OBITER DICTUM PRESIDENT S MESSAGE. May Vol. 4, Issue 2. Esteemed Colleagues:

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1 OBITER DICTUM Raymond Childress 22nd JDC President, LDJA PRESIDENT S MESSAGE Esteemed Colleagues: If time flies when you re having fun, then apparently I m having more fun than I realize. I had been warned that my year at the helm would pass by all too quickly. But I have found that to be a gross understatement. Now that the halfway mark is in my rearview mirror, I feel pressed for time to try and accomplish more items on my To Do List. I am happy that Judge Terry Doughty and Judge John Molaison stepped up to chair our new committees of Rural Judges and LDJA/Clerk of Court Liaison. I am encouraged and excited about the prospects these committees can accomplish. I am also pleased to report that our standing committees are alive and well, continuing to do outstanding work. Our Strategic Planning Committee is also working tirelessly to complete the new strategic plan for the district courts, which will be available for your review and comment prior to the Annual Fall Conference. You can read more about other committee work in this newsletter. The Legislative session is lumbering toward a conclusion. As usual, Bob Morrison and Darryl Schultz have done an incredible job of keeping all of us abreast of the happenings in Baton Rouge. Thanks to all of you who have given your time by either going to BR to speak to a committee, or by maintaining contact with your legislators to keep them informed of our positions. After the session we will have a full update on all the bills about which we were concerned. However, I feel it necessary to specifically address one area I believe was of the greatest concern to most of us, that being jury thresholds. There were a number of bills introduced to lower the jury threshold, the most problematic being a bill to reduce the threshold to zero. We May Vol. 4, Issue 2 LDJA members at the March, 2014 Legislative Committee meeting, with Judge Robert Morrison, chair, leading the meeting. spoke out forcefully against the bill and, although it made it out of committee, the bill eventually died on the House floor. It is not unusual for a bill to be filed to reduce jury thresholds. What was unusual this year was the intense effort LABI and other organizations put into its passage. For many of us, before we even had an opportunity to discuss this, our legislators had already committed to LABI to vote in favor of the bill. This causes a concern we should all have. We are not maintaining sufficient relationships with our legislators so that they seek our opinion on topics such as this, which are of the utmost importance to us. I believe that many judges, myself included, have forgotten the need for persuasive discussion on our part. As lawyers, the power of persuasion had to be an essential tool in our tool box. As judges, having to rule on so many motions and issues, sometimes we may forget just how necessary it is to be prepared to persuade others. We would be well served to remember that legislators aren t before us as litigants awaiting our ruling. They are members of a separate but equal branch of government. We need to be prepared to present our positions to them and listen to their point of view.

2 What should we do about this? Although many districts hold legislative dinners, many of which I was fortunate to attend, we need to go beyond those once a year gatherings and establish more meaningful relationships with our legislators. We would be well advised to meet with one or more on a regular basis to create a greater trust between them and us. Keep in touch. Maintain a dialogue with them. Hopefully, that would cause them to seek our opinion on areas concerning the judiciary BEFORE they make commitments they feel obligated to keep. It s a lot easier to be heard on a topic before they have staked out a position. I look forward to seeing many of you in Destin for Summer School. Please look me up for a chat. Ray Ray Childress, LDJA President Judge, 22nd Judicial District Shown pictured are, from left to right, Judge Ray Childress, Justice Marcus Clark, Darryl Schultz, and Judge Bob Morrison, attending the Legislative dinner in Monroe, Louisiana in March, QUARTERLY QUOTE If you have a favorite quote you d like to share in the next edition, please submit it to Jennifer Eagan at jeagan@lasc.org.

