Minutes of June 12, 2002 Meeting

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

1. Attendance. Executive Committee members present were Willis Orton, Deno Himonas, Judge Pam Greenwood, Dan Hindert, Brian Babcock, Tracy Fowler, Lee Curtis, Nan Bassett, and Frank Carney.

2. Approval of Minutes. The minutes from the May 8th meeting were reviewed and approved.

3. New Member- Bryan Pattison. We welcomed Bryan Pattison from St. George to the Executive Committee and he participated in our meeting via the speaker-phone.

4. New Executive Committee Officers. Deno Himonas was elected Chair of the Executive Committee for the next year (7/03-6/04). Bruce Badger will be the Chair for the coming year (7/02-6/03), Wayne Klein, Treasurer, and Frank Carney, Secretary.

5. Additional Executive Committee Members. We discussed our need to have a member from Northern Utah. Brian Babcock volunteered to ask Miles Jensen from Logan.

6. Member Participation. We discussed Executive Committee members who have not been actively participating and decided to ask them if they wish to remain on the Committee. Frank Carney will speak with Janet Goldstein, Judge Greenwood will speak with Judge Barrett, and Nan Bassett with Shawn McGarry.

7. Annual Meeting. Frank Carney reviewed the status of Annual Meeting preparations. He noted that registered attendance is down by approximately 25%, presumably because the meeting is not being held over the Fourth of July weekend. As previously noted, we are scheduled for four breakout sessions from David Ball on using drama techniques in the courtroom, jury selection, and arguing damages. We also have arranged for David Leta to speak on collecting a judgment. Our total financial commitment to the Annual Meeting will be approximately $6,500, all for Mr. Ball's speaking fee ($5,000) and expenses.

8. Meetings at Matheson Courthouse. For a change of scenery, and to encourage judicial participation, we decided to hold periodic Executive Committee meetings at the Matheson Courthouse. Judge Pam Greenwood offered the use of a conference room at the Court of Appeals and will determine if it is available on July 10th.

9. MUJI. About $4,800 was spent by the Section last month for the publication of the MUJI- Criminal instructions in binder format for the review of the District Court judges. This was a significant and unexpected expense and one mostly for the benefit of non-civil practitioners. We agreed to explore ways with John Young to recoup this expense through sales of MUJI- Criminal to bar members. Frank Carney will report at our next meeting.

10. Trial Academy: October 4th and 5th. Frank Carney reported that preparations are underway. No further action is needed at this time, although several committee members volunteered to assist.

11. St. George Golf 'n CLE: November 8th. This is set for Friday, November 8th at the Sunbrook Country Club. Willis Orton, Deno Himonas, and Bryan Pattison are in charge of the plans. We approved an expenditure of $250 to reserve the conference room at the facility. The plan is to have three hours of CLE in the morning and then golf in the afternoon. It may be of interest to have some Wasatch Front judges participate; if they will be speakers, the Section will reimburse for travel and lodging.

12. CLE on Appellate Practice: December 19th. The Section will sponsor or co-sponsor with the Appellate Practice Section on appellate practice on December 19th. Mike Petrogeorge was not present; Nan Bassett will speak with him and ask for a report at our July meeting.

13. Judges’ Benchbook. We again discussed the need for continued efforts to get judges interviewed. Deno Himonas has had no luck in getting the St. George judges lined up. Brian Babcock will speak with Judge Sam. Bryan Pattison and members of his firm will attempt to interview the judges in St. George and Cedar City.

14. Legal Assistants as Associate Members. Willis Orton read a letter from the Legal Assistants Division on becoming non-voting members of the Section. We tabled this until next meeting: it will be discussed again after the Bylaws are reviewed.

15. Next meeting. Our next meeting was set for 8:00 am on Wednesday, July 10th, tentatively at the Court of Appeals’ conference room in the Matheson Courthouse.

The meeting adjourned at 9:00 a.m.

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

_________________________
Francis J. Carney
Secretary

LITIGATION SECTION 2002 SCHEDULE

• June 26-29 USB Annual Meeting (Sun Valley)
• July 10 Executive Committee Meeting (Matheson Courthouse?)
• August 14 Executive Committee Meeting
• September 1 MUJI Civil- 2d Edition: Target Date for Publication
• September 11 Executive Committee Meeting
• September ? Annual Meeting of Litigation Section?
• October 4-5 Trial Academy
• October 9 Executive Committee Meeting
• November 8 St. George CLE ‘n Golf
• November 13 Executive Committee Meeting
• December 11 Executive Committee Meeting
• December 19 Appellate Practice Seminar