Minutes of February 13, 2002 Meeting

The Executive Committee of the Litigation Section met on Wednesday, February 13, 2002, at 8:00 a.m., at the Law and Justice Center in Salt Lake City.

Attendance. Executive Committee members present were Bruce Badger, Frank Carney, Willis Orton, Tracy Fowler, John Young, and Deno Himonas.

Approval of Minutes. The minutes from January 9th were reviewed and approved.

MUJI Status

John Young reported that MUJI- Criminal is at last nearly completed and a draft will be circulated to the Board of District Court Judges for a comment period of sixty days.

For both the criminal and new civil instructions, the format with be a looseleaf binder with an enclosed CD. A binder containing the instructions will be provided for each of the District Court judges. Lexis will pay all the costs and will recoup its investment from sales to the Bar members.

The intention is to update the looseleaf binder periodically. This will require a more active Standing MUJI Committee and Frank Carney and Tracy Fowler volunteered.

Frank Carney also agreed to assist John Young in making sure that the digitized form of the instructions that we receive from Lexis is easier to use than the floppy disk version of the first edition was.

On MUJI Civil- 2d Edition, John indicated that the work should not take long and the goal is draft instructions to him by May 1st with publication by September 1st. Again, the draft revised instructions will be submitted to the Board of District Court Judges for comment.

We also discussed the feasability of on-line access to MUJI.

Mid-Year Meeting. Bruce Badger reported that all is set for the St. George meeting in March. He asked for, and received, authority to cover Judge Dale Kimball's expenses and half the expenses of our other presenters.

Annual Meeting Report. Frank Carney reported that we are on track for the Annual Meeting with David Ball, Ph.D. speaking in four separate breakout sections on jury persuasion from a drama perspective. We also have arranged for David Leta to speak on collecting judgments. We have previously agreed to pay Mr. Ball a fee of $5,000 plus his travel expenses, and the total is estimated at $6,500. We have not been asked to contribute toward the expenses of the keynote speaker, John Powers.

Account Balance. Willis Orton reiterated that the account balance is large and needs to be reduced. To this end, we will sponsor top–notch CLE speakers for the membership in 2002. Executive Committee members were asked to think of top-notch speakers than can be invited in the coming year for useful CLE. Some of the names discussed were Jim Brosnahan, Mike Tigar, and Judge Herb Stern.

Legislative Developments. Deno Himonas reported that there is a bill proposed to amend the venue statute that will have no effect on current practice. Apparently the law published in the Utah Code is not the same as the bill passed and signed.

Professionalism Award. Frank Carney discussed possible funding by the Section for a "Professionalism Award" to be given by the Chief Justice's new Commission on Professionalism. We don't know yet the specifics and this was tabled until more is known.

Multijurisdictional Practice Rule. Bruce Badger reported that the proposed rule will be sent out for comment to the Bar membership.

Trial Academy. This is set for October 4-5, 2002.

CLE Seminar. Deno Himonas and Willis Orton raised the possibility of a CLE/Golf session in St. George in the Fall. This met with general approval and Deno will report back at our next meeting with more specifics.

Lawyer of the Year Nomination. Frank Carney recommended that the Section propose Loni Deland as the "Lawyer of the Year" to the Bar leadership. While not a civil litigator, Mr. Deland's volunteer efforts in death penalty cases, as substantial cost to his health and his practice, are commendable. The Executive Committee approved this recommendation.

Next meeting. Our next meeting was set for 8:00 am on Wednesday, March 13th.

There being no other business to discuss, the meeting adjourned at 8:45 a.m.

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

_________________________
Francis J. Carney
Secretary

LITIGATION SECTION EVENTS

• March 13 Executive Committee Meeting
• March 21-23 USB Mid-Year Meeting in St. George
• April 10 Executive Committee Meeting
• June 26-29 USB Annual Meeting in Sun Valley
• October 4-5 Trial Academy
• November St. George CLE/Golf?