Exam (elaborations) LITIGATION CONSULTING

Judge Dcwuyne Thomas begins his 28th year in the legal profession as tllC newly elected Chancellor of Hinds County, Mississippi, Subdistrict l. Judge Thomas assumes the bench with over a quarter century of legal experience under his belt in a variety of areas including Domestic Relations, Estates, and Personall!ljury. Judge Thomas was elected to replace the retiring Chancellor, Judge Stuati Robinson. Judge Thomas' philosophy recognizes thut Chancery Court is a court of equity. F~1irncss in application of the law to the facts will carry the day and substance will reign over iOrm. Judge Thomas has been serving as Chancellor fiJr Hinds County .tOr more than two months, where he has observed the a'ttorncys pmeticing in his court to be courteous and prepared. Judge Thomas emphasizes that to be successful in legal practice and to "win" in his Court, preparation is key. Judge Thomns rcwmmends preparing findings of facts and conclusions oflaw as a great way to prepare your case as wei! as t() iii form "the Court "ci(rhC imV and yotii· po.Sitions. lie states that he often prepared such findings of filets and conclusions of law throughotJt his years of practice. Judge Thomas reports that in the two months he has been Chancellor, he has himself as likely to rule from the bench as he is to take matters under advisement. VVhcn a matter is taken under advisement, however, Judge Thomas has a self:.hnpllsed guideline to rule within one week on most issues. Judge Thomas is also quick to point out that if an issue needs more fl(~hing out or the applicable case and statutory law ''ere somehow inconsistent, he will not make n rushed decision. Judge Thomas says he wilt deal with contested matters in a fotthright manner with the usc of Pre~ Trial and Scheduling Orders to move the cases through the legal process as efficiently as possible. Judge Thomas also ~tresses the importance ofUnifonn Chancery Court Rule 8.05, the financial statement and disclosure rule. Judge Thomas believes that in domestic cases involving economic issues and property division, Rule 8.05 disclosures need to be filed. Judge Thomas takes these disclosures seriously and expects the same of the 11torncys and litigants who prepare them. Judge Thomas' ex-parte days arc Wednesday momings. He recommends that you have an appointment, but says if that is not possible attorneys arc welcome to show np and he will mnke sure they are heard. Judge Thomas says one of his goals is to be accessible to attorneys. It was not long ago when he had to juggle schedules :md manage client expectations on getting matters heard and entered, and he will do evctything in his power to accommodate uttorncys. Judge Thomas will make himself avail~:~ble, by appointment, tOr times other than his ex-parte time periods should that be necessary. Judge Thomas may be reached at his office through his CoLitt Reporter, Toni Mailock.,. at (601) 968-6552. The Hinds County Chancery Conrt Administrator, Paulette Myers, mny be reached at (601) 968-6521. The localrnlcs fOr the Fifth Chancery District, First Judicial District of Hinds County, Jackson, and the Second Judicial District of Ilinds County, R..:1ymond, may be tccesscd via the world wide web at :.us/pgs/chanccry/. - --------~- ----------- ---------~----~~ -~---~-~~ -------- ~-----~-·· -- HCBA's Evening Honoring the Judiciary May 22 Our fourteenth l~vening Honoring The Judiciary will be held Tuesday, May 22, at tlw Old Capito! Inn. Our special guests for thi~ annual event arc the state and federal appellate and trial judges who live in the Jackson Metro Area ofllinds, Madison, and Rankin Counties. The event begins with a reception ffom 6:00-7:00 p.IR, followed by dinner and a program from 7:00-9:00 p.m. Individual tickets arc $50.00 per person. This year our guest speaker will be Reverend Ross Olivier, a native of South Afi"ica and the current pastor of Galloway United Methodist Church in Jackson, where he has served for the past 3 years. Dr. Olivier entered the ministry in !980 in South Africa and soon had pastoral responsibility for 24 congregations of diverse cultural and language ba(.;kgrounds. His early ministry led Dr. Olivier into vigorOtls opposition against Apartheid, an experience ----- ------~- that has deeply shaped his convictions al)(lut racial justice and reconciliation. In South Africa, he pnstored several large churches with 3,000 to 5,000 members and was later elected to serve as General Secretary of the Methodist Church of South Africa, which has 4,500 congregations and 2.5 million Methodists in South Africa. Rev. Olivier is widely rct:ognizcd as a gifted preacher, strategist, author, and teacher and as an outstanding public speaker. He is married, has three sons, and is a sports enthusiast and an avid reader. This event is co-hosted by the Hind:-; County Bar Association and the Jacksnn Young Lawyers Association. It is underwritten, in part, by the generous sponsorships of participating local area law firms. Please save the date or May 22 and make plans to attend. Then call Patricia Evans, Executive Director orthe HCBA, at , or send her an e-mail at pcvans({tlme.e_d.IJ~ about being a spo11sor of one of our longest running annual events. 