendants co-defendants have pled What the sentencing range and the sentencing options are for each and every one of the defendants in the case It has become a very effective tool for the judge to have a panoramic view of the status of Every party in a multi-party defendants Let me stay with you for a minute Jim some folks think that thinks that I think that once sentencing finally occurs in a multi-party case then That's the end of all business But actually there's quite a flurry of activity that occurs in the in the clerk's office Can you explain that well certainly the public part of the process is generally concluded when the trial is over if there are any Trials in a multi-defendant case, but certainly when the sentencing is over But there there is a burst of activity that occurs in the clerk's office That's quite apart from the courtroom proceedings and of course the most significant part of that is the preparation of multiple judgment and commitment orders These are probably one of the most important legal documents that we prepare in the clerk's office We want to make sure that they're done accurately and that they're consistent with the decisions that the judge has made as Reflected in the courtroom that often requires that we have to have contact with the probation officer who prepared the report Sometimes it means calling the law clerk or even the judge to get some Interpretation about something that was said in the courtroom that may not be entirely clear that has to be reflected in the document We also strive for a 24-hour turnaround on the completion of a judgment and commitment order Although in a multi-party case sometimes that's difficult to achieve with our case management teams though We're very all it's very easy for us to bring the resources to bear to get the assistance with the preparation of those documents Mm-hmm on very short notice But I would say that if if we are unable to complete the document in 24 hours We're certainly more interested in having it be accurate and correct than having it be fast Oh, sure absolutely. Oh, we've received a phone call for Rick's comment. So Welcome do we have our phone call? Having to do with dealing with multi-defendant cases Basically what we've met as a challenge in our district is the whole issue of Coordinating the balance when you have a number of co-defendants in terms of trying to Determine the various roles the culpability the offense data itself and making sure that there's some sort of consistency with the recommendations And we dealt with this for a number of years and basically what we have worked out that seems to work for us is that if it's at all possible to assign all the Co-defendants to either one or two partners working in tandem so that there's minimal contact with the US attorney's office in terms of Getting the data from them and then also making sure that that the officers if there's two they work in tandem in terms of Gathering the data in terms of laying out the roles of the various co-defendants the various culpabilities and Making sure that the offense data is uniform for all cases This has worked out well the judges that the judges have commented favorably on this because it presents a uniform approach and We've basically found that that this works generally With all the multi-defendant cases in our district and they just wanted to have passed that on That's consistent with our lead probation officer concept. Thanks for calling in that's a great effective practice And if anyone else has any other effective practices, they want to call in her facts and do let us know Angela, I just want to turn our attention to the disposal of exhibits in a multi-party case What do you do in the District of Columbia? We just and I have the space to store the exhibits So as soon as the case is over the attorneys sign for them and they take them now If they're bulky and they can't take them all the same day We do make arrangements for them to pick them up the next morning because if the Court of Appeals needs the exhibits They can contact counsel to end counsel will get the exhibits to the Court of Appeals But if there's a bench trial We do hold on to the exhibits until the judge has made a ruling just in case they need to make reference to the exhibits Kathy we've been hearing a lot about the district side. What's happening on the bankruptcy? What happens in the bankruptcy side of the house after an adversary case has been decided well Bob Adversary cases even if they involve multi-parties are not as exciting as criminal cases in the district court And they rarely take more than one or two days to try However, multi-party cases can be a challenge especially to the courtroom deputy who is responsible for managing exhibits during and after trial And as others have already alluded to today Exhibits exhibit storage space is definitely an issue when you're dealing with multi-party cases As I mentioned earlier our court issues a pre-trial scheduling order when the case is filed And this order requires the parties to submit pre-marked exhibits either at the calendar call or two days prior to trial if the case especially set and The plaintiffs exhibits the order also sets forth that plaintiffs exhibits must be marked numerically and defendants exhibits Alphabetically and then they must be bound and tabbed in a notebook or folder with copies served on all parties And this is all done at least two days prior to trial When they are submitted to the court, they must also be accompanied by a local form of an exhibit register Which is attached as an exhibit to that pre-trial scheduling order that I referred to earlier, right? So this requirement facilitates the management of exhibits during trial Especially when there are multiple defendants and then assist the courtroom deputy after trial in returning exhibits when the appeal time has Has run We also have an effective local rule dealing with exhibit disposal And that provides for the return of exhibits upon written request of a party Stating that no appeal has is pending and that the matter is final the party must supply an adequate sized envelope or box Or whatever it takes to get those exhibits packed up and mailed back or they must make arrangements to come and pick them up in person After a certain period if their exhibits are not claimed the local rule Authorizes the courtroom deputy to automatically dispose of them without further notice to the parties I think your court is on the line again via push to talk Joe Falzone. Yes. I'm here. Thanks. I think To supplement what Kathy has said Effective practices start with establishing house procedures you procedures for processing trial exhibits Procedures for docketing and transmitting the record and procedures for tracking disposal of the matter Certainly all necessary steps for effective practices Thanks so much Let's just take a brief moment now to go around the table and