What Puts Attorneys and their Staff on Our Black List?

1. Failure to hole punch.

2. Stapling orders to motions.

3. Sending runners and other staff with walk-through order.  We don't do them.

4. Calling the next day to see if your order has been signed when you placed it in the mail the day before (We're good, but not that good).

5. Calling the next day to get your motion set, when you placed it in the mail the day before (Again, the clerks are good, but not that good).

6. Don't send runners down to get motions set unless they know your calendar and your requirements.  Check with each court to see what their policies are concerning their hearing dockets.  Keep that information handy.  The courts now offer various hearing times with Masters, Visiting Judges, and options.

7. If you are filing a response, brief or other document that needs considered at the time of the hearing, You must file it at least two working days before the hearing or it may not be in the file when the hearing occurs.

8. If you need information about the trial docket or other information, Please don't have your secretary, legal assistant, associate, runner and yourself all call for the same information.

9. Send self-addressed stamped envelopes and please write the case number on the back for anything you want the court to return to you.

10. Consolidated cases for the purpose of discovery only: be sure to send a copy of your filing for both cases and be sure to highlight the case number you want that document placed in.  Example: If case number 96-12342 and 97-2222 have been consolidated for discovery only, and you file a response to a motion to compel with both case number shown, You must highlight 96-12342 for the copy in that case and highlight 97-2222 for the copy for that file.  If you fail to highlight the case number, The Clerk will place both copies in the first listed file.

11. With the new Clerk hours now available to you, there is no reason for you to yell, scream, kick the door, or beat on the door for the clerks to open up after 4:00 or during the lunch hour.

12. Please stop lying to us.  Most of us are very understanding people if given the chance.

13. If you don't like the judge's rulings or mannerisms, please don't blame us.  We are merely the messengers.

14. Please refrain from criticizing our judges in front of us.  Don't you know we tell them?

15. Please don't ask us to guess or predict if you are going to trial.  If we were that good, we would have won the lottery and would no longer be at the Courthouse.  You can call the attorneys on the cases listed above you as to their expectation concerning trial.  That will improve your expectations regarding the trial docket.

16. Please remember we too are entitled to lunch hours.  Court staff cannot take breaks.  Lunch hours are very important to the release of pressure.  If you call or come in during our lunch hour you are adding to our stress which is not a pretty sight.

17. Many of our courts now post the trial dockets in advance, but please do not call on the phone and ask us to search for your docket position prior to your trial announcement the Thursday of the week before.  The volume of phone calls the courts receive cannot handle added calls regarding future dockets.  Please see Dallas Civil Court Rules regarding trial announcements.

18. Please keep your addresses current.  If you move or change your name, you must send a letter to the District Clerk Information Desk that gives them your bar code and the change.  This will update anything computer generated.  It will not update the docket sheet for each case.  To update the docket sheet for each case you are in, you must send a letter with the appropriate case number to each court.

19. Remember the court acknowledges the attorney who signs the first pleading as lead counsel.  This means we will only recognize vacation letters for the attorney designated as lead counsel.

20. If a case has already been scheduled and you send in a vacation letter, do not assume the trial is automatically continued. (We all know what happens when we assume)

21. Be On Time.

22. Check for accuracy of cause number on pleadings, orders, letters, etc.

23. Always, Always have the cause number available before calling the court.

24. Please do not speed dial the court coordinator's phone number to avoid dialing the court clerk when you know the clerk is the one you are calling.  (Yes, we know who has been doing this.)

25. Always, Always cancel hearings in a timely manner.  Be sensitive to the time involved for the judge and court staff in preparing for a scheduled event.  In most of the courts, the clerks are required to mark all motions and pleadings necessary for the hearing and some of our judges actually read the file prior to the date of hearing.

26. Please do not send letters to both the judge and the coordinator regarding mediations.  Please send one letter to the court and one letter to LaCrissa Gilbert, ADR Coordinator.

27. Please don't call us and ask us to over-ride the court clerk unless you specifically know the clerk has given you wrong information.  If you are hoping to obtain a better motion setting by over-riding the clerk it's not going to work unless the circumstances are such that an emergency exists which requires intervention by the administrator or judge.  In most cases the administrators will not intervene period.  You might try explaining your emergency through a letter to the judge and copy opposing counsel.

28. Please read the Dallas Civil Court Rules.  They are located in the Texas Rules of Court.  Make sure your staff can find them.  We shouldn't have to tell you what the rules say.

29. Don't call the court to cancel the hearing when you have not informed opposing counsel first.

30. Hint: John Warren, coordinator for Judge Evans makes this excellent suggestion.  Buy notebooks for your secretary, legal assistant and yourself (and any other office staff member that deals with the courts).  Put dividers in and label each section with the courts you have business in.  In each section put each court's particular procedures and standards of operation.  On the front of each section have the court clerk's phone number, the coordinator's phone number, and the hours of operation.  The courts receive at least five to ten phone calls a day that deal with the District Clerk's Office such as Process, Transcript, File Desk, and Records.  If this information is handy for your staff they don't need to call us.