Best Practices for Docketing Professionals in the Age of ...

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International Practice Management AssociationJune 18, 2020

Best Practices for Docketing Professionals in

the Age of COVID-19

Daniel Abrahamian, Esq.

Court Rules Managing Attorney

[email protected]

Kevin Pray, M.B.A.

Sr. Director of Product

Management

[email protected]

Erez Bustan

President and CEO

[email protected]

Joseph C. Scott, J.D.

Chief Strategy Officer

[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]





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Daniel Abrahamian, Esq., Court Rules Managing Attorney


the Age of COVID-19

3 # 1 " D e s k t o p t o C o u r t h o u s e " W o r k f l o w S o l u t i o n s

COVID-19 Orders/Rules to Consider

Notices being sent by the judge in your specific case

Review executive orders

Supreme Court orders or highest state court orders

Review district-wide or state-wide orders

Review Judicial Council orders specific to local county (CA specific)

Review all local county orders and emergency/temporary local rules being issued

Review departmental/judge policies and procedures and call/email department as appropriate

Pay particular attention to the following:

• Remote session protocols for depositions/hearings/trials

• Document submission protocols including courtesy copies

• Changes to tentative ruling procedures

• E-Filing availability or filing via dropbox, mail, or fax

• E-Service requirements


Dissecting COVID-19 Orders and Rules

Many areas and types of cases covered in orders and emergency rules – Narrow focus for

specific group at firm

Make sure to read the actual orders and rules changes – Don’t rely on press releases or notices

exclusively as a summary

• Court website – Covid-19 center

Make sure to consider all orders and reconcile any conflicts

• California state court example (days considered judicial holidays)

• Pennsylvania state court example (deadline suspension and filing extensions)

• Orders applicable to trial courts and appellate courts?• Appellate deadlines – Notice of appeal

• Statute of limitations

• State orders affecting federal cases? Statute of limitations in diversity cases?


California Superior Court COVID-19 Orders

Sources of Orders

• Statutes – Government Code section 68115

• (a)(4) – “Declare that a date or dates on which an emergency condition, as described in this section, substantially interfered with the public’s ability to file papers in a court facility or facilities be deemed a holiday for purposes of computing the time for filing papers with the court under Sections 12 and 12a of the Code of Civil Procedure. This paragraph applies to the fewest days necessary under the circumstances of the emergency, as determined by the Chairperson of the Judicial Council.”

• Judicial Council Orders specific to County

• Local County Administrative Order or Implementation Order

Analyze and Reconcile Conflicts

• Example re judicial holidays


Los Angeles County-Specific COVID-19 Orders – March 2020

Judicial Council Order (March 16, 2020)

• Upon the request of Presiding Judge Kevin C. Brazile, it is ordered that the Superior Court of Los Angeles County is authorized to do the following:

• Declare that from March 17, 2020, to March 19, 2020, inclusive, be deemed holidays for purposes of computing the time for filing papers with the court under Code of Civil Procedure sections 12 and 12a (Gov. Code, § 68115(a)(4))

Los Angeles General Order 2020-GEN-004-00 (March 17, 2020)

• March 17, 2020 to March 19, 2020, inclusive, for the purpose of computing time for filing papers under CCP Sections 12 and 12(a), are deemed holidays.

• March 17, 2020 to March 19, 2020, inclusive, for the purpose of computing time under the Penal Code, the Welfare and Institutions Code, the Government Code and the Code of Civil Procedure, and any other statutory deadlines, are deemed holidays.


Los Angeles County-Specific COVID-19 Orders – June 2020

Judicial Council Order (June 10, 2020)

• Upon the renewed request of Presiding Judge Brazile, it is determined that the conditions described in section 68115(a) continue to exist (Gov. Code, § 68115(b)), and it is ordered that the Court is authorized to do the following:

• Declare that from June 11, 2020, to July 9, 2020, inclusive, be deemed holidays for purposes of computing the time for filing papers with the court under Code of Civil Procedure sections 12 and 12a, if the above described emergency conditions substantially interfere with the public’s ability to file papers in a court facility on those dates (Gov. Code, §68115(a)(4))

Los Angeles General Order 2020-GEN-018-00 (June 11, 2020)

• Judge Brazile does not implement the holiday provision for civil cases in this Order.

• Applies holiday period to other types of cases (unlawful detainer, small claims) under other statutory provisions.


Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas COVID-19 Orders

Sources of Orders

• Statutes – Title 201 of PA Code, Rule 1952

• (a)(2) By the declaration of a judicial emergency, the Supreme Court may: (A) suspend or modify statewide or local procedural or administrative court rules; (B) suspend time calculations for the purposes of time computation relevant to court cases or other judicial business.

