Of my three DV cases called for trial today, zero of them went to trial today.
In one case, the persecutor in one of the cases asked for a continuance today, the day of trial. She says that her cop is out of town, or unavailable on vacation or something. The judge cheerfully granted her motion for continuance over my objection. This is pretty interesting in that it is entirely inconsistant with the judge's own "policy" for continuances. Her "policy" is not to allow a continuace if I ask for it, but to allow it if the state asks for it. It's a ridiculous double-standard that the she justifies to herself and tries to justfiy to us, but in the end it is still ridiculous. The judge is completely unwilling to follow the law when I present intelligent, accurate arguments which follow case law. In fact, she doesn't even wait for a response from the state when I make most of my arguments. For example the two continuances I requested: February: When I asked for a continuace on a case which I had been assigned to less than a week before trial, I got denied; April: When I asked for a continuace on a case which had been a bench trial just a few hours before we picked a jury, I got denied. In April, on my second request EVER, I get chastized for asking for too many continuances on trial calendars. SECOND in three months!! The state didn't even oppose a continuance in those cases...
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2 comments:
Jay,
Are there any kinds of legal maneuvers you can do to defeat these types of rulings? (I don't expect a dissertation) :)
The only option to go above this judge's head would be to file some type of appeal from either: a denial of my opposition to the state's continuance, or denial of my motion for continuance. If that was successfull, it may change her attitude about this type of situation. In this particular case, I don't think it would help my client to appeal because there is not much argument that he was prejudiced by the state's delay in the trial. There will come a case that will be ripe for appeal though, and hopefully we can get the judge educated.
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