3 A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE OF THE JUDGE S WORK: AN INTERVIEW WITH AD HOC JUDGE VAL EXNICIOS, ORLEANS CIVIL DISTRICT COURT Jennifer Eagan By Jennifer Eagan During an informal conversation with Judge Val Exnicios, Ad Hoc Judge appointed to fill the unexpired term of Judge Michael Bagneris, I found myself making mental notes of some of his comments. It s sooo much harder than I thought it would be, Judge Exnicios said. While I wasn t too surprised at that response, what caused me to follow our conversation with a more formal interview was Judge Exnicios s concession that, advocating for one side or the other is easy. Decision-making, now that s hard. After submitting some written questions to Judge Exnicios, he and I sat down for about an hour to discuss his answers. I thought you d be interested in what he said. When asked about the greatest challenge in performing his judicial duties, Judge Exnicios stated that familiarizing himself with the internal procedures of the district court and each staff member s duties was tricky. Discovering the individual roles of court personnel and learning how to engage them most effectively was like peeling back the curtain in the Wizard of Oz. As for time management, Judge Exnicios said what was most surprising was the sheer volume of work. There isn t a single conference, hearing, motion, or other matter that can be handled appropriately without adequate preparation. And, preparation takes time, he lamented. Enough time to read briefs, conduct independent research, process all of that and be sufficiently prepared to do service for the litigants requires late nights and weekend work, on a consistent basis, Judge Exnicios admitted. Without my even asking about trial work, Judge Exnicios explained that trials judge and jury- are certainly time consuming but are only the tip of the iceberg. By way of analogy, Judge Exnicios added, You wouldn t evaluate the work load of a civil practitioner based on the number of trials he or she conducted in a given year. Why would you do that for a judge? Judge Exnicios and I also discussed how this experience might cause him to change his approach upon his return to the practice of law. What Judge Exnicios noted was that with the extent and depth of Val Exnicios every docket, educating the judge about your case and the presentation of issues should be done with the utmost clarity, but without losing important detail. He added however that, As lawyers, we are becoming more and more specialized. There s not so much the general practice anymore. Because of this specialization process, we re asking our district judges to also achieve the highest level of expertise, not just in one area of the law but in all areas. I then asked Judge Exnicios if the experience changed his perspective of the judiciary in general. Leaning back in his chair he said, Lawyers forget that the easy cases the ones where liability or fault is clear- generally will settle. It s the murky issues the ones that could go either way that go before the judge. Having been subjected to the intensity of that daily demand, Judge Exnicios s appreciation for the work of the judiciary is much stronger and more complete. Even with only a short time for observation, when asked about his fellow judges, Judge Exnicios said unequivocally, I do not know a single judge on this bench who doesn t spend the amount of time necessary to be fully schooled with the legal issues and fully acquainted with the facts prior to a matter coming before his or her division of court. Based upon his theory of the expertise required of judges, the amount of time judges spend preparing for their dockets, and the emotional and psychological demands of constant decision-making, Judge Exnicios s conclusion was easy: Judges are not paid enough. The compensation simply is not sufficient for the services judges are called upon to perform.

4 ANNOUNCEMENTS LDJA COMMITTEE WORK NEW LDJA STRATEGIC PLAN Under the direction of LDJA President, Judge Ray Childress, the LDJA Strategic Planning Committee has worked diligently over the last year to revise the current strategic plan for the district courts. The new plan will have five (5) campaigns that are intended to be utilized to improve judicial performance. The committee will circulate a draft of the plan to the LDJA general membership soon after Summer School and will ask for your comments and input prior to the end of the summer. Those comments will be integrated into the plan and the committee will then seek Supreme Court approval. The new plan will be circulated for implementation at the end of this year. EQUAL JUSTICE CONFERENCE & SRL COMMITTEE UPDATE Several members of the Self-Represented Litigants Committee attended the Equal Justice Conference in Portland, Oregon earlier this month. Each of us returned home better educated about this issue, with a renewed interest, and with extensive information about resources that are available to the district courts. One example is the availability of Title IV-D funding for court based self-help services. TITLE IV-D FUNDING FOR COURT BASED SELF-HELP SERVICES Title IV-D child support services provide an important opportunity for the funding of court based self-help services related to paternity and the establishment, modification, and enforcement of support orders. Read about these funding opportunities in a report prepared for the State Justice Institute: item $5,000 AWARDED TO SRL COMMITTEE BY THE LOUISIANA BAR FOUNDATION Based on a proposal to script and produce video vignettes to assist litigants in court, the SRL Committee applied for and recently was awarded a grant in the amount of $5,000 to proceed with this work. Please look for the Self-Represented Litigants Table outside of the conference rooms in Sandestin and ask for your SRL Tool Kit, a flash drive containing forms, checklists, and other information to assist you in court. COURT GOVERNANCE - PART III The Court Governance team is excited to bring back Dr. Dale Lefever, our presenter from Summer School 2013 and Spring Conference An initiative of Judge Harry Randow, this is an educational series designed to build upon successive programs. If you attended the 2014 Spring program, you were more than likely struck by the relevance and importance of this topic. Discussions between judges and administrative personnel were started and we re hoping to carry that learning forward in another program of the series to be presented at Summer School There is still much to explore about achieving the best governance model in your court and developing court policies with a defined governance process. The interactive program designed for Summer School 2014 will cover with greater depth such topics as leadership tools, collegial practices, the acceptable role of the chief judge, and why that role should be meaningful. We hope to see you in this program at Sandestin, scheduled for the entire morning of Tuesday, June 2, RURAL COURTS COMMITTEE Under the direction of its chair, Judge Terry Doughty (5th JDC), the new LDJA Rural Courts Committee has stated as a goal that it intends to foster idea sharing and more discussion of issues that specifically affect judges in rural communities. To address those concerns, the committee met and is planning a Rural Courts Seminar, with the assistance of the Louisiana Judicial College, which is currently scheduled for Friday, October 31, This program hopes to address such issues as available funding avenues for your courts, grant application instruction, and other issues. The seminar will be held in Alexandria, Louisiana.