• (b)(2)(L) If the Supreme Court authorizes the president judge to declare a judicial emergency in the judicial district, and unless limited by the Supreme Court, the president judge shall have the authority to: suspend or modify the time requirements and limitations established by local rule.

• Supreme Court Orders

• County-Specific Orders

Analyze and Reconcile Conflicts

• Example re deadline suspension and filing extensions


Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas – Supreme Court COVID-19 Orders

Order dated March 18, 2020 – The order provided that all courts are closed as to non-essential functions. With regards to time calculation purposes, the order provided:

• “Unless otherwise indicated herein, all time calculations for purposes of time computation relevant to court cases or other judicial business, as well as time deadlines, are SUSPENDED through April 3, 2020…. This suspension SHALL OVERLAP with suspensions already granted by any President Judge, and any longer suspensions directed by a local or appellate court shall remain extant on their own terms. In all events, any legal papers or pleadings which are required to be filed between March 19, 2020, and April 3, 2020, SHALL BE DEEMED to have been timely filed if they are filed by April 6, 2020, or on a later date as permitted by the appellate or local court in question upon consideration of the potential volume of such filings.”

Order dated April 1, 2020 – In a subsequent statewide order, the Supreme Court’s Second Supplemental Order provided:

• “Unless otherwise indicated herein or in the March 18 Order, all time calculations for purposes of time computation relevant to court cases or other judicial business, as well as time deadlines, ARE NOW SUSPENDED through April 30, 2020…. This suspension SHALL OVERLAP with suspensions already granted by any President Judge, and any longer suspensions directed by an appellate or local court shall remain extant on their own terms. In all events, any legal papers or pleadings which are required to be filed between March 19, 2020, and April 30, 2020, SHALL BE DEEMED to have been timely filed if they are filed by May 1, 2020, or on a later date as permitted by the appellate or local court in question.”

Order dated April 28, 2020 – The order extended the emergency orders through June 1; however, the order provided that “[b]eginning May 4, 2020, unless otherwise provided by a local emergency order, Pennsylvania courts generally SHALL BE OPEN to conduct all court business.” With regards to deadlines, the order provided:

• “Extant local emergency orders and directives, including any provisions of these affecting time calculations or deadlines, SHALL REMAIN IN FULL FORCE AND EFFECT until they expire or are rescinded locally. The suspensions of time calculations and deadlines indicated in this Court’s previous orders and in any order of an intermediate or local court SHALL REMAIN IN EFFECT for the time specified in those orders. In all events, legal papers or pleadings (other than commencement of actions where statutes of limitations may be in issue) which are required to be filed between March 19, 2020, and May 8, 2020, generally SHALL BE DEEMED to have been filed timely if they are filed by close of business on May 11, 2020. Upon adequate notice, however, President Judges or presiding judges may enforce deadlines prior to May 11, 2020, in the critical-functions arena. President Judges are HEREBY INVESTED with substantial discretion in connection with the enforcement of time deadlines and are DIRECTED to ensure that the enforcement of any deadline does not create an unreasonable risk to the health or safety of court personnel, attorneys, court users, or the general public.”


Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas – County COVID-19 Orders

1st Judicial District Emergency Judicial Order No. 10 of 2020, dated March 17, 2020: With regards to deadlines, the order (mirroring the Supreme Court order dated March 18) provided:

• “Time calculations for the purposes of time computation relevant to court cases or other judicial business, as well as time deadlines, are suspended pursuant to Pennsylvania Rule of Judicial Administration 1952(B). Any legal papers or pleadings which are required to be filed between March 17, 2020 and March 31, 2020 will be deemed to have been timely filed if they are filed on Monday, April 6, 2020.”

1st Judicial District Emergency Judicial Order No. 15 of 2020, dated March 20, 2020:

• The order decreed that “[a]ll First Judicial District of Pennsylvania courts and related offices will remain closed through the workday of April 3, 2020 and reopen Monday April 6, 2020. Any legal papers or pleadings required to be filed between March 17, 2020 and April 6, 2020 shall be deemed to have been timely filed if they are filed by Monday, April 13, 2020.”

1st Judicial District Emergency Judicial Order No. 19 of 2020, dated March 23, 2020:

• The order decreed that the “President Judge Administrative Order No. 10 and 15 of 2020 remain in effect as to the time calculations for the purposes of time computation relevant to all civil filings and time deadlines remain suspended. Any legal papers or pleadings required to be filed between March 17, 2020 and April 6, 2020 will be deemed to have been timely filed if filed by April 13, 2020.”

1st Judicial District Emergency Judicial Order No. 24 of 2020, dated April 1, 2020:

• This order provided that administrative orders entered subsequent to March 17, 2020 are extended from April 1, 2020 to May 1, 2020; however, no mention was made regarding time calculations such as in prior orders.


• The order directed as follows: “The electronic filing system is open for the filing and docketing of all legal papers.”


