Federal Judiciary

Texarkana Young Lawyer Association talk

By Michael C. Smith

I was pleased yesterday to be the guest speaker at the Texarkana Young Lawyers Association's monthly lunch meeting in, well, Texarkana.  Topic was Federal Court Practice in the Eastern District of Texas, which consisted of a short formal presentation on the district, differences in practice before the different judges, including discovery procedures, times to trial - that sort of thing. I had just finished Motions: Dispositive and Otherwise for the upcoming State Bar Federal Court Practice seminar in Houston in May, so I had in mind some of the differences in courts already, and that was helpful, since I didn't prepare a formal paper for the talk.  But since most of this crowd knows federal court practice pretty well, with the federal courts on the Texas and Arkansas side staying pretty busy, most of the time was question and answer about the status of certain issues in the district - time to trial, assignments, scheduling/status conference issues, etc.

Since the meeting was. on the Arkansas side of town near a fairly new highway, I trusted my car's GPS to get me back to 59 headed to Marshall.  Big mistake.  By the time I realized that I should have gotten to the exit by now, the car had me fifteen miles south of town headed for Marshall by way of (almost) Shreveport.  Turned out to be a fortuitous error, as yesterday was a beautiful day for a leisurely springtime drive through southwest Arkansas and northwest Louisiana before turning west to sneak up on Jefferson.  Great way to spend an afternoon, returning calls driving through the spring blossoms.  (If anyone saw me poking through the Jefferson antique shops, don't tell my partners).  I got back to Marshall in time to see the Datatreasury crowd biting their nails on the sidewalk downtown waiting for the verdict.

Full post as published by Eastern District of Texas Federal Court Practice on March 27, 2010 (boomark / email).