By Carole Allen and Adrienne Rubenstein

How and when do I note a motion without oral argument? How do I note a motion to continue a trial date? Where do I send my working papers? Although the Individual Calendaring system has been in effect court-wide in King County since 1996, bailiffs receive dozens of phone calls daily asking these and other questions.

As Superior Court bailiffs, we would like to offer some practical advice and resources in this article to our colleagues -- the staff in law offices -- to make their jobs easier, to ensure that your clients’ motions are timely handled and (for our benefit) to significantly reduce our need to respond to these procedural questions.

The sheer number of phone calls from law office staff asking common questions (see “Take the Quiz!”), together with several common deficiencies in pleadings, diverts us from our core duties and our ability to efficiently administer your clients’ legal matters. Through sharing the information and resources here and in a handy FAQ/quiz format, we believe the process will be streamlined for all of us.

The majority of civil (non-family law) motions are covered by just four rules: KCLR 7, KCLR 40, CR 56 and CR 12. The court’s web site at www.metrokc.gov/kcsc is a wonderful resource, with links to local rules and civil rules, trial assignments and the directory of judges, many of whom have active web pages that outline department procedures.

Counsel and staff are encouraged to review web pages and rules before calling the court with routine inquiries. We also encourage those of you with Internet access to use email to contact the bailiff for scheduling matters. All you need is the judge’s last name. Using a fictional judge’s name, the email would be addressed as follows: murphy.court@metrokc.gov.

Common Errors
This article describes some of the most common errors bailiffs encounter and identifies why they may negatively affect your clients’ best interests. Although these seem minor, they impact the court’s efficient processing of motions.

• No judge’s name appears in the upper right corner of pleadings. [KCLR 7(b)(3)(B)]
• No date for consideration appears in the upper right corner of pleadings. [KCLR 7(b)(3)(B)]
• Documents are submitted in incorrect order.
• No envelopes are provided for return copies of orders. [KCLR 7(b)(4)(C)]

Why are these seemingly minor omissions a problem? Let’s follow your paperwork from your office to the courthouse. The originals (except the original proposed order) are sent to the clerk’s office (the Department of Judicial Administration). The working copies are sent to the judges’ mailroom [KCLR 7(b)(3)(B)], clocked in and dropped into a receiving bin.

Throughout the day, judges’ mailroom staff retrieves the documents and sorts them into each judge’s mailbox. If the judge’s name is in the upper right hand corner, the documents are placed directly into the mailbox for that judge. If there is no name, the documents are set aside until staff can access the computer and attempt to determine to which judge the case is assigned.

On this note, if your case is set for a special calendar (supplemental proceedings, ex parte uncontested, family law motion, etc.), that should be noted in the upper right hand corner as well [KCLR 7(b)(3)(B)] to ensure your documents are timely received by the correct department.

We think it is helpful if documents are submitted in this order:

• Calendar note
• Motion
• Documents in support (affidavit/declaration/exhibits, proof of service)
• Original proposed order
• Pre-stamped envelopes addressed to all parties who have appeared in the action

When the bailiff retrieves the mail, pleadings are sorted according to the date the motion is set for consideration. The first things many bailiffs look for are the names of litigants and counsel to determine if a recusal is necessary, and the date set for consideration. These are all contained on the front of the calendar note. With the note on top, the pleadings are quickly assigned to the correct consideration date; if not, your pleadings may be set aside until the other, more easily identifiable mail has been disposed of. Please be aware that there are currently four different calendar note forms: two for Kent and two for Seattle, which apply to different calendars.

It also is important to put the date of the motion on any responsive pleadings and reply [KCLR 7(b)(3)(B)], so they can be easily matched to the moving party’s motion without the bailiff poring through 31 days of pending motions to locate the movant’s documents. Some departments do not provide conformed copies of orders if the stamped envelopes required by KCLR 7 are not provided.

It is a good idea to place your paperwork in an envelope addressed to your assigned judge so they don’t become separated. We also recommend you use separate messenger slips for delivery to the clerk’s office and the judges’ mailroom to avoid all the documents being delivered to one location.

Other issues that are primarily procedural include:

• Motions without oral argument do not require court approval of the date set.
• Motions without oral argument do not require confirmation.
• Summary judgments, CR 12(b)(6) motions, preliminary injunctions, etc., i.e., those matters that do require oral argument, require that law office staff contact the court to arrange a hearing date.
• Notify the court when a hearing is to be stricken, particularly a summary judgment hearing. [KCLR 7(b)(3)(F)] Judges frequently wade through significant volumes of pleadings only to have no attorney appear on the date set.
• Don’t ask the bailiff for legal advice. When your staff doesn’t understand something after being referred to a rule, he or she should seek your direction.

It is important to provide working copies of all your pleadings to your assigned judge, including notices of address change, withdrawal/substitution, notices of settlement, final orders obtained in ex parte, bankruptcy filings, transfers to arbitration, etc. Providing these copies ensures that your assigned judge’s database is accurate at all times, that proper parties receive notice and that unnecessary notices are not sent. When counsel does not provide these copies, bailiffs frequently spend valuable hours reviewing entire case files and making the necessary corrections to the database.

These are just a few areas in which staff training and oversight, from the paralegal who drafts documents to the person who stands at the copy machine and collates pleadings, can lead to efficiencies that ensure your pleadings, whether you are the moving party or the responding party, arrive on time before the judge who will rule on a pending motion, and further ensure that you will receive a conformed copy of the executed order.

A future article will address more substantive errors and omissions within the pleadings themselves. n