5 JUDGE ROBERT MORRISON NAMED CALOGERO JUSTICE AWARD WINER FOR 2014 LDJA APPLAUSE JUDGE WILLIAM J. BURRIS NAMED LOUISIANA CASA JUDGE OF THE YEAR Applause goes to Judge Bob Morrison who was recently honored at the Louisiana Bar Foundation Gala on Friday, April 11, 2014 with the Calogero Award for Justice. The Calogero Justice Award is named in honor of Chief Justice Pascal F. Calogero, Jr. who served on the Supreme Court for 36 years. This award is given annually at the Fellows Gala where the Louisiana Bar Foundation honors an individual for his or her significant contribution to the Louisiana justice Judge Morrison and his wife, Linda. system. Judge Bill Burris was recently named the Louisiana CASA Judge of the year on April 15, Each year the Louisiana CASA Association, an agency of LouisianaChildren. org, presents this award to a judge who has exemplified exceptional leadership by furthering consistent quality representation of children. Judge Burris was selected because he is knowledgeable and firm, but kind and understanding of the challenges faced by the families who appear in his court, said Youth Service Bureau CASA Director Mary Slazer. She further stated that Judge Burris s dedication to finding the best possible outcome for abused and neglected children inspires everyone involved in the proceedings to give their absolute best effort too. JUDGE JULES EDWARDS NAMED VICE-CHAIR OF LOUISIANA JUDICIARY COMMISSION Jules Edwards 15th JDC Judge Jules Edwards, 15th Judicial District Court, and Vice-President of the LDJA was recently elevated to Vice-Chair of the Judiciary Commission. Judge Edwards has served approximately 1 year of his 4-year term on the commission, a position to which he was appointed by the Supreme Court. Judge Burris, with John Wyble and Mary Slazer. Photo from NOLA.com. JUDGE JOHN MOLAISON RECOGNIZED BY LOUISIANA HIGHWAY SAFETY COMMISSION John Molaison 24th JDC Judge John Molaison was recently recognized by the Louisiana Highway Safety Commission at the Sixth Annual DWI Law Enforcement Awards program in Baton Rouge. The Commission recognized 13 police officers, 16 agencies from across Louisiana, 2 District Attorneys and Judge John Molaison - being the sole judge honored - for their efforts against DWI offenders.

6 JUDGE WENDELL MANNING NAMED PRESIDENT OF THE LA. BAR FOUNDATION Judge Wendell Manning was recently named President of the Louisiana Bar Foundation for the term at the annual Bar Foundation Gala, held in New Orleans on Friday, April 11, He is pictured here with his family upon being newly installed as president. JUDGE MARY DOGGETT TAKES ON DRUG COURT FROM JUDGE RANDOW LDJA APPLAUSE (CONT.) After 9+ years of presiding over his drug court in Rapides Parish, Judge Harry Randow passed the baton to Judge Mary Doggett on May 1, To honor his years of service, the court staff awarded Judge Randow a trophy adorned with a drug testing cup and the inscription that he was Judged Most Positive. Judge Manning with his family. UPCOMING JUDICIAL COLLEGE EVENTS 2014 June 1-6, 2014 Summer School for Judges and Annual Meeting (Joint with LSBA) Village at Baytowne Conference Center, Sandestin August 14-15, Domestic Family Seminar Windsor Court Hotel, New Orleans Trophy Inscription October 5-7, 2014 Annual Fall Judges Conference Ritz-Carlton, New Orleans December 12, 2014 Annual Torts Seminar Windsor Court Hotel, New Orleans 2015 January 15-16, Annual City & Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges Meeting Windsor Court Hotel, New Orleans April 16-17, 2015 Annual Spring Judges Meeting Lafayette Hilton & Towers, Lafayette May 31-June 5, 2015 Summer School for Judges and Annual Meeting (Joint with LSBA) Village at Baytowne Conference Center, Sandestin Judge Randow and Judge Doggett

