Judge Joan E. Young

Judges Joan Young and Elizabeth Pezzetti are spending their final days on the bench at the Oakland County Family Court. The two senior jurists will retire in January and, in each case, will be sorely missed.

In 1984, this blogger spent the summer as a legal intern in Joan Young's office. Back then, she was the court administrator for the Oakland County Circuit Court; long before there was a family court division.

A Wayne State Law graduate, Judge Young was first elected to the Oakland County Probate Court in 1988; she was later appointed by Governor Engler to the circuit bench in 1997, where she was elected to three consecutive 6-year terms.

When the Michigan Legislature created the county family courts in 2000, Judge Young served as chief judge of the circuit court and was instrumental in creating the family law division within the Oakland Circuit. Also, Judge Young presided over the adult drug treatment court from its inception in 2002 until just last year.

In 2002, when the circuit court announced the implementation of e-filing and a push toward a paperless electronic court filing system, Judge Young was the one making the announcement. She provided very strong leadership in these key service areas of the court.

Judge Pezzetti (R) with Referee Betty Lowenthal

For her part, Judge Elizabeth Pezzetti also was appointed by Governor Engler, in 2001, to the probate court. Like Judge Young, Judge Pezzetti spent the her tenure on the bench at the dawn of the family court and during the transition to an electronic filing system.

This blogger has had the distinct pleasure to serve along with Judge Pezzetti on the Citizens Alliance Committee, the advisory board for the circuit and probate courts of Oakland County.

Judge Pezzetti has always had a probate component to her docket; even when serving as a family court judge. As such, she is accustomed to resolving disputes involving families that are under great stress, or families that have members at odds with one another.

The principle manner in which Judge Pezzetti has served our local court over the past 16-years has been through her consistent, patient and studied approach to the many many cases that have flowed through her courtroom. Like Judge Young, she will be very difficult to replace.

In Michigan, judges are elected thus, both seats will be filled by the winner of the non-partisan election on November 8th. Don't forget the non-partisan ballot; it is on the back side of the partisan ballot, so be sure to flip your ballot over to vote for judges.

The candidates running for Judge Young's open seat are Oakland County Friend of the Court Referee Lorie Savin and West Bloomfield attorney Victoria Valentine. The candidates running for Judge Pezzetti's open seat are Clarkston lawyer and Public Administrator Jennifer Callaghan and Collin Einhorn lawyer Karen Geibel.

Post #564
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Slowly but surely. That cliche best describes the pace at which area law firms are eliminating the paper clutter from their law offices.

As Southeast Michigan touts innovations such as "Automation Alley", the sluggish pace of paper elimination is frustrating to many legal practitioners. Colorado and a handful of other states already have state-wide paperless court systems. The federal courts have been paperless for years. In Oakland County, however, only a few judges have electronic filing as an e-pilot program. Fortunately, the experiment seems to be working.

In March 2003, Judge Joan E. Young, then the chief judge of the Oakland Circuit's family court, offered a standing-room-only presentation on the timeline for the court's so-called e-filing system. The audience consisted of attorney members of the Oakland County Bar Association, and courthouse staffers. In her presentation, Judge Young cautiously predicted that e-filing would be in place, in some form, by the end of 2004. She warned, however, that budget issues, tech contracts and other variables could slow the process.

Judge Young's timeline proved accurate and her concerns, well-founded. A partial implementation of the e-filing system took root in late 2004, with several circuit judges actively participating in the e-filing system. After lengthily budget debates, Oakland County hired a different IT contractor than the federal court's outstanding PACER system. The WIZNET system, selected by the Oakland County courts, works very well. Unlike PACER, however, users "pay per use" when accessing documents. PACER is free.

During the past 18-months, law firms have attempted to close the technology gap, and get their offices on board with e-filing. Despite court-ordered e-filing requirements, problems persist.

While a simple matter to transmit a basic pleading via email to the court and parties, complicated exhibits in a variety of sizes and shapes pose challenges. Also, some tribunals (such as case evaluators and mediators) will not accept e-filings. Some attorneys have not upgraded their Adobe Acrobat programs, essential for e-filing compatibility. Other attorneys cling to hard-copy files as a form of legal security blanket. Still other attorneys, incredibly, do not have computers. Many insurance defense attorneys refuse to sign stipulated orders with an agreed upon electronic protocol for filing pleadings and transmitting documents.

Perhaps the biggest frustration for attorneys is they have to maintain both file media, paper and electronic, while they wait for the "standard of care" to catch-up. This wastes effort and savages efficiency.

Despite these challenges, some cutting-edge practitioners are rising to the occasion. The paperless-file is not a trend but rather, reality. Law firms can eliminate wasteful consumption of paper and cut the costs of processing, storing and eventually eliminating paper files.

The flow of information comes ever-faster in the modern law office. Attorneys can manage this information much better if they do not have to worry about old-fashioned paper.