summarize some of the main points discussed in this final Panel Rick. Let's start with you. Well, each of us has a critical role to play in Helping the court deal with multiple party cases I think it's very important that we maintain productive relationships and communication to help us effectively deploy our resources To support the court adequately Angela I think that communication is the key among the units and most importantly I think it's important that everyone has an appreciation for each other's job Kathy well from a bankruptcy courts perspective again By establishing an effective practice for managing exhibits it facilitates exhibit management during trial In fact are in our court the courtroom deputies rarely sit in trial to manage the exhibits And then post trial it helps the case manager if she or he is faced with preparing multiple records on appeal and multiple designations and finally it assists the courtroom deputy to easily identify and return exhibits quickly Post trial when the appeal time has run Jim will turn it over to you. What have we missed? Well, I think we've done a pretty good job of covering some of the issues that are that are very likely to occur in a multiple party case And we've offered a few suggestions. I think this is an opportunity For court staffs to be creative about coming up with solutions that will meet the need in any particular case And the solutions don't always have to be sophisticated or expensive They can be as simple as creating a seating chart for the well of the courtroom that you can pass to the judge So the judge knows who's seated where and that's also a useful tool for the court reporter who has to keep track of change of speaker So those are some simple examples But I think the thing that we need to realize is that Very often the solutions for these problems we have to reach across division lines Sometimes even outside of the clerk's office and get cooperation and assistance from all of the players in the process Because the in order to professionally administer some of these cases they have to become everybody's concern Judy I understand you have a fax Yes, Bob. We as a matter of fact, we've had a couple but they're all asking basically the same thing Which is do you have some of this information and practices Documented on your websites or can we email you? How can we obtain more information? Well, let's go around the table. Well, the Eastern District of Missouri has a website that we Maintain an update on a on a regular basis. It's available through the jnet and also just through a web browser One of the probably one of the most useful features of the website is that our judges each have posted a judge's Requirements section and it is there where the judge spells out very specific requirements that are usually unique to that court That the judge requires attorneys to understand into that and the judge expects the attorneys to follow those Basic guidelines when preparing a case for trial information, isn't it? It can be helpful information for attorneys. Yes, Kathy Well, our website should be up shortly But in the meantime, you can get all of our local rules our forms That I've alluded to today off of Pacer You can also get them if you want to email me my email address is Catherine kat h e r i n e underscore ghoul g-o-u-l-d at f-l-s-b dot u.s. Courts dot gov Thank You Angela the District of Columbia does have a website. We have selected opinions court schedules local rules and general information The probation office has a website that will make available to the internet on June 1st And I'm easily available through the directories. So please feel free to email me We'll take some of our remaining time to open it up for questions if any of our participants have questions out there Anything I'd like to ask a question of Angela if I may please sure could you identify yourself? This is Jeff Reiner from the Southern District of Alabama. I heard you mentioned Recently recently we've lost our criminal appeals clerk and so I'm doing some of those duties and one of the things that you said was that on Exhibits that you give them all back after trial and did I hear you say the court of appeals then would request those exhibits from the parties That's correct, and I because the Court of Appeals is located in the same building with us It works great Either the attorneys can bring them into us and we'll get them upstairs to the Court of Appeals Or they can take them directly to the Court of Appeals We just did not have the space to store exhibits That doesn't make it nice since they're in the same building. That's right. Thanks for the question Jeff We're just about out of time and so I want to close this session Now we've tried today to consider some of the challenges that court staff I have to deal with when working with multi-party cases We've examined it from the aspects of preparing for trial during trial and finally post trial issues You've heard about how important planning and coordination and communication activities are and also the effective practices that some of our panelist courts As well as some of our push-to-talk and others have instituted I hope this has been a helpful and positive learning experience for you I'd like to thank our panelists around here today our push-to-talk sites Your participation I think really brought home some positive points to consider and thanks to all of our participants We hope you found today's broadcast useful We'll pause for a moment to review some of the challenges and effective practices that we covered in this final segment And then it's back to Judy Roberts for some final words That's all the time we have for today To those who still have questions to be answered and comments to be made remember if there is interest We can continue the discussion in a fall online conference. Please contact Bob Fagan for more details Remember to fax in your participant rosters and evaluations Because we need your feedback as we plan additional FJTN programs Thanks for participating and sharing your challenges and effective practices today when working with multi-parties Don't forget to fax us your effective practice The forum is in our participant materials on day J net dot FJC dot DCN However, there are no warranties or guarantees with any of the practices described today But some of them might just work for you or could be adapted for your court as you continue to improve Communication service and operations in your court units We think it's important to remember what Justice Souter said at his confirmation hearing before the Senate He said that no matter what court We are working in at the end of our task some human being is going to be affected Some human life is going to be changed and we had better use every power of our hearts and minds and beings To get our rulings right those words apply to all of us and all the work we do Thank you for joining us today