Lacambra vs. Glass et al
9:10am - Dept. C-4 - Superior Court - Santa Ana CA
“I ordered you to send notice and you did not do that”, Judge Banks said to me in a stern voice. I stood there more than embarrassed, as I have never been admonished in court before and found the experience unsettling. In a nutshell, I failed to give notice to my opposition of the meeting explaining why they didn't show up. My strategy was to simply give my opposition a call to alert them of the meeting but had overlooked the matter altogether. Explaining would have been futile, as I knew that I did not do what he had asked me. So, I simply apologized and promised that it will never happen again. In the end, he placated me by setting another date and asked the clerk to send notice.
To hurry cases along, judges hold periodic meetings called Case Management Conferences or CMC’s as they are referred to in the profession. They are quick meetings in front of the judge who, before the conference, would have been briefed by a Case Management Statement filed days before by all parties. The object of those meetings is to find the bottlenecks that slow down the cases and make appropriate changes. Punitive actions can be a simple reminder to the forgetful party or in severe instances, an actual sanction costing money or other disciplinary actions that the judge might use to bring a party to compliance.
I think Judge Banks was rather lenient to me. I'm sure I dodged one today.
