1. HOME
2.  » NEWS
3.  » eNews Archive
4.  » 2014 eNews Archive
5.  » March 2014
6.  » Feature TYLA Affiliate

Feature TYLA Affiliate

The Tarrant County Bench Book
By: Jenny Gravley 

The Fort Worth Tarrant County Young Lawyer’s Association, like other affiliates, often struggles with the age-old question: How can we get new members, and how do we engage existing members?   With constantly evolving special-interest groups competing for member dues and participation we sometimes fall short of providing young lawyers with tangible benefits of membership—aside from the obvious social aspects and networking opportunities.  Sometimes we get so lost in striving for innovation, creation, and improvement that we forget about the basics. So, when the Tarrant County Bar Association membership committee requested TCYLA’s help with a Bench Book—a judge’s cheat sheet to their requirements, likes, dislikes, and preferences from the judge’s mouth type-book—we were skeptical.  It seemed so simple.  Plus, wasn’t that information out there already, from some other entity, the judge’s websites, or for purchase if our members wanted or needed it? It turns out, in our neck of the woods, it wasn’t.  After looking around, the last comprehensive updated Tarrant County-specific bench booklet was more than a decade old.  Even in a county not known for high judicial turnover, the modernization of the practice along with the inevitable turnovers made a new bench book seem all the more necessary.

Not to mention that anyone who has, or is preparing to, set foot in a courtroom knows that some background on the judge’s preferences and expectations can go a long way, for your own comfort, and your client’s case. Especially for young lawyers. So, we agreed to help and applied for a TYLA grant to help us fund the online publication for our members of the first comprehensive Tarrant County Bench Book in at least 12 years. 

We applied for and were thrilled to receive a TYLA grant to help offset the costs and after that, we were off.  We wish we could give you practical tips from a finished product perspective. But we can’t.  We’re still figuring it out ourselves.  However, the biggest challenge is well underway, and almost finished:  creating a useful questionnaire for each practice area (family, civil and criminal), that is both short enough to encourage judicial participation, but contains enough useful questions that a lawyer would need to know if practicing before a certain judge.  From courtroom decorum, to general advice for the new lawyer, we’re asking it all. Does the judge prefer you stand at the podium or will she allow you to pace around?  Does he want copies of those pertinent cases? Does he prefer those be highlighted?

After review by several young lawyers—edited for usefulness and relevance—the questionnaires are in the final stages, and a criminal, civil, and family judge has each offered to critique the final product.  We’re awaiting final word from them before sending out to all judges for responses.  We hope to have it finalized and the responses published this summer on our website, and always remembering our goal of providing service to the profession on whole, we will provide a free copy to the Tarrant County law library for pