Judicial Profile

Specific Comments or Advice for Litigants

Specific Requirements or Preferences

My Judicial Assistant, Gail Cody, usually handles scheduling. My courtroom assistant, Tomi Polvorosa, will help you in Gail's absence. Our telephone is 602 372-0759, and our fax is 602 372-8707. Our hours are 8:30a.m. to 5:00 p.m. We are closed from 12:00 to 1:30.  
 
My staff is permitted to speak with the parties to a case about routine, uncontested scheduling and administrative issues ONLY. If someone contacts you about those matters, please respond without being argumentative. Objections or arguments must be directed to me in writing with a copy sent to the other party, or presented to me in person in court with the other party present.  
 
If you are representing yourself, go to the Superior Court Self-Help Center for information. https://superiorcourt.maricopa.gov/llrc/self-help-resources/ It is important to follow the Rules of Family Law Procedure for the Superior Courts of Arizona. https://govt.westlaw.com/azrules/  
 

Pre-Trial Practice and Management Issues

Motion Practice

 
GENERAL  
 
Motions with Exhibits: If you file a motion or response that includes more than 50 pages of exhibits, please mail or hand-deliver a hard copy with an index of the tabbed exhibits to my Judicial Assistant. Sequential pagination of voluminous exhibits is very helpful.  
 
Filings Immediately Before or During Hearing or Trial: It can take more than 24 hours for a document that is efiled to make it to my Judicial Assistant's efile inbox. If you file a document less than three days before a hearing that you want me to address at that hearing, please email it to my Judicial Assistant. The same goes for filings before or during a trial.  
 
BRIEFING  
 
Page Limits and Other Matters of Form: A filing that exceeds the Rule 35 page limits (17 pages for an initial or responsive memorandum, 11 pages for a reply memorandum) without advance permission may be summarily rejected.  
 
Citations: Include all case citations in the body of the brief and not in footnotes.  
 
Forms of Order: All stipulations, joint scheduling reports, unopposed motions, etc., must be filed with a separate proposed form of judgment or order. Please submit all forms of order in WORD format.  
 
Extensions of Time: Agreed-upon extensions of time for response or reply to a motion do not require the Court's permission, but please let us know by email to the judicial assistant or filing of a notice in the docket. Otherwise, the Court may assume that no responses/replies will be filed and rule without the benefit of the response/reply.  
 
Motions to Extend Time and Requests for Expedited Consideration: See "Other Pre-trial Practice Guidelines or Comments" section below.  
 
Unauthorized Briefing: Sur-responses, sur-replies and supplemental briefing may be rejected if filed without the court's permission.  
 
ORAL ARGUMENT  
 
Requests for oral argument are granted or denied on a case by case basis. Generally, oral argument is not set when neither party specifically requests it, except that contested discovery motions are often set for a brief telephone hearing. Assume that the Court has read the briefs unless you are told otherwise.

Discovery or Disclosure Disputes and/or Sanctions

Written discovery and Rule 26.1: I disfavor boilerplate objections when it is clear that some do not apply. With respect to requests for production, if a party objects to a request as overly broad, I expect the party to produce any documents that the party would have produced had the request been more narrowly constructed.  
 
Personal Consultation: I take very seriously the obligation imposed on counsel by the Rules of Civil Procedure to personally consult in an attempt to resolve a dispute before raising it with the Court. Personal consultation means either an in-person conference or a telephone conversation.  
 
Telephonic Discovery Dispute Resolution: If a discovery dispute needs judicial intervention, I encourage the parties to follow the informal procedures set out in Civil Rule 26(d). The “Joint Statement of Discovery or Discovery Dispute” should be in pleading form, emailed to this Division’s Judicial Assistant, Gail Cody, at gail.cody@jbazmc.maricopa.gov. We will see that it is filed with the Clerk. Please make certain all parties, including any that are not directly involved in the dispute, are copied on the email. We will set a telephonic conference after we have received the joint summary and the Good Faith Consultation Certificate required by Rule 26(i).

Other Pre-trial Practice Guidelines or Comments

Videoconference and Telephonic Appearances: All telephone and video appearances must be made from a quiet location using a device that transmits the speaker's voice clearly. A landline telephone is generally better than a cell phone; and a handset is generally better than a speakerphone. If a cell phone is used it is the caller's responsibility to make or receive the call from a location with reliable service. Calls from moving vehicles are not appropriate. If a failure to follow these rules disrupts a hearing, the responsible party may be deemed to have waived the right to participate in the hearing.  
 
Call-in Instructions: For instructions on how to call in to a hearing or join a videoconference, refer to the hearing notice or the order setting the hearing. Do not assume that the procedure will be the same as previous hearings, because technologies and procedures change. If you are unsure of what to do, or if you are having trouble making a connection work, please do not hesitate to call us for help.  
 
Requests for Expedited Consideration: A party requesting an expedited ruling must attempt to consult with the opposing party in good faith before filing the motion. The motion must state the opposing party's position on the motion or describe the result of the consultation. The also must be transmitted to the opposing party in the quickest way possible (e.g. hand delivery or electronic service of papers on the opposing party). The requesting party must state specifically the expedited process that is requested, including, if appropriate, a proposed form of order that provides a response date or deadline or some other provision for the other side's right to be heard. It is not the responsibility of court staff to coordinate an expedited response with the other side.  
 
Motions that Require a Ruling Before the Response time Expires: A motion that must be ruled on before the expiration of the time for response (ordinarily ten days), such as a motion relating to a trial that will start less than ten days after the filing of the motion, must include a request for expedited consideration.  

Trial Practice and Protocol

Trial Schedule

We generally set temporary orders hearings on Wednesdays, trials on Mondays and Thursdays, and Resolution Management Conferences on Tuesdays. We try to reserve Fridays for time-sensitive issues of all kinds.  
 
If your presentation will involve financial records or other data compilations, please ask for enough court time to walk through the key points during the hearing. If a party requests admission of exhibits but does not discuss or refer to them at the hearing, the judge might not review them. The judge does not have the time or the resources to take cases under advisement and then pore over the records to figure out what they show.

Joint Pre-Trial Memo and/or Conference; Exhibits and Objections

Joint pretrial statements: I generally don't review these until the day before trial except in complex cases, so don't sweat a day or two past the formal deadline. I do, however, expect that the parties will work together to create a single joint pretrial statement (not two separate pretrial statements under the same caption), and to narrow issues and streamline the admission of evidence to the extent possible.  
 
Submitting Exhibits: Instructions for uploading exhibits to the Case Center app or delivering hard copies to the Clerk are in the minute entry that sets your trial. The deadlines in the pretrial order for submitting exhibits are firm. Please note that we are closed from 12 to 1:30, so no one will be here to take your hard copy exhibits during those hours.  

Trial Practice and Procedure

Time: During Family Court trials I try to keep rough track of time, but the parties are responsible for tracking time and will need to confer prior to trial the following day to reach an agreement on the remaining time for each party. I allocate time equitably, not necessarily equally, to ensure both sides a fair opportunity to be heard.  
 
Witness appearances: Permission for witnesses to appear by telephone or videoconference must be requested in advance. All such appearances must be made from a quiet location. The appearance is at the party's own risk if the signal is bad or the courtroom equipment malfunctions.  

Courtroom Etiquette

General courtesy: Be courteous to one another, the parties, witnesses and court staff. Address all comments to me and not the opposing parties and attorneys.  
 
Moving around the courtroom: You do not have to ask permission to approach the witness, but you may not question the witness while standing next to the witness or directly in front of the witness stand without permission.