• Similar to Order No. 24, this order provided that administrative orders entered subsequent to March 17, 2020 are extended from May 1, 2020 to May 29, 2020; however, once again, no mention was made regarding time calculations such as in prior orders.


Decisions re COVID-19 Orders

Philadelphia example: Party files a motion on April 7

• Supreme Court Order dated April 1 – opposition filing due May 1?

• Philadelphia Order dated April 1 – missing filing safe harbor provision found in prior orders

• Philadelphia Order dated April 8 – indicates electronic filing system is open

• Standard deadline April 27 (should coincide with Response Date on Motion Cover Sheet)

Look at your case-specific orders or notices for direction

Essential vs non-essential cases/filings

• Are filings being accepted? E-filing/E-service?

• Consider service of documents on other parties at least, even if filing not allowed?

Follow deadlines based on regular orders/rules if possible

• If not permitted, and if conflicting orders/rules, follow most conservative deadline


COVID-19 Orders and Rules Changes

Orders/rules are fluid and courts continuously evaluating the situation and adapting as needed

Court website should always be checked for updated information, especially right before

submitting documents to the court

We have compiled the COVID-19 related orders for select states on the ALN website:

• https://www.alncorp.com/court-emergency-orders/

https://www.alncorp.com/court-emergency-orders/


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Kevin Pray, M.B.A., Senior Director of Product Management


the Age of COVID-19


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Creating Policy “On the Fly”

This presentation will cover best-practices for your

department when confronting a quickly shifting set

of court conditions.

• Best practices for Order analysis for non-Attorneys

• Communication as policy

• Organizing the analysis work

• Analyzing an ocean of Orders!

• Analysis done, now what?


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This is Unprecedented

March 1 – May 26

March

April

May

• 1,252 Federal Covid Orders issued

• 763 Orders

• 307 Orders

• 65 Orders MTD

This count does not include the enormous number of Orders issued by State Courts.


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Accuracy vs. Speed

Order analysis can be one of the riskiest tasks in litigation docketing.

In our usual best-practices seminars, we recommend Orders be the last task new hires are trained on, and that they receive the highest level of QC.

Orders

Dispositive Motions

Appeals

All Other Pleadings

RIS

K


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Developing Best Practices When Conditions Are Changing

• Short-term policy creation

• Good communication of the policy

• Training on how to best meet the requirements of the policy

• More intense QA work to ensure compliance with the policy

• Regular review of the policy to stay on top of changing rules


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End Goal of New Policy

• No internal ambiguity as to how to handle a Covid Order as soon as it’s received

• An agreed upon repository for all Covid Orders, available to anyone in the firmand widely communicated as such

• A series of steps for analysis of an Order “on its face”

• A series of steps and chain of communication for resolving ambiguity in theinterpretation, or in figuring out conflicts with standing rules

• A way of communicating the requirements of a Covid Order to docket staff andtimekeepers


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Communication

BEST PRACTICE: Know who to ask questions of about Orders

• Record and pool court contact information provided on OrdersExample: http://www.azd.uscourts.gov/sites/default/files/documents/Coronavirus%20Notice%203-11-20.pdf

“If you have a scheduled court proceeding or are otherwise required to appear at one of the courthouses in

the District of Arizona and are experiencing any flu like symptoms, have a fever, are coughing or sneezing,

you should proceed as follows before appearing:

• If you are represented by an attorney, please contact the attorney.

• If you are an attorney and are scheduled to appear in court before a judge, please contact the judge’s

chambers.

• If you are a juror, please call the Jury Office in Phoenix at 602-322-7278 or in Tucson at 520-205- 4250.

• If you are scheduled to meet with a Pretrial Services Officer, please call 602-322-7350 in Phoenix or in

Tucson call 520-205-4350.

• If you are scheduled to meet with a Probation officer, please call 866-991-5770.

• For Bankruptcy matters, please contact the Bankruptcy Court at 800-556-9230.

• For District Court matters, please contact the Clerk of Court at 602-322-7200 in Phoenix or in Tucson call

520-205-4200. “

http://www.azd.uscourts.gov/sites/default/files/documents/Coronavirus%20Notice%203-11-20.pdf


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Communication

BEST PRACTICE: Know your internal point(s) of contact for analysis questions.

• Should be a licensed practitioner

• Should be someone who can respond timely (same day) to questions the docket department or other staff have

• Should be someone with policy-level decision authority, a Practice Group Leader, Senior Paralegal, or General Counsel

• Should be communicated to other attorneys that this person (or people) will be the last word on interpretation of any Covid order

• Attorneys should discuss disagreement with the interpretation of the Order with this person, or communicate their disagreement to staff who can take the issue to this person


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Timely Handling

Best Practice: Incoming Covid Orders should be treated as a top priority, regardless of other workloads, because they can affect the rest of your work. Ideally a 24 hour turnaround for all policy steps

• As soon as the Order arrives, communicate widely to docket staff to pause all docketing in affected cases

• Search en masse in your docket system and identify which cases will be affected and communicate widely

• If possible, add notes to every potentially affected case before analysis is finished, that an Order has been issued affecting the case

• Track “time in pipeline” for every Order, using a spreadsheet or other tool.

