Minutes of December 12, 2001 Meeting

The Executive Committee of the Litigation Section met on Wednesday, December 12, 2001, at 8:00 a.m., at the Law and Justice Center in Salt Lake City.

Attendance. Executive Committee Members present were Frank Carney, Mike Petrogeorge, Willis Orton, Brent Manning, Tracy Fowler, Wayne Klein, Clay Simms, Dan Hindert, Bruce Badger, and Brian Babcock.

New Members. We welcomed Clay Simms and Wayne Klein as new members of the Executive Committee.

Mid-Year Meeting. Bruce Badger reported that the meeting is set for March 21-23 in St. George. The Litigation Section will sponsor a presentation by Doug Cannon on economic damages in a products liability case. We will pay half of Doug’s expenses to attend. We will also co-sponsor with the ADR Section a presentation on ADR with Jerry Williams, a professor from BYU in the area of negotiations. The keynote speaker will be Justice Michael Wilkins, speaking on Multi-Disciplinary Practice issues. It has not been determined whether we will be asked to contribute to Justice Wilkins’ expenses or not.

Annual Meeting. The Annual Meeting in Sun Valley is set for June 26-29. Frank Carney reported that Christy Romero has the Litigation Section’s portion organized. We have David Ball, Ph.D. scheduled to speak on drama in the courtroom, jury selection, and damages for four one-hour breakout sessions. Our fifth hour will be in conjunction with the Young Lawyers’ Section and David Leta at Snell & Wilmer will present on the topic of collecting a judgment.

Assistance to Judiciary on Budget Issues. Brent Manning raised the issue of assistance to the judicial branch in connection with proposed budget cuts. He has discussed this with Judge Nehring and apparently there will be cuts in law clerks and judges’ expenses for attending Bar meetings will no longer be covered. However, there is nothing specific that Judge Nehring has indicated that we should be doing to assist. Wayne Klein pointed out that budget cuts are not focused solely on the judiciary and that there is a major state-wide shortfall that will require cuts nearly everywhere.

New Chair-Elect and Treasurer for 2002-2003. By unanimous agreement we voted to make Bruce Badger the Chair-Elect. He will assume the Chair of the Litigation Section in July. Our new treasurer will be Wayne Klein.

New Lawyers’ CLE on Depositions. Frank Carney was able to put together a panel of speakers for December 13 to discuss depositions. This is all set to go.

Status of Judge’s Benchbook Interviews. Frank Carney reiterated the need to continue with the interviewing of judges for the Benchbook.

Status of Mentors’ Page. Frank Carney reported that we are having a few inquiries about the “Mentors’ page but it does not appear likely that it will ever be widely used.

Trial Academy 2002. Frank Carney has agreed to resume the responsibility for this project. Rather than six two-hour meetings every other month, the 2002 format will be for one session of two days, on a Friday and a Saturday. This has been scheduled for October 4 and 5, 2002.

MUJI Civil- 2nd Edition. Frank Carney mentioned that the project is underway and a goal for publication will be the Annual Meeting at the end of June.

Next meeting. Our next meeting was set for 8:00 am on Wednesday, January 9th.

There being no other business to discuss, the meeting adjourned at 9:00 a.m.

DATED this _____ day of January, 2002.
FOR THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

_________________________
Francis J. Carney
Secretary

LITIGATION SECTION EVENTS
As of December 12, 2001

• January 9 Executive Committee Meeting
• February 13 Executive Committee Meeting?
• March 13 Executive Committee Meeting
• March 21-23 Mid-Year Meeting in St. George
• June 26-29 Annual Meeting in Sun Valley
• October 4-5 Trial Academy