Members of the bar have started encountering the new “Civil Case Management Pilot Program” in effect for Tier 3 (and certain Tier 2) cases assigned to selected judges in the Third, Second, and Fourth District.
Details on the program are here. In the words of the court:
“The experience of other jurisdictions strongly suggests that early and active judicial case management is key to efficient litigation, particularly in complex cases. With this in mind, the committee proposed, and the Utah Supreme Court approved, a pilot program for select cases in the Second, Third, and Fourth Judicial Districts. Starting on January 1, 2016, and continuing through December 31, 2017, all tier 3 cases randomly assigned to the participating judges will be part of the program. Also, excluding family law cases and debt collection cases, tier 2 cases randomly assigned to participating judges in Districts Two and Four will be part of the program.”
One can expect lengthy and detailed Rule 16 conferences, much like one would see in federal court with certain magistrates or judges. We will see if this helps– one of the complaints about the 2011 discovery amendments to the discovery rules was that most attorneys stipulated around the rules for most Tier 3 cases, and what was needed was active judicial case management, not more rules.
