Bench Bar Meeting: March 18, 2026

Lauren Corman, SCCBA Board of Directors Past President, submits her report from the Bench Bar meeting.

Judge Tim Schmal 3/18/2026 Bench Bar meeting

Reminder: SCCBA sends out emails prior to Bench Bar asking attorneys for questions for this meeting.

Ms. Patten re Emailed Question

• Back log on e-filing due to unexpected and expected absences in civil and probate units.
• Locally and statewide increase in civil filings.
• Working on navigating through decrease in staffing and increase in workload, including pulling staff from other units to work on back log. Should get back to normal turn-around time (24 hours).
• Prioritize anything needing to be reviewed by research attorney, for upcoming hearings, unlawful detainers
• Lower priorities: abstracts and writs, judgments and orders
• How to help: when filing motions or probate petitions, reserve court date in advance, and include in filing description the court date (not comment section).
  • Please bookmark petitions.
• Items that file fast: conference statements – automatically file (don’t require clerk review).
• If have issue or filing taking too long, reach out to civil department and/or Florence Patten (email on court website).

Updates re Judicial Assignments

• Bench comprised of 12 judge and 1 court commissioner
• Will have judicial election in Santa Cruz County in 2026.
  • Judge Siegel not seeking re-election. Opens his position to election.
  • Two candidates running: Bryan Hackett and Alisa Thomas
  • Possibility elected judge appointed by Governor before run off this year.
• Judge Syda Cogliati will be practicing justice pro tem for 4^th Division of 2^nd District for two months, but could last longer (begins Monday, March 23^rd).
  • Physically located in Santa Cruz, but will fly down to Los Angeles for oral arguments.
  • Congratulations Judge Cogliati!
• Judicial Assignments for next few months:
  • Judge Schmal will be full-time. Right now in civil jury trial in Dept 5
  • Judge Marjorie Carter will do double calendars for all of next week.
  • Judge Schmal will do Care Act and Related Court Proceedings (Wednesday, mid-morning)
    • Will continue to be in Dept 10 going forward.
  • Possibilities: Judge Schmal may relocate to Dept 5, but still handle probate mediations. Commitment of Judge Marjorie Carter for next few weeks.
  • Plan to continue to get trials out on time.

Filings

• Even if a document is “filed,” it just means it is in the court clerk’s queue, and many are rejected for misfiling or not paying a fee.

Reports from Specialty Bars

SCCBA

• MCLE 4/23 with Judge Vinluan: State of the Courts (at Back Nine)
• 3/19 MCLE via Zoom Effective Courtroom Persuasion
• 5/7 Spring Fling

WLSCC

• Annual Meet and Greet tomorrow, 3/19/26 at Inversion Wines in Scotts Valley

SCCEPC

• 4/22 MCLE via Zoom

Allied Legal Professionals

• Working on expanding membership
• Holding board elections next week.
• Please share with staff that organization exists and ask for support.

Law Library

• Annual Scrabble Tournament Saturday, April 18^th
• Please donate to the law library

Trial Lawyers

• Need to coordinate for SCCBA because Elbow Rub is 5/7

Respectfully submitted,

Lauren T. Corman