Jury Evidence Recording System (JERS) for Judge Melgren’s Cases; Jury Instructions (Civil): Melgren; Jury Instructions (Criminal): Melgren; Motion Practice Guidelines: Melgren

=== Jury Evidence Recording System (JERS) for Judge Melgren’s Cases ===

JURY EVIDENCE RECORDING SYSTEM (JERS) JERS is a system that allows deliberating jurors to view evidence electronically on a large flat screen in the deliberation room. In its current configuration, it is not used to display evidence in the courtroom during trial. JERS should not be confused with presenting the evidence in the courtroom during trial. The technology available in the courtroom will be used to present evidence to the jury as we have done in the past. The following outlines pertinent information regarding formatting, submission of exhibits, and deadline for submission to chambers. A. Statement of JERS Use at Trial Unless directed otherwise by Judge Melgren, JERS will be used for each jury trial. If there are any questions about this you should contact chambers. B. Submission of Electronic Exhibits to the Court Electronic exhibits shall be provided to the court on a data storage device, such as a Flashdrive, USB, DVD, or CD. The device should be labeled with the case name, case number, and name of submitting party. Documents should be submitted in .pdf; .jpg; .bmp; .tif format. Video/Audio files should be submitted in .avi; .wmv; .mpg; .mp3; .mp4; .wav format. C. Correct Naming Convention for Electronic Exhibits (a) General Format: <exhibit number>-<exhibit part>_<exhibit description>.<file extension> NOTE: All exhibits should be described as you have described them on the filed exhibit list and how they are described when presenting them as evidence. (b) Maximum Number of Characters: The maximum number of characters that may be used in the Exhibit Number and the Exhibit Part fields is 4 each. The maximum number of characters that may be used in the Exhibit Description field is 200. (c) Specific Format: The exhibit number for plaintiff and defendant will be those previously agreed to. Plaintiff typically will begin with Exhibit 1 and defendant will begin with Exhibit 400. Here is an example of how the formatting should look: 1_2010 Financial Statement.pdf 2-a_Dec 2016 Store Surveillance Footage.wmv 2-b_Nov 2016 Phone Call CI to Defendant.mp3 2-aa_Oct 2016 Store Surveillance Footage.mpg Defendant’s exhibit will be labeled the same but instead of using “1” they will use “400” (or whatever beginning number that has been decided on) Example: 400_2010 Financial Statement.pdf 400-a_Dec 2016 Store Surveillance Footage.wmv 400-b_Nov 2016 Phone Call CI to Defendant.mp3 400-aa_Oct 2016 Store Surveillance Footage.mpg NOTE: You cannot use the following characters when naming the exhibit-JERS will not accept them: \ / : * ? “ < > Also, you cannot use numbers in the Exhibit Part field – JERS only accepts letters Proper label: 2-a Improper label: 2-1 If the court receives the electronic device with exhibits labeled in any other way than instructed above, the device will be returned to counsel to reformat all exhibits correctly. D. Conventional Submission of Exhibits A party may need to submit an exhibit conventionally, i.e. the physical gun, the physical package of drugs, a large poster board time line, etc. If this is the case, located in numeric order on the device, you will need to type a “Place card” so the jurors will know they need to find that physical evidence. Example: 14_Photo of defendant holding gun.pdf 14-a_Physical Evidence re gun held by defendant.pdf E. Verification of Exhibits The parties are required to verify the readability of the exhibits before submitting them electronically to the Court. Chambers will do a cursory review of the exhibits to ensure they can be viewed by the jurors. F. Exhibit Submission Deadline (a) Exhibits should be submitted on a flash drive, DVD, CD or any removable media in the format as stated above, and submitted no later than 1 week before trial. (b) The court is aware there are times when exhibits are added at the last minute. For those instances, if the exhibit is a PDF document and if there isn’t time to submit the exhibit on a flash drive, DVD, CD, upon the consent of chambers you can email the PDF document to chambers email account and chambers will be able to add it to JERS. (c) Any modifications or corrections to already submitted exhibits will require clear communication from the party to the court. If an already submitted exhibit is to just be replaced in its entirety using the same exhibit number that is how it should be presented to the court. If an already submitted exhibit is modified but a new exhibit number has been used, this would be considered a brand new exhibit for the court to load into JERS. (d) The court will not go into the JERS system and delete exhibits that have already been submitted. If an exhibit is not used during the trial, and not admitted as evidence, it should not be Released to the jury, the “admitted” box will not be checked and it will not be Released for the jury to see. Only “admitted” exhibits are Released and seen by the jury. G. Miscellaneous (a) During trial the law clerk/CRD will monitor which exhibits were admitted, and ensure the appropriate box is checked that it was admitted to allow that exhibit to be released to the jurors for viewing. (b) At request of counsel, the court can provide a Report showing which exhibits have been submitted to the court to load into JERS and which were admitted each day as evidence. (c) Prior to deliberations counsel and the law clerk/CRD should confirm all admitted exhibits. Only after confirmation by all parties should the exhibits be Released to the JERS system. (d) The law clerk/CRD will Release the exhibits to the JERS system and only then will the jurors be able to see the actual exhibits.

