February 2006 “Tips from the Bench”

By Judge John Wittmayer, Multnomah County Circuit Court.

Civil Motions - How are judges assigned to hear your motions?

The circuit court in Multnomah County operates a “central docket system,” i.e., cases are not assigned to individual judges when the case is filed. In some counties in Oregon, and in federal court here in Oregon, cases are assigned to individual judges for all purposes upon filing.

A few cases are assigned by the presiding judge sometime after filing to an individual judge, either for pre-trial motions only, or for motions and trial. If your case has such an assignment, and an order from the presiding judge to that effect, then you do all motion scheduling with that assigned judge. If your case does not have an order assigning it to an individual judge, then you must follow the procedure below for setting a civil motion for hearing.

In civil cases, there are generally three categories of motions that are most common: “short motions,” i.e. motions that will need 30 minutes or less of hearing time; “long motions,” which need more than 30 minutes of hearing time; and Motions for Summary Judgment.

Most civil motions in Multnomah County are heard by a group of judges who “volunteer” to do this work. These judges hear almost all of the short and long motions. The judges plan their availability for civil motion assignments and notify the court’s civil calendaring unit of their availability.

When you have prepared for filing a short or long civil motion in Multnomah County on a case that has not been specially assigned to a judge, you are to telephone civil calendaring at 503.988.3168. Tell civil calendaring the case number and how much time you expect the hearing will take. If there have been previous motions in the case, tell civil calendaring which judge has heard the previous motion(s). If this is the first motion, civil calendaring will assign your motion to a judge who is available five weeks in the future. This five-week period will give you time to file and serve the motion, time for the other side to respond to it, and time for you to reply to the response, all before the hearing date.

If there have been previous motions heard by a judge, civil calendaring will assign your motion to that judge if that judge has indicated to civil calendaring that he/she is available for motion hearings about 35 days out from your telephone call. If civil calendaring is not showing that judge to be available when your motion needs to be heard, you will be invited by civil calendaring to contact that judge’s office directly to see if that judge can make some time available, despite that judge’s other responsibilities and schedule. It is the policy of the court in Multnomah County to keep subsequent motions with judges who have previously made ruling on short motions in the case, if at all possible. We call this the “fly-paper rule.” The “fly-paper rule” does not apply if the previous motions were either expedited motions or long motions. If that judge can make time available, your motion will be scheduled directly with that judge’s office. If that judge cannot make time available, you will once again call civil calendaring to be assigned to the next available judge.

Note: you are not to contact a judge’s office directly to schedule a civil motion unless the presiding judge has signed an order assigning the case to that judge, or unless civil calendaring tells you to do so.

A few years ago, the court instituted a procedure to permit litigants to request expedited hearings on civil motions, when the litigant filing the motion believes it needs to be heard before the five-week waiting period involved with most civil motions. A judge is available each day at 11:30 a.m. to hear your requests for expedited hearings. Of course, you must notify the other litigants of your intention to appear and request an expedited hearing, and you must have sufficient reasons for this special handling. If the judge hearing your request for an expedited hearing thinks your request is well-founded, he/she will assign your motion to a judge. You are to then immediately contact that judge’s office and schedule the expedited hearing with that judge.

Practice tip: In the words of one judge, “your failure to plan does not justify an expedited hearing.” If you could have filed the motion early enough to have it set for hearing in the ordinary course, you will not likely have your request for an expedited hearing granted.

Currently, through the end of March, 2006 Judge Ronald Cinniger is handling these requests. You may contact presiding court at 503.988.3846 if you have questions about which judge is handling expedited motion hearing requests.

Motions for Summary Judgment are assigned for hearing differently than routine short and long civil motions. Absent an order from the presiding judge assigning the case to a judge, civil calendaring will generally assign your Motion for Summary Judgment to a pro tem judge for hearing. If you want an elected/appointed judge to hear your Motion for Summary Judgment, you must first get an order at Ex Parte from the presiding judge allowing this assignment. Presiding court has a form of order for you to use to accomplish this. A broader list of judges handles Motions for Summary Judgment than handle routine short and long civil motions. It is common that your Motion for Summary Judgment will not be heard by the judge who has heard previous short or long motions.

We know this motion scheduling procedure is complex, and there is much misunderstanding about it. Civil calendaring (503.988.3168) welcomes calls with any questions about scheduling motions. Lawyers are urged to share this information with legal assistants and secretaries.