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Sunday, February 10, 2008

Ind. Decisions - More on: OK, where are these opinions?

On Jan. 23rd, the ILB posted an entry headed "OK, where are these opinions?" The entry reported that, although the Clerk of the Court's office had changed long-established practice and was no longer making paper copies of opinions available, causing everyone to rely on the copies of the opinions posted online by the Clerk's Office, the Office was not keeping up its end of the bargain. NO opinions had been posted by the Office since Jan. 18th, although a large number of opinions had in fact been issued.

The ILB quickly discovered that the failure in timely posting of opinions was only the tip of a much larger iceberg -- the Clerk's Office was far behind in keeping up with the paperwork demands on its office. An interview by the ILB with Chief Judge John Baker that same day led to this entry, which reported in part:

A few minutes ago, the ILB spoke with Chief Judge John Baker about the problem. Judge Baker said the Court of Appeals has indeed issued many opinions since last Friday, none of which, unfortunately, have yet been posted to the Internet. But, he continued, the problem is much larger than just the failure to post opinions.

The Clerk's Office, Judge Baker said, has been and continues to be many weeks behind in opening and processing paperwork of all kinds.

Part of the problem can be attributed to the fact that the work load of the Court of Appeals continues to increase; over 2,509 cases in 2006 jumped to 2,868 in 2007. And filings, according to the Judge, are up even more.

Judge Baker said he has expressed his concerns to Kevin S. Smith, Clerk of the Indiana Supreme Court, Court of Appeals, and Tax Court, and Judge Baker said he could report that personnel are being added help alleviate the problems. Because there is no more room in the Office, the added employees are being put on a half shift, working when the other employees are gone.

The good news, says Judge Baker, is that according to Clerk Smith, everything should be caught up by mid-February.

A few minutes later the ILB received and posted an email from an appellate practitioner who said in part about Judge Baker's comments:
This is kind. The [clerk's] office is a disaster. There has been all sorts of turnover, and new staff (at least some of them temps) have no idea what they are doing. There are usually stacks of paper everywhere, and it literally takes weeks for many things to show up on the docket. Lawyers can no longer rely on it.
All this occurred on January 23th. The ILB believes the beneficial result has been to focus attention on the important responsibilities of the Clerk's Office and the need for the money and manpower for it to do its job.

Confirming this, a story has appeared in the Feb. 6th issue of the Indianapolis Indiana Lawyer, reporting the above in greater detail.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on February 10, 2008 12:05 PM
Posted to Indiana Courts | Indiana Decisions