May issue of CITATIONS - Ventura County Bar Association

12 CITATIONS • MAY 2011JUDGE REISER EMBRACES TECHNOLOGYBy Joanna L. OrrBefore sharing his vision for the seamlessoperation of Department J6, Judge GlenReiser took a few minutes on Wednesday,March 23 to explain to the Estate PlanningSection of the Ventura County BarAssociation why he has only spent oneweek in the department since the beginningof the year. A current member of theCalifornia Case Management SystemAdvisory Committee/Technical Committee,Judge Reiser gave a brief glimpse of how thepaperless court system will work and why heis a proponent of it. The system will makefiled documents available online throughan attorney portal, thus obviating the needto travel to the courthouse to obtain copies.Ventura County was selected as an earlyadopter and is scheduled to implement thetechnology in 2012. Once the system isimplemented statewide, multi-jurisdictionalpractitioners will benefit from being ableto access case files from all 400 Californiacourthouses.While practitioners wait for the electroniccourt system to be implemented, JudgeReiser promises to work towards improvingjudicial efficiency and making the practiceof law less stressful. He believes issuingtentative rulings one week prior to thescheduled hearing provides one key toachieving this. In turn, he expects attorneysto file any necessary verified supplementsprior to the hearing date. As a reward, if thesupplement remedies the issues identifiedin the tentative, he will grant the motionwithout requiring counsel to appear. Ifcounsel elect not to appear at the hearingand someone appears to contest the petition,Judge Reiser will continue the hearing toallow all sides to appear.The key to this procedure, which wouldminimize the number of visits to the JuvenileJustice Center, is that counsel submitproposed orders with their motions. At thelatest, the proposed order should be sent viaemail the morning of the hearing, as soon ascounsel returns to his or her office. JudgeReiser will sign the order, a conformed copyof which can be obtained from the clerk.On the other hand, if counsel does not file asupplement that cures the issues identified inthe tentative, Judge Reiser will not be happyabout granting a continuance.Judge Reiser believes that his job is as aconduit for our clients’ estate plans and notan impediment thereto. But he takes his oathas a judge seriously and personally reviews