7 Mississippi Access to Justice Comri'lission The Mississippi Supreme Court on June 29, 200(J, created the Mississippi Access to Justice Commission in an dfort to promote equal access to the courb and to address the needs for civil legal representation of the poor. Missi~sippi was the twenty-third state (now there arc twentysix) to 1.mn such a state-wide commission. The Mississippi Access to Justice Commission includes business and community leaders, clergy, and representatives from all three branches of state government, and its objective is to develop a unified strategy to improve access to justice for the poor. The Supreme Court appointed as Commission Co-Chairs Hinds County Chancery Judge Denise Owens of Jackson and then ivlississippi Har President Joy Lambert Phillips of Gulfport. In addition to President Phillips and Judge Owens, the 23 voting members of the iv!ississippi Access to Justice Commission include: former Supreme Court Justice and former Mississippi Bar President Reuben Anderson, Jackson: Court of Appeals Judge Donna M. Barnes, Tupelo; Rep. Ed Blackmon, Canton; Rev. Stan Buckley, senior pastor, Fi1'st Baptist Church, Jackson; Bill Bynum, President and Chief Operating Olficc of l.•:ntcrprisc Col"poration of the Dcltn, Jackson; Circuit Judge 1'vlargarct Carey-McCray, Greenville: Supreme Court Justice Jess H. Dickinson, Gulfport; Sunllowcr Mayor Betty Fowler; Supreme Court Justice James E. (iravr:.~ Jr., Jackson; U.S. District Judge Louis Guirola Jr., (iuJ!i)orl; John tbirston, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Otficc of I [ancock t!olding Company and Hancock Bank, Gulfport; Rev. Hosea Hines, pastor of College Hill Baptist Church, Jack;;on; Paul Hurst, Chief Counsel to Gov. 1/alcy Barbour, Jackson; Missi;;sippi NAACP President Derrick Johnson, Jackson; Amanda Jones, Past President, Young Lawyers Divis10n of the Mississippi Bar, Jackson; Sun-lfemld President and Publisher Ricky MaHhews, Biloxi; Carlton Reeves, PresideJJL, Maguolia Bar Association, Jackson; Constant.:e Slaughtcr-llarvey, civil rights attorney and [(mner Assistant Secretary of State, Forest; Sen. Gray Tollison, Oxford; Kenneth V. Williams, President, Relfeshments Inc. aud Refreshment:-; of Tennessee, Corinth; and Mississippi Economic Council President Blake Wilson, Jackson. Non~ voting ex-o!Ticio commission members appointed by the Court inc!nde: /VIal"lha Bcrgmark, President and Chid Operating Officer, Mississippi Center f()]" Justice; Sam lluchanan, Executive Director, Mississippi Center for Legal Services, J-laHicsburg; .Jayne Bu1tress, Chair, Mississippi Legal Services Foundation, Jackson; Ben Cole, Executive Director, North i'vlississippi Rural Legal Services, Oxford; Dean Samuel M. Davis, University of Mi~sissippi School of Law, Oxford; J;uibu II ill, Executive Director, Mississippi Workers Center, Greenville; Ben Piazza, Chair, Board of Directors, Mississippi Volunteer s Project, Jackson; and Dean Jim Rosenblatt, Mississippi College School of Law, Jackson. Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Jess It Dickinson of Gulfport, the Comt's liaison to the legal services community, has stated, "This Commission's overriding objective is to make sure that every citizen of this state, regardless of economic status, has reasonable access to justice and that no ~ --~--~-----~ one is excluded because they don't have the money to hire an attorney." Justice Dickinson went ou to say: "Jt is my very strong opinion that~hc Supreme Court bears the ultimate and final responsibility to sec to is that the justice system is fair for everyone." The order establishing the Commission states that "this Court is committed Jo the principle that justice should be available to all persons witlwut regard to economic status and ... this Court recognizes that a substantial number ot" Mississippians live at or below the federally-established poverty threshold, and face substantial barriers to the justice system ... While many organizations in Mississippi arc committed to improving the delivery of legal services to the ponr, no single entity is widely accepted as representative of all such organi1ations." The. order creating the Commission directed it to: identify the current and future needs of the legal services community in providing access to justice to the poor in i'vtississippi: develop and establish a strategic statewide plan f(Jr delivery of legal setviccs [()the poor in Mississi1Jpi: develop strategies and ideas to increase resources and fimding fOr access to justice ill civil legal mailers, and to make recommendations to appropriate entities to ensure that the resources and llmding arc applied to the areas and organizations of greatest need; work to maximi1.e the wise and efficieut 11se of available resources, including development of locaL regional and/or statewitic systems that encourage the coordination of resources and funding; develop and implement initiatives designed to expand ci'il access to justice; work to reduce barriers to the justice system by addressing existing and proposed court rules, procnlures, and policies that aftCcl access to justice for poor ivli~sissippians; and monitor and evaluate the eftCcti·cness of the statewide system and service providers, and periodically evaluate the progress made in fulfilling their respective responsibil itics. Currently, North Mississippi Rural /_ega! Services and the Mississippi Center J(n Legal Services have a total of 31 paid stair lawyer~ available to represent the estimated 500,000 eligible poor people in civil legal matters such as domestic disputes