MEETING MINUTES

April 5, 2004
By C. Edward S. Mitchell, Chairman

Present were: Judge Brown, Judge Kieser, Judge Anderson, Brian Bluth, Joseph Campagna, Michael Dinges, Robert Elion, Jack Humphrey, Marc Lovecchio, Ed Mitchell, Jason Poplaski, Joseph Rider, Kevin Way, Darryl Wishard.

Judge Brown: The Committee commended Judge Brown for his response to the attack by Commissioner Nassberg on Kevin Way and the Court for its handling of juvenile offenders.

Judge Brown reported the need to re-analyze the monitoring of criminal cases. The criminal trial list is backing up. There is a delay in the entering of pleas. There are no homicide trials scheduled for the near future.

Wise Options has requested the judges include a required evaluation of men in the abuse program. The potential problems are the expense and possibility of a required evaluation being a hindrance in reaching agreements in abuse situations.

Judge Kieser reported that he is back to work after his hip replacement surgery. All local rules are now published on the state Web site. There have been significant changes in discovery motions based upon new state rules. There have also been changes in petitions for rules to show cause to require the authority for the relief to be set forth in the petition.

Judge Anderson reported there is now conflicts software in place for family court scheduling.

Jack Humphrey reported the Law Association has hired an executive director, Jessica Engle, to begin work April 19.

Joe Rider reported there is a pending House Bill to restrict the time for a birth parent to revoke a consent to adoption.

Kevin Way reported on the conflicts scheduling software. In order for it to work, attorneys have to enter their appearance.

The AOPC is implementing a state-wide uniform criminal system. Its implementation has been delayed 6-12 months so that it will not be in place until sometime in 2005.

The Court Administrator is working on enlarging the jury pool. The school census information has now been added to the pool to broaden the base.

Attorneys are encouraged to increase usage of mediation in all types of cases.

The program for central processing of criminal cases has been discontinued because the Commissioners have refused the grant which would have been used for funding.