Bench Bar Committee - February 14, 2003

MEMORANDUM

TO: CHARLESTON COUNTY BENCH BAR COMMITTEE

FR: MARK C. JOVE

RE: 2002-2003 Bench Bar Committee

DATE: February 14, 2003

The Bench Bar Committee has had five meetings this past year. The committee included Jay McDonald, George Kefalos, Julie Armstrong, Judge Danny Pieper, Don Michel, and Douglas Pratt-Thomas. Over the course of the year, we have addressed numerous issues and concerns of the Charleston County Bar, the local judges and the clerk's office. The major discussion for this past year was working on making the transition to the new courthouse. This included trying to establish internet access for lawyers at counsel table as well as in the attorney-client room just outside several of the courtrooms. We discussed the procedures involved with selecting juries in the new courthouse. We discussed making better use of the available conference room in the courthouse for lawyers. We discussed trying to arrange a meeting place for lawyers before roster meetings. We discussed all of the trials and tribulations associated with this new $25.00 fee that is being charged for filing motions in the courthouse. We discussed numerous times during the year on how to obtain easier access for the lawyers to see judges and to get in and out of the courthouse. We are actually going to follow-up with that again this year in which a separate committee is setup to address this issue.

We look forward to working with Judge Deadra Jefferson who now takes over as Chief Administrative Judge for Common Pleas. We also wanted to thank Judge Danny Pieper for all his hard work as Chief Administrative Judge for the last year.

We discussed with Judge Pieper regarding the Trial Rosters and roster meetings. We discussed how lawyers can make best use of the courtroom technology that is setup in several of the courtrooms now. As it stands now, several courtrooms are now fully equipped with a LCD projector, an "ELMO" projector, a VCR, a CD player, and plug-ins for laptop computers at the counsel table. We now have worked out a solution so lawyers will now have internet access within the courthouse. We discussed how lawyers can request training, a week before their trial, on how to use some of this trial presentation equipment. We are all very thankful for it.

At our most recent meeting, we discussed the idea of expanding the use of the summary jury trial to "larger" trials. Under this procedure, we have discussed (and will continue to discuss this year) ways to obtain the services of lawyers and retired judges to serve as judge for trials among litigants in which they "contract" for a date certain trial. The litigants use jurors during that particular week's jury pool. This idea will be discussed in more detail this coming year.

We look forward to working with Judge Deadra Jefferson, Judge Danny Pieper and Judge Roger Young on this committee next year to discuss the issues that will allow us all to have better communication between the clerk's office, the local judges, and the bar association. If anyone has any questions or concerns, please contact me.