 Televising Network. I experience a lot in the jobs program. This is what you heard, your connection to what's happening in the federal courts around the country, providing information and ideas that will advance your job and how the courts function. Now with today's program, to court to court. This is the third edition of this educational magazine center. On today's program, we'll learn how several courts manage some high-profile cases. There are words, reactions to electronic case filing. Understand what two legal times really mean, and we'll hear from your court column. It comes to scrutiny about a case of great notoriety reaches the courts that intense spotlight, and sometimes it's quite unexpected. Regardless of the court's location, type or size, the message of our first segment is anticipate these cases. When the sitting governor of Arizona was a single-seated angel with several high-profile animal service, federal and dental service, they set a premium. It's also set up a specific room. This lesson is that the system works. So you can see there's a network of come-to-assisting if that their excellent resource is this book, the Court of Cases, public and topic. The center is making available a 40-hour self-study course for supervisors. Foundations of management was originally developed by the National Independent Study Center. Case scenarios and exercises have been adapted to reflect the work of federal court supervisors and managers called 202-502-4122. A separate course is available for probation and pretrial services managers to request that version called 202-502. One response to that segment, which we reported on in our second program, suggested that we will see that involved. Alex Garcia is a New York attorney who handles many bankruptcy cases. He was wary of electronic case filing at first. I was a little worried about this new type of file because it was not similar to me. We're all humans and we're all resistant to change. And this is a significant institutional change. It's a cultural change. In 1996, the District Court for the Northern District of Ohio mandated that all pleadings in the specialized maritime asbestos litigation be filed electronically. Through the internet, the court has received more than 165,000 pleadings for 16,000 cases. I would say that the greatest impediment to the buyer's utilization of electronic case filing is their lack of familiarity and understanding of the system. Because of not knowing how to... Garcia overcame his hesitation with the help of the staff of the Southern District of New York bankruptcy court. On the Chapter 7, they were saving the money. Either their firms, they became assistance. It gives me flexibility in myself to finally do business hours and do it in the hours that the court is open. Garcia's use has grown dramatically. I'd say about 50% of my Chapter 7 petitions through the... Firms working with Morris' clerk's office are also enthusiastic. We saw that as an opportunity to move forward on something that we perceived and I think correctly would be a wave of the future. But the future means a cultural change. An increased speed and convenience only goes so far in getting the bar to use, E.C.F. We can encourage and, if necessary, cajole the attorneys into agreeing to put the case. However, it ultimately... It has to depend to a great extent. I think how does one get attorneys to go along with it or to agree to give them to use it? It's way someone comes to you, uses the system, takes a lot of time. When you get terrific training from the court, the on-the-ground training in the law firm is probably the most important because it gets the attorneys comfortable with the system. Younger attorneys are automatically comfortable with the system because they grow up utilizing computers. Good morning. My name is Tresson, a but not a computer. I have to turn over the phone for coming to this theater. It often means one-on-one attention which can become a resource issue for a court. A spirit always markets it, whether it's internally or with the bar, and getting out there, just getting out there and sitting down with folks one-on-one or in group environment to demonstrate the system and make ourselves available whenever called and they can. Still ahead of the court report, we'll hear about being with deaf people what jurisdiction and areas really mean and find out what you say. Please fill in the evaluation form available in your program materials or online on the JVET. The use of voting services is a different system. As well as your questions, we first have many requests to help understand two words that are used every day in the courts, jurisdiction and babies. Here with these words to know is my colleague, our times of humor in the phrase, do we have jurisdiction in this case? Do you ever wonder what jurisdiction really means? Jurisdiction is simply the authority of power of a court to hear and decide a case. To better understand this concept, let's talk first about the differences between state and federal jurisdiction. State courts are considered courts of general jurisdiction. Their authority extends to civil disputes, criminal prosecutions, divorce and family issues and probate. Federal courts are courts of limited jurisdiction. Their authority to decide a case arises from a specific federal statute or from a provision of the U.S. Constitution. Most cases come into the federal courts because they involve disputes between citizens of different states or because they involve violation of federal law. But wait this more. In both state and federal courts, jurisdiction is also divided into original and appellate. Original jurisdiction means a court has the power to hear a case in the first time. Trials are held in courts with original jurisdiction. These would be the lower courts in the federal system. Appellate jurisdiction refers to the power of an appeals court to review decisions of lower courts and either let stand those decisions or overturn them. In the federal system, the appellate courts are the 13 circuit courts of appeal and the Supreme Court that may decide a case only when it has the authority or the jurisdiction to do so. Now let's consider abeas. You most often hear this term used in the phrase a writ of abeas corpus which sometimes is shortened to simply abeas. Abeas corpus is Latin meaning to have petition for a writ of abeas corpus is filed in court with the intent to obtain the release of someone wrongfully imprisoned. Abeas proceedings led that a conviction violates the defendant's constitutional or statutory rights or that the sentence imposed violates those rights. A petition for a writ of abeas corpus is filed in a case only after all trials are concluded and are in which the petition is filed must then decide whether there has been a violation of the defendant's rights. If the petition is denied including ultimately a U.S. Supreme Court the most dramatic use of abeas is in