Rule 40-II.Designation and Assignment of Cases to Civil I Calendars

Some civil cases need more active judicial management than the ordinary calendar allows, and Rule 40-II builds a track for them. Rule 40-II(a) automatically routes every case involving exposure to asbestos or asbestos products to a Civil I calendar, and gives the Presiding Judge of the Civil Division authority to designate any other case to that calendar as well. A party can ask for that designation, or a judge already assigned to the case can recommend it on the judge's own initiative, under Rule 40-II(b).

Rule 40-II(c) lists what the Presiding Judge may weigh in deciding whether a case belongs on Civil I: the expected length of trial, how many witnesses or exhibits are likely to come in, the nature of the factual and legal issues, how much court supervision the discovery process will need, how many motions the case is likely to generate, and any other relevant factor. Once a case reaches Civil I, Rule 40-II(d) requires the Presiding Judge to distribute it on a rotational basis among the judges assigned there, unless rotation would hurt the case's efficient resolution.

After assignment, Rule 40-II(e) keeps the case with its assigned judge for everything that follows, and, as with the general Civil Division calendars in Rule 40-I, the Chief Judge or Presiding Judge decides where a Civil I judge's pending cases go when that judge's assignment to the calendar ends. Rule 40-II(f) requires every pleading and paper filed in a Civil I case to show the assigned judge's name — and the calendar number, once known — directly below the case number, and requires that filings follow the electronic filing procedures in Rule 5(d).