ARE YOU REPRESENTING YOURSELF IN CIVIL COURT? 
(Please carefully read the information below.)

NOTE: The electronic calendar call is only available at those terms of court at which Judge Bryant is the presiding judge.

If you are representing yourself in court (you have no lawyer) and want to participate in the electronic calendar call, you are certainly welcome to do so. The electronic calendar call was devised to eliminate wasted time in court and to insure that you  have to appear in court only when your case is called for hearing. Unless you are notified by me that you need to be in court, you can go about your daily routine with the knowledge that you will be notified when the case is set for hearing.  No more wasted time sitting in court waiting to find out when your case will be heard.

Unlike the traditional calendar call where everyone comes to court on the first morning of court, there is no need to appear the first morning of court unless your case appears on the emailed trial/hearing schedule. I have eliminated the need for you to be in court on the opening day by the electronic exchange of scheduling information prior to the term. Participation is easy, but you must comply with some basic rules.

1. Go to the case information form. To access the form you can click on the "Case Info. Form" button in the upper left hand corner of this page or simply click here.

2. Please provide your name and email address. Should you fail to do this, it will be impossible for me to communicate with you.

3. Fill in all of the boxes. I know that if you are representing yourself that you may not be an expert in estimating the duration of the case or the likelihood of settlement, but do the best you can. You do not need to make an entry in the "comment" box if you don't want to. If you do make an entry, it should only be about scheduling matters (e.g. conflicts you may have during the term). Please do no use the comment box to tell me about the facts of your case. Discussions about the facts of the case have to take place in the courtroom with both sides of the case present.

4. Submit the case information form by clicking the "send" button at the bottom of the form. The form was set up to submit information for as many as 6 cases at a time. If you only have 1 case, fill in the information for that case and click send.

5. The case information must be sent to me no later than 10 days before the first day of the term. If you miss that deadline, you will need to appear in court at 9:30 a.m. on the first day of the term.

6. Approximately one week prior to the beginning of the term, I will email you a trial/hearing schedule. This schedule will set out specific times for cases to be heard. If your case is not on that trial/hearing schedule, it means that your case will not be called during the first two days of the term. Don't panic if you are not on the original trial/hearing schedule. Most of these civil terms are 4-5 days in duration and the initial trial/hearing schedule is only for the first 2 days. If your case is set for hearing later in the term, you will receive an email approximately 1 day in advance of the hearing.

7. The trial/hearing schedule is also posted and updated nightly on the web site. To see this posted schedule, just go to the top of this page and click on the navigational button for the term of court you are interested in.

I believe that this electronic calendar call can save you a significant amount of time in court and I welcome your participation.

Steven J. Bryant
District Court Judge
30th Judicial District

• Collection of delinquent judgments and off-calendar 50B cases, if any.

10:00 a.m.

• 08 CVD 1011 Hutchens-Bolado (Stokes) v. Bolado (pro se)
• 07 CVD 839 Justice (Jordan) v. Justice (Wijewickrama) -continued
• 96 CVD 1106 Mills (pro se) v. Mills (Wijewickrama)
• 04 CVD 30 Crowe (Wijewickrama) v. Crowe (Jenkins)
• 08 CVD 1178 Cherry (Forga) v. Cherry (pro se)
• 08 CVD 579 Cline (Forga) v. Cline (pro se) - motion to w/draw
• 06 CVD 14 Taylor (Patten) v. Taylor (Forga) - to confirm reported settlement
• 07 CVD 1376 Lauziere (Forga) v. Lauziere (Ferguson) - to confirm reported settlement
• 08 CVD 1121 Capps (Norwood) v. Capps (pro se)
  

10:30 a.m.

• 08 CVD 995 Swanger (Martin) v. Swanger (pro se)
• 08 CVD 1082 Winsell (pro se) v. Winsell (pro se)
• 08 CVD 1095 Ledford (pro se) v. Ledford (pro se)
• 07 CVD 1411 Carver (Wood) v. Sawyer(pro se)

11:00 a.m.

• 05 CVD 845 Swanger (McDowall) v. Swanger (Hyler) - to be heard later in the week.

2:00 p.m.

• 08 CVD 1300 Hardin (Norwood) v. Hardin (pro se)
• 07 CVD 480 Moore (Ferguson) v. Davis (Forga)
• 08 CVD 1290 Holland (Forga) v. Holland (pro se)

  Copyright © 2000-2008  www.judgebryant.com & Steven J. Bryant.  All rights reserved.

This is the day that I have been assigned to criminal court in Haywood County. We will resume the domestic calendar on Thursday, October 9, 2008. - SJB

  Copyright © 2000-2008  www.judgebryant.com & Steven J. Bryant.  All rights reserved.

THERE WILL BE NO IN-COURT CALENDAR CALL FOR THIS TERM OF COURT. Neither you, nor your clients, will need to be present in court during this term unless you are involved in a matter scheduled for hearing. For more information concerning the “electronic calendar call”, click here.

Please fill out the "Case Information Form" for the cases you have on this docket. To access the form, click here. If you have questions about how to access and/or use the form, please email me at: sbryant@judgebryant.com . The information I am looking for includes the following:

• If your case is ready for trial

•  How long you expect the case will take to try

•  Likelihood of settlement

• If you have any scheduling problems with other courts during the week

• If you need more than the usual ½ days notice to be ready to try your case.

PLEASE SUBMIT THE ABOVE INFORMATION NO LATER THAN FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2008. THE FINAL DATE FOR MOTIONS TO CONTINUE WILL ALSO BE OCTOBER 17, 2008.

PLEASE REMEMBER THAT RULE 2 OF THE LOCAL RULES (CONTINUANCES) WILL BE STRICTLY ENFORCED. If you are an out of district lawyer and are unfamiliar with Rule 2 of our local rules, click here and it will take you to the full text of the rule. Rule 2 can also be found on the "Local Civil Rules" page of the web site.

As information about the cases comes in, I will post it on the calendar, below. By occasionally checking the calendar, you can see the status of the cases ahead of yours and get a better sense of your position on the calendar. Additionally, as I have done for previous terms, I will attempt to update the progress of the calendar on the “Calendar Blog” . To access the blog, click on the "Calendar Blog" button just above the calendar, below.

I will publish a trial schedule approximately one week prior to the beginning of the term. I usually schedule the first two days of the term in advance. I will post the balance of the trial schedule on the web site each night and, of course, you will be notified by phone or email if your case is called for trial. If your case is not one set in the published schedule, you should be ready to try your case on ½ day’s notice, unless you have indicated to me a need for greater notice.

Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

Steven J. Bryant
Judge Presiding – October 28, 2008