Contact with Judge's Assistant

[maxinfla]

I am allowed to contact the JA in my case directly, or do I have to go through the paralegal assigned to my attorney?.

 

[jharris352]

If you have an attorney you should absolutely not be contacting anyone concerning your case. ESPECIALLY not anyone dealing with the judge. What on earth do you want to tell them?

 

[maxinfla]

I am concerned because the court recently changed the judge assigned to my case. The paralegal at my attorney's office stated that it is very difficult to work with the JA for the new judge. The next day she advised me that the hearing date for our motion, which had been preliminarily scheduled for Feb. 2nd, was now confirmed for March 30th. She explained that this was the first date that opposing counsel had available. I asked if we have to accept this even if the court has multiple earlier dates available. She said that's the date we were given. My fear is that we are not even trying to get an earlier date just because the JA is less than helpful.

FYI - the hearing is a motion to compel for the original discovery materials request that was filed in July of 2009.

Thanks in advance for any advice you can provide.

 

[jharris352]

Stay out of it. What do you think you can possibly do to help? Do you really think you talking to the JA is going to help?

You can press your Attorney to press the court for a more expedient date.

 

[maxinfla]

Alright. I get the picture.

 

[dee_dub]

The paralegal at my attorney's office stated that it is very difficult to work with the JA for the new judge. The next day she advised me that the hearing date for our motion, which had been preliminarily scheduled for Feb. 2nd, was now confirmed for March 30th. She explained that this was the first date that opposing counsel had available. I asked if we have to accept this even if the court has multiple earlier dates available. She said that's the date we were given. My fear is that we are not even trying to get an earlier date just because the JA is less than helpful.

Doesn't matter if the JA is difficult to deal with, it's your attorney's job to deal with them. That's why you hired an attorney. As jharris said, if you want a different date, instruct your attorney to apply for one whether the JA is helpful or not.