and housing and nmsmncr issues. The Mi~sissippi Volunteer Lawyers Project, a joint project of the Mississippi Dar and the two Legal Services providers, enlists the aid of private a!tlrncys who arc willing to represent clients tOr free. But a!! those. entities have lhr more calls for services than they have lawyers available to meet the needs. Federal funding has been the main source of support for the two Legal Services entities, but the~c appropriations continue lo shrink. In recent years the slate Legislature and the Mississippi Supreme ('ourt have attempted to compensate for these deficits. The Mississippi Legislature created a Civil Legal Assistance Fund in 20(l3, but did not begin to fund it until last year when it authorized a $5 add on fcc JOr each civil case l'ilcd in cin;uit and chancery courts, with the "Oillimwdoilf!llgeJ ~----~--- --- ~~---~ ----- -~------ - umlinucd ;iw11page X proceeds going to the Civil Legal ts~istance Fund. The rirst six months since nnpkmcnlation of the fcc add on produced approximately S2NO,OOO . The Supreme Court also amended pro hac vici rules to require a S200 fcc fh1111 attorneys licensed in other states who wished to handle a !cgalmaller is Missis~ippi. with these fees to be disbnrsed to the Services entities and the MVLP. Since 2003, when the rule change went into cfi;ct, the pro hac vici fees have averaged approximately S 145,000 per year. In addition, the Supreme Court in 2005 ordered lawyers to annually report the pro bono hours they provided, and allowed lawyers to donate money in lieu of performing such pro bono work. During the 2006 reporting cycle, i-1ississippi ,--·----·· ·····--····-···-~ attorneys donated over S2NO,OOO to the Civil Legal Assistance Fund. EllCctive this year, the Supreme Court also made lawyer participation mandatory in the Interest on Lawyer Trust Accounts (JOLT A) program. This should greatly increase IOU/ funding, the llH~iority of which goes to civil legal representation (lfthc poor. llowever, these increased revenues do not come close to rt:p!acing the reduction in Federal funds during the last several years. One of the main goals of the Mississippi Access to .Justice Commission will be to pool the talents of business and comnmnity leaders to develop new and creative I ways to help fund legal services for the poor. I J United States District Judge Daniel P. Jordan III United Stato;;s District Judge Daniel P. Jordan Ill has recently assumed the Hench in the Southern District of Mississippi . Judge Jordan has shared some of the procedures that he hls adopted. BefOre taking the Bcuch, Judge Jordan interviewed all the Judges in the Southern District and several in the Northern Distrkt ofi·IississippL Ilis procedures borrow heavily ffom the other Judges, but with a few modific;dions of his own. fn criminal cases, Judge Jordan will hold a pretrial hearing approximately tltrcc weeks helim.: the trial calender at which time he will ask dc!Cndants whether they wish to change their p!e;l or proceed to trial. Judge Jordan hopes to set a plea hearing or a trial dale during the prctrinl coniCrcnce. In civil cases, Judge Jordan is requiring an electronic copy of the proposed Pretrial Order be provided him ihe day before the pretrial conference. This allows him to prepal"C tOr the confCrcnce and explore issues that might aJl"ecl settlement or trial. .Judge Jordan is requiring civil litigants to provide electronic proposed jury instructions three days before triat lie wiH then prepare the Court's proposed instructions from these submissions and will incorporate the appropriate substantive instructions submitted by the parties. Parties will thercaller have an opportunity to ot~jcet to the Court's instructions. Judge Jordan has already found that this method dramatically rcduecs the length of the charge conference since the Court'~ instructions arc drafted with neutrality in mind. Central Legal Staff of the Mississippi Supreme Court The Mississippi Supreme ('our! mamtains a Central Legal Staff cousisting of eight stair attorneys to a~sist the Court in handling motions, petitions f(Jr certiorari, interlocutory appeals, and other miscellaneous matters. Hubbard ("Hubby") Saund-ers IV is the Director of the Central !.ega) Stalf and also serves as Deputy Court Administrator. Motions, petitions and r1thcr pleadings should be filed with the Clerk of the Supreme Court. Concerns about time sensitive motions and questions concerning procedures may he addressed to !tubby Saunders (). Inquiries as to the ~latus of a motion may be directed to Jack Poole, Court Administrator (?$3) or Mr. Saunders. Under [ circumstances should an attempt he madc to contact a prcmc Court Justice directly about any matter. Recurring errors by lawyers that Mr. Smmdcrs has notit.:cd ·- ._. .. "''"' "''""' -·--··· --······---·· , .. _._ ... ·-'"·-' ······--· mdudc riling an cmcrgc!lcy motion and serving counsel opposite by mail. Emergency motions should be served by hand delivery or fax. Also, problems arc !fcquently encountered when an attorney al!empts to withdraw during the pendency of an appeal, Rule 46 (c) of the Mississippi Rules of Appellant l'roccdure should be reviewed carefully, A motion to withdraw must be accompanied by an appearance form of substitute counsel or n signed statement by the client indicating that the client agrees to proceed prose or an explanation wily neither can be obtained. Lawy