at CCBA - Clark County Bar Association

More documents

Recommendations

Info

CLARK COUNTY DISTRICT COURT BENCH/BAR MEETING MINUTES SEPTEMBER 13, 2011 JOHN FAIRGRIEVE CCBA President The meeting began shortly after noon. Persons present were Ann Christian, Suzan Clark, Heather Beasley, Emily Sheldrick, Clay Spencer and John Fairgrieve. OLD BUSINESS: 1. Competency evaluations being conducted on out-of-custody criminal defendants by Western State Hospital (WSH): Ann Christian told the committee that currently the wait to have an out of custody criminal defendant evaluated for competency is about six to eight months. In the future WSH is planning on sending three psychologists to Vancouver every other month to evaluate defendants. The psychologists should be able to evaluate a maximum of ten defendants on each of these trips to Vancouver. Clay Spencer asked if the court could appoint local psychologists to conduct the evaluations to cut down on the backlog. John Fairgrieve expressed concern that by doing so it would shift the cost of paying for such evaluations from the state to Clark County. Clay also mentioned that defense counsel were not being given any notice of when WSH psychologists were coming to Vancouver to evaluate their clients, creating problems for defense counsel who wish to be present during the evaluation. Ann Christian indicated that she would look at working with the prosecuting attorney’s (PA’s) office on possibly modifying the standard evaluation order form to require that WSH give defense counsel notice of when their clients would be evaluated. Clay Spencer also asked whether, in criminal cases involving defendants who are military veterans, Veterans Administration records concerning prior mental health evaluations and treatment could be made available to evaluators to assist them and perhaps streamline their evaluations. He also asked if the PA’s office could be more flexible in fashioning resolutions in criminal cases involving veterans. 2. Felony Indigent Defense Appointments: Ann Christian reported that the gross number of cases is not higher than it was last year at this time, but that the number of serious cases is on the rise. 3. Jail Contact Rooms: Ann Christian told the committee that adjustments had been made that decreased the problems that were reported to the committee in July. However, Suzan Clark and Clay Spencer reported that they are often forced to use noncontact rooms when meeting with their clients in the jail due to the lack of contact rooms. Additionally, Suzan reported that there is often a wait of 30-45 minutes for a contact room. NEW BUSINESS 1. Discrepancy in the West publication of the Clark County Local Rules: Emily Sheldrick reported that the current West version of the Clark County Local Rules states that local rules 56 and 59 are no longer in effect. This is incorrect; local rules 56 and 59 are still in effect. The matter was tabled until the committee’s next meeting because no representative of the bench was present to discuss the issue. 2. Next Bench Bar committee meeting: The committee will meet next on Tuesday, October 11, 2011 at noon in Judge Nichols’ jury room. Respectfully submitted, John Fairgrieve District Court Reminder: Attorneys are expected to be in court at or before their scheduled hearing times. To improve the timeliness and coverage/flow of the dockets, if attorneys have multiple appearances in different courtrooms set at the same time, the attorney is required to check in with the Judicial Assistant at or before the time set for hearing to inform the court of the other appearance(s) and when the attorney will return. 14 CLARK COUNTY BAR ASSOCIATION
Washington Women Lawyers presents: The Leader Within WWL is proud to present "The Leader Within" as a seminar on October 14th, in conjunction with our Annual Event. This seminar is open to anyone and everyone who is interested. Across the nation, lawyers and judges are exploring how mindfulness practices can increase professionalism and the quality of legal services, while also supporting lawyer well being. To learn more, please join WWL for an introduction to mindfulness for lawyers and judges. Sevilla Rhoads, who is both an employment lawyer with Garvey Schubert Barer and an Associate Mental Health Counselor with Present Health and Wellness, will start our program by reviewing some of the neuroscientific theory behind mindfulness as it relates to the practice of law. Sevilla will also offer experiential demonstrations of several basic, practical mindfulness exercises designed for use by legal professionals. Next, our panel will discuss how they use mindfulness daily in their legal practices. Our panelists include: Anthony Gipe - civil litigator and WSBA Governor at Large, Adriene Keith - Collaborative Family Law and Mediator, and Sherry Williams - Pierce Co. Public Defender. We will close with a Question & Answer period for all of our presenters. We will also provide information to continue learning about Mindfulness either in person here in Washington, or through various written materials. Please join Washington Women Lawyers on October 14, 2011, at the Convention Center from 2 pm to 4 pm. This seminar will cost $40. For reservations, please contact Pauline Woodman at paulinewoodman@mac.com, or find more information at http://www.wwl.org. We look forward to seeing you on October 14 in Seattle! YOUNG LAWYERS CLE: Speaker: Honorable Judge John Wulle Tuesday, October 25, 2011 11:45 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. El Presidente, Evergreen and C Street $20 for CCBA Members $25 for non-members $10 for law students Please RSVP to ccbayounglawyers@yahoo.com An attorney is considered a "Young Lawyer" until the 31st day of December of the year upon which he or she turns thirty-six (36) or until the 31st day of December of the year in which five (5) years have expired from the date they were first licensed to practice law in any state of the United States, whichever is later. HEARSAY - OCTOBER 2011 15
Page 1 and 2: ccbawashington.org OCTOBER 2011 OFF
Page 3 and 4: PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE JOHN FAIRGRIE
Page 5 and 6: APPELLATE PRACTICE TIPS by C.C. Bri
Page 7 and 8: CCBA Golf Tournament Tees Off KURT
Page 9 and 10: managed to get the case continued a
Page 11 and 12: Rider & Associates Inc. provides su
Page 13: Young Lawyer vs. Senior Lawyer Soft
Page 17 and 18: CLARK COUNTY BAR ASSOCIATION CLE SE
Page 19 and 20: GETTING TO KNOW: LISA DARCO “Gett
Page 21 and 22: Controversial Issues in Mediation b
Page 23 and 24: Benefits of CCBA Membership HEARSAY
Page 25 and 26: LAW LIBRARY NEWS ATTORNEY BOOKKEEPI
Page 27 and 28: 2011/2012 CCBA OFFICERS & TRUSTEES

at CCBA - Clark County Bar Association

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?