death penalty cases. Congress recently has placed flingent restrictions on someone may use abeas petitions. We'll hear more about this in our next segment next program with more words to know. Bob said Congress has enacted legislation that affects abeas corpus petitions. The anti-terrorism and effective death penalty law limits defendants to filing only one federal abeas petition except in unusual circumstances and it must be filed within one year of the date judgment becomes final. As the frequency of death penalty case executions increases the likelihood that a court will handle last minute filings also increases. Courts are dealing with people's lives and we all want to ensure that requests by the petitioners are processed as quickly as per the recent presentation to appellate the U.S. Supreme Court to manage this all. Courts determine which cases are emergencies and not. You have in front of you a two-page death list. This is something that I do every week. It normally will list the upcoming executions for the next month. This execution is rising. Last year there were 68 executions. Through the middle of May this year there have been 44. This year 19 incidents where the morning year has actually expired except because there was some type of out. Perhaps a person to know next successive petitions too needs to have a tracking system where they can look up to see whether or not this person has ever filed an appellate petition before. Defendants must request permission from an appellate court to file a successive appellate petition. To the appellate court is going to get a request for authorization to file a successive petition without having any decision from the district court below. So they're going to be seeing these in the first instance. For all court staff the keys to managing death penalty. Information. If you deal with the same person over and over to the execution date so that all of the courts know what is going on then we in turn call the Supreme Court. This is normally or not in the building because the age you are aware of is trying to track them all. Do you want to carry cell phones or beepers with them or not be disturbed? It can be understandable now given the volume of cases we're getting in 10 a month. Should make your advice for court staff? Find out who is handling the case in district court. Communicate with your judges about important information. Communicate with your own staff so that their court Most courts doesn't make one person to deal with death penalty cases. I think whoever it is needs to be someone who does it all the time so that that person does become even if something came up that I was not in the office where the clerk wasn't in the very precituation so nothing will fall through the audience with the rules. Are you in the clerk's office going to say I'm sorry this does not comply with our rules? Please review this and submit. I don't think so but the hour before the execution I am not going to be the one to not accept something. The justices don't want it fine. They can tell me that but not me. Our court does not allow the other side. I mean it's to our benefit if both sides know what's going on because then we can get things even quicker and that usually is what our goal is is to get all the papers and get them all to our judges so that they can make the decisions. And that's the final line. What do you tell them? If the state calls you and says have you heard anything? Do you know what's going on? I normally won't tell them. I may say I've talked to them and I think they're going to file something. I won't obviously tell them what the issues are at that point. And the felicitaries are afraid I'm going to tell her that this is what I'm doing. The justices can go ahead and tell the state AG. Well I won't and especially if they've told me not to I will not. And so frequently is the case court colleagues are one of the best sources of help. So I would suggest getting in touch with a circuit where the district court is already doing this and find out what it is that they're doing and what's working and what's not. And we advise this court staff to plan for the emotions of handling these cases. It need to keep in mind there is something that is stressful like it with other people in the other courts who do this all the time because sometimes it does become so routine and then all of a sudden you think about when. For a selected district judge Kern Smith of San Francisco as the new director of the Federal Condition Center. Judge Smith succeeds Judge Ria Zabel who in July will return to the US District Court in Massachusetts after four years as director. Since 1996 Judge Smith has served as chair of the traditional conference advisory committee under rules of evidence. She has been district judge in California since 1988 and has written and spoken extensively on obdentiary matters, trial practice, and I go filming Chief Deputy Clerk in the bankruptcy court of the southern district of Florida. She writes we have our staff told me from seeing the different situations facing other courts and how they handle them. They like seeing real deputy clerks and how they interact. This program helps us understand that all court units face the same issues and we can learn from each other. We're glad to know we've facilitated Dr. Fisher, a book of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver also made up of this woman because you hear what Brown's evaluation forms several of your colleagues commented that they'd like to have more information in each segment. Typical was Kathleen Johnson's comment from the District of Utah. She said the information given was to turn out maybe too many topics were covered in a short time frame. Possibly over one area and more you may have noticed in today's program. We've responded to these concerns and have included fewer but longer segments. Your reaction and evaluation of what we've covered and how we're doing it will help us bring you the information you want. See this comment from Chief Judge Paul Matalla District Court of the Northern District of Ohio. One of the things that some of the staff have, in the case of them, feel as though they are part of the important because I provide training to them in this fashion. It indicates to them that we value their services and that we want them to if we want you to enforce this program. Here's the Jnet address you can use to send us your comments. Click on Court to Court and then select Online Evaluation. We encourage you to give us an evaluation of today's program which you can do back some number that's 202-502-4080. Be sure to check the FJT in Bulletin or the FJC website for the air date of the next edition of Perspectives on Probation and Pre-File Services. We'll be back in October with a look at putting strategic planning to work in your court and either of our staff here at the Federal Judicial Center. I'm Michael Bergen. Thank you for watching.