=== Motion Practice Guidelines: Melgren ===

Guidelines for Motion Practice Before Judge Melgren These guidelines are intended to supplement the local rules, and may not be taken as replacing or superseding the local rules, which shall be complied with in all instances unless leave is otherwise granted. Filing Under Seal. Documents will not be automatically approved for filing under seal merely because they were produced pursuant to a protective order, nor because both parties stipulate to filing under seal. The courts recognize a “common-law right of access to judicial records”, although the right is not absolute. See, JetAway Aviation, LLC v Bd. of Cty. Comm’rs, 754 F.3d 824, 826 (10th Cir. 2014) To overcome the presumption in favor of access, a party seeking to file under seal must articulate specific facts to establish a public or private harm from opening the documents to public view. See, Helm v State of Kansas, 656 F. 3d 1277, 1292 (10th Cir. 2011) When a party desires to attach to a pleading documents which were produced under a protective order, the party should first contact the opposing party to see if a redaction agreement can be reached which obviates the need for sealing. If not, the movant shall file a motion for leave to file under seal, with the proposed sealed pleadings and documents attached. Both in the motion, and in the response of the non-movant (who may claim the confidentiality of the documents), good cause must be shown to overcome the presumption of access. Frequently, the non-moving party has the interest in maintaining confidentiality, and therefore, should include more than conclusory statements in the response to overcome the presumption of access. If the Court is satisfied from the pleadings, it may issue an order; or, it may schedule a telephonic hearing on the motion for leave to file under seal. If the motion is granted, parties should then file the requested documents under seal; otherwise, the Court may permit the filing not under seal. Hearing on Motions. If one or more of the parties believe oral argument would be helpful to the Court in deciding the issues, they should affirmably file a motion seeking oral argument. Oral argument should only be sought upon a showing of why it would assist the Court in resolving the issues. A request for oral argument is not a reason to not fully brief the matter in written submissions to the Court. The Court, at its discretion, may schedule oral argument without a request by the parties. The parties are welcomed and encouraged to attend oral argument. Communication with Chambers. The Court will consider and rule on motions in the order in which they have been filed with respect to similar motions. The Court will prioritize discovery and non-dispositive motions for faster adjudication than dispositive motions. If counsel is concerned that it has not received a ruling on a ripe motion, they may feel free to contact the Court’s Courtroom Deputy, Cindy McKee, to ensure that a pending motion is in the queue. Staff will not make predictions as to the date an order may be issued. No attempt should be made in such inquiry to argue or discuss the merits of the motion. Filing of Motions. All motions are to be filed using the court’s electronic case filing (ECF) system. Motions may not be filed with the court during trial or hearing, or by fax or letter, in circumvention of ECF filing. Unless notified otherwise, the Court does not require hard copies delivered to chambers of any motion or attachments, but if the filing is unusually voluminous or cumbersome, counsel may provide such hard copies. The Court prefers use of proportional spaced fonts, with double-spacing and a font size of 12 in text, and single-spacing and a font size of 10 in footnotes, but will not reject briefs which are formatted otherwise. Statements of fact, where relevant, shall contain a citation to the record, with relevant copies attached or provided to the court if they are not already on file in the case. When attaching numerous exhibits in support of a motion, the Court prefers that the party files an exhibit list stating what exhibits are attached. Pleadings filed out of the time established by the local rules should be accompanied by a motion for leave to file out of time, with the proposed pleading attached to the motion. If the motion is granted, the attached pleading will not be automatically filed, but the party should then file the pleading. Response times will run from the date of the filing of the pleading.