33rd / 424th District Courts

It might (or might not) be of interest to some (well, at least to me for my memory as it fades...) to see what the schedule is turning into with the departure of the VJ program. I've been keeping a detailed time log and the average day has been 12 hours, not counting evening reading. Many of the days shown below went past 6 or 7:00 p.m.


December 1, 2003

9:00am / .glj BURNET JURY JUV

Recent weeks have been somewhat arduous on me, but rather devastating to the necessary times for various cases to be heard. Some examples follow but to summarize, we've had to push jury trials, continued one due to crowding, have cut witnesses from cases and have severely limited presentation times.

In a recent jury trial a trial management order had to be imposed with time restrictions which were severe, being 10 hours each side for presentation of a complex divorce with substantial property (Gosnay, Blanco County).

It continues. Started court today at 8:00a.m. and continued straight thru to 8:00p.m. with over 70 cases. More description below. Lunch consisted of reading files while chewing on the leftover pork steak from yesterday that could not be finished due to having to race from Llano to Burnet (never exceeding a safe and prudent speed, of course).

Criminal, juvenile, civil, family law. Over 70 cases total including 4 juveniles for adjudication. Contested hearing on Req to Adjudicate on child molestor took greatest time - continued the punishment phase until later date in order to reach the other cases. Last juvenile case left at 8pm headed for TYC (13 year-old). One other juvenile also left for transport to therapeutic center.

Saturday AND Sunday in the office. Actually, back at the bench today finishing up docket entries from Thursday and Friday.

Those days went so fast and so late that I could do them and the clerk was not able to get them all done. In addition to simply docket entries, I must make a brief notation on the docket listing so that my staff can enter the hearing results into the case management system.

The day was like any other day. A docket in Blanco County that should be finished by noon and then back to Burnet County for an afternoon docket. Well, not like ANY other day because we usually don't do two dockets in a day. But other than that .... The prisoners in custody were already in the courtroom, the bailiff had everyone organized, the court reporter was chipper.

But then it started. One case -- a divorce that was hotly contested -- announced they needed three hours. They were told they could have an hour and it would be after the rest of the docket was cleared. The probation revocation began. The lawyers on the appeal from the associate judge's order of incarceration were negotiating. The divorce case waited.

It's 7:05p.m. The jury in the Fontenot case has just returned a guilty verdict and the punishment phase has begun. The defendant elected punishment by the Court so the jury has been released.

Why not go home and hear this tomorrow?

The Court has hearings tomorrow in San Saba County and Friday in Blanco County. This case has been pushed very rapidly due to the necessity of settings in the other counties -- Welcome to "No Visiting Judges 101."