RULE 4.5

OMNIBUS HEARING

(d) Pretrial Motions; Notice, Setting, Content.

(A) Requirement for and Time of Hearing (i) All motions requiring an evidentiary hearing shall be filed and served at least ten (10) days before the trial date, unless otherwise directed by court order.

(ii) At the time the motion is filed, the moving party shall also file a Note for Motion Docket, and provide a copy to the Administrator. The Note for Motion Docket shall be substantially in the form of Exemplar No. 8.

(iii) When the length of any pretrial hearing or combination of pretrial hearings will exceed fifteen (15) minutes, or the motion, if granted, would likely terminate prosecution in whole or in part, the Administrator shall provide for a hearing before the day of trial.

(iv) When the length of all pretrial hearings will not exceed fifteen (15) minutes and would not dispose of the case, the Administrator may set the hearing for the day of trial.

(B) NEW SECTION: Status Conference (i) The Administrator shall schedule a status conference in each criminal case which is set for trial. The status conference shall be heard during the criminal motions docket on the Thursday before the case is scheduled for trial, or at such other time as the court may order.

(ii) Appearance by the attorneys and the defendant is REQUIRED. Appearance by the attorneys who will be trying the case is preferred. For good cause, substitute counsel may attend on behalf of trial counsel so long as counsel is prepared to answer the inquiries of the court. A substitute deputy prosecuting attorney must have authority to enter into plea negotiations. If the Defendant fails to appear without good cause and the court finds no reasonable assurance from counsel that the case will proceed on schedule to jury trial, a jury will not be called in to hear the case as scheduled. The case will be listed as a "call case" on the trial date.

(iii) At the status conference the judge may inquire as to whether the case is expected to go to trial, whether the defendant expects to waive the jury, the number of witnesses expected to be called, the anticipated length of the trial and any other matters necessary to administer the trial calendar efficiently. Any other anticipated problems should be brought to the court's attention.

(iv) Any continuance of the trial date must include a continuance of the status conference unless expressly agreed by the judge.

(v) This section shall not apply to criminal cases that have been preassigned.

Effective 7/9/92 LCrR 4.5

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