CREATE A WRITTEN POLICY DOCUMENT REGARDING TIMELY HANDLING AND RELEASE WIDELY.


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Order Analysis for Non-Attorneys

Best Practice: A licensed practitioner must be the final approval on any Order analysis. Ina malpractice situation, “an experienced attorney was also confused” is better than “mystaff made a mistake”.

• Analysis is defined as any thought process meant to reduce ambiguity

• Begin by asking “Which of These Things is Not Like the Others?”

• Highlight exceptions mentioned in the Order

Example: http://www.azd.uscourts.gov/sites/default/files/general-orders/20-10.pdf

“Any motion by a criminal defendant seeking an exception to this order

in order to exercise that right should be directed to the District Judge

assigned to the matter. Absent further order of the Court, the period of

the exclusion shall be from March 16, 2020, through April 10, 2020.”

http://www.azd.uscourts.gov/sites/default/files/general-orders/20-10.pdf


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Order Analysis for Non-Attorneys

Best Practice: A licensed practitioner must be the final approval on any Orderanalysis. In a malpractice situation, “an experienced attorney was alsoconfused” is better than “my staff made a mistake”.

• Streamline the Order into bullet points using plain, informal language wherever possible. AVOID LEGALESE.

• Where there is ambiguity, include the full text (by paragraph at least) so an attorney can read in context.

• Where there is ambiguity, explain your confusion in terms of choices:

• Should I go with interpretation A, which means the deadline is X?

• Should I go with interpretation B, which means the deadline is Y?

• Am I completely off-base with my analysis?

CREATE A WRITTEN POLICY DOCUMENT REGARDING THE FORMAT OF THE ANALYIS

DOCUMENT.


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Process as Policy

Best Practice: Even the timetable for an attorney or paralegal to review and approve any analysis should be a written policy.

• If the reviewer does not have policy making authority, passing their review on to the policy maker for a signature should be the last step

• The final approver must complete review within a defined window, so docket work can proceed timely

• Establish a plan to revisit any analysis regularly, such as every 2-4 weeks. Start by determining if anything has changed in the Courts.

• As a final step, you might create a document comparing Covid Orders to “regular Order” rules


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Maintenance and Follow Up

Best Practice: Create a Knowledge Repository for all answers to questions and end-analysis, so the effort doesn’t go to waste.

• Can be as simple as an email inbox, or more complex like a Sharepoint site on the intranet

• Should be accessible to everyone in the firm, and widely known about

• A repository is only as valuable as your ability to retrieve information from it. Entries need to be labeled to tagged for long-term searches.

• Track all questions about Covid Orders in an email conversation, including summary of phone conversations.

• When ambiguity is resolved, the docket manager or person responsible for the jurisdiction should write a succinct summary of findings and decisions, at the end of the email chain.

• Rename the subject line of the email, add keywords to the summary, or name a document in such a way that relevant keywords will be searchable later.

• Tag with jurisdiction

• Tag with client name

• Tag with legal issue (i.e. Appealable Orders in X)


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Joseph C. Scott, J.D., Chief Strategy Officer


the Age of COVID-19


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The WHY Behind a Docketing Department

It’s all about Risk Management!

New Technologies & New Competitive

Environment

Malpractice Cases as a Cautionary Tale

Ethical Considerations for Docketing

Professionals


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Must Haves and Hidden Gems in Legal Calendaring Systems

Automated and Rules Based

Customizations for your Work Flow

Integrations

Usability and Support

Risk Management Safeguards


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CLOSING

ALNCorp.com

Special COVID-19 Page with Court Closures and Emergency Orders at

ALNCorp.com/court-emergency-orders/

Free Products and Services During COVID-19 Crisis at

https://www.alncorp.com/american-legalnet-offers-free-products/

Court Rules Interpretation and Calculation Hot Line

Please either reach out to Court Rules Managing Attorney Daniel Abrahamian

[email protected] directly or by phone at 818-634-4984

https://www.alncorp.com/american-legalnet-offers-free-products/



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THANK YOU

Erez Bustan

President and CEO

[email protected]

Joseph C. Scott, J.D.Chief Strategy Officer

[email protected]

Daniel Abrahamian, Esq.Court Rules Managing Attorney

[email protected]

Kevin Pray, M.B.A.Sr. Director of Product Management

[email protected]





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