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Wednesday, October 07, 2009

Ind. Courts - What if the Court of Appeals held an oral argument, and nobody, not even the attorneys, came?

Monday's list of upcoming oral arguments included this entry for October 7th:

1:30 PM - Michael Greer and John Maggi v. Edwin G. Buss, Commissioner of the Indiana Department of Corrections, et al. - THIS ORAL ARGUMENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED AND WILL BE RESCHEDULED AT A LATER DATE
Last week's list, however, had the case description in full. The scheduled panel members were listed as: Judges Darden, Robb and Mathias.

What happened? The ILB has received this note of explanation Monday from one of the attorneys in the case, Gavin Rose, ACLU of Indiana:

Marcia,

You noted on your blog this morning that the oral argument in the Greer case (which was scheduled for this Wednesday afternoon) had been cancelled to be rescheduled at a later date. I thought you might enjoy the back story to that, because everyone involved is really in your debt.

It appears that what happened is this: In late August, the Court generated an order setting oral argument. However, this order was never transmitted to the Clerk’s office. Therefore, information concerning the argument never appeared on the docket, nor was it forwarded to either party.

The first any attorney on the case heard of the argument was a week ago, when I noticed from your blog that the case had been set for argument. It seems like the formal argument calendar, from which I assume you get your information, is maintained by the Court itself, rather than the Clerk.

The docket now reflects that an order was generated on August 20th but not sent out until September 28th, after I spoke with the Clerk’s office. Because of the late notice, the State requested (without objection) that the argument be continued.

I have to imagine, however, that if you did not publish the argument schedule on your blog, the panel would have been the only people to show up for the argument.

So, thanks

Posted by Marcia Oddi on October 7, 2009 01:52 PM
Posted to Ind. App.Ct. Decisions