Overview
The Southern District has recently launched a pilot program to allow judges, in response to certain categories of motions, to issue “text only” orders as docket entries appearing on ECF, with no document attached. According to the Court’s Public Information Officer, four judges are participating in the program: District Judges McMahon, Furman, and Swain, and Magistrate Judge Cott. The new program is reflected in recently amended rules from Judge McMahon. (A redline against the prior version is here.) Certain requests to Judge McMahon, including motions for adjournments, must now be made as formal motions, instead of by letter, presumably so that the ruling can be issued in "text only" form. On a separate issue, Judge McMahon’s amended rules also make more emphatic her policy of accepting calls to chambers only in emergencies: “Judge McMahon’s law clerks have been instructed not to discuss cases with callers and will hang up, if necessary.”