7 WHAT CAN THE JUDICIAL ADMINISTRATOR S OFFICE DO FOR YOU? Way back when you first took office as a Louisiana district court judge you may recall attending an orientation program. In that program, a giant breadth of information was thrown at you. And at the time, your only concern was whether you reported your campaign finances timely and correctly. The other stuff, well, that may have gone in one ear and out the other. So it occurred to me that a brief refresher course in the function and services of the JA s office would be informative and helpful. You will also find a wealth of information on the Supreme Court website at There are links to court rules, forms and all sorts of information about the Judiciary Commission, the Judicial Council, the Attorney Disciplinary Board, Bar Admissions, Judicial College events, and much more. Visit the Supreme Court website regularly to keep up with announcements, calls for comment, or other news. Judicial Administrator s Office Main Number: (504) Sandra Vujnovich Judicial Administrator svujnovich@lasc.org or (504) Lauren McHugh Deputy Judicial Administrator/General Counsel lrocha@lasc.org or (504) JA SERVICES Valerie Willard Deputy Judicial Administrator, Community Relations The Community Relations Department is available to assist state court judges with their outreach initiatives. Whether the goal is to reach out to media, legislators, students, or the general public the Community Relations Department can provide advice and programmatic resources. With prior Supreme Court approval, the Community Relations Department can send press releases or post information on the Louisiana Supreme Court web site. vsw@lasc.org or (504) Scott Griffith Deputy Judicial Administrator/Research and Development The essential functions of the Research and Development division are to provide support for the judicial branch s strategic planning process; manage branch-wide performance auditing and performance reporting activities; provide staff support to the state s several judicial branch associations; and generate research, statistics, reports and related work product as requested regarding courts and judicial branch activities. Research and Development employees also staff the Judicial Council and its several committees, as well as other Supreme Court committees. Staff are available to consult with courts on matters of judicial administration. sgriffith@lasc.org or (504) Julia Spear Research and Development Staff Counsel jspear@lasc.org or (504) Tracy Buccino - Staff Attorney, General Counsel s Office As part of her duties, Tracy Buccino staffs the Judicial Campaign Oversight Committee, which handles complaints regarding unethical judicial campaign conduct. Ms. Buccino can also provide informal guidance regarding Canon 7 of the Code of Judicial Conduct. tbuccino@lasc.org or (504) Kristina Kent Staff Attorney, Judicial Ethics Kristina Kent staffs the Committee on Judicial Ethics, which receives inquiries from judges and judicial candidates and issues formal advisory opinions regarding the interpretation of the Code of Judicial Conduct. Ms. Kent can also provide informal guidance regarding the Code of Judicial Conduct. Finally, Ms. Kent is responsible for receiving all Personal Financial Disclosure Statements from judges and judicial candidates and is available to answer any questions you may have regarding this required annual report. kkent@lasc.org or (504) Robert Harper Research and Development Staff Counsel Robert Harper staffs the Court Rules Committee, Family Court Rules Committee, Judicial Compensation Commission, and Uniform Forms Committee for City and Parish Courts and helps to maintain the Louisiana District Court Rules. His current focus is upon assisting the Family Court Rules Committee in creating uniform rules. Mr. Harper also reviews all forms and other materials provided by city and parish courts and works to create a uniform set of this material for use by self-represented parties and other litigants. rharper@lasc.org or (504) Jennifer Eagan Jennifer Eagan Well, you all know me. jeagan@lasc.org Stay tuned for more about our services from the IT, HR, and Accounting Department in the next edition of Obiter Dictum.