Out-of-court settlements: Senate approves Alternative Dispute Resolution Bill
What Did Some of the EDVA Judges Have to Say?
This year, as we have on occasion in the past, we conducted in-person or phone interviews with several EDVA judges. When asked “why is the EDVA the fastest,” several points were repeatedly made. Judges noted “we promptly set scheduling conferences,” “we set the trial about six months from the conference,” “we stick to the trial date,” and “the judges manage the dockets in the EDVA for the convenience of the parties, not the lawyers.”1 The “trial date” point was repeatedly emphasized and one judge noted “the parties can’t simply agree on a continuance, there must be a strong reason for a continuance — like a death.” One judge summed it up noting that he or she was “proud to serve in a District that has such a fierce commitment to providing justice swiftly.” While judges attempt to protect the trial date at all costs, they have flexibility with other dates such as allowing depositions to be taken out-of-time as long as there is a good reason and the trial date is not affected.
But it can’t be overlooked that the “Rocket Docket” slowed down a bit this year. While averaging 15.1 months to trial this year, for the same time period last year the court averaged 12.5 months to trial last year. When asked about possible reasons for a slow-down, some judges provided responses such as “we’re seeing more and more complicated matters such as patent cases” and “we want to be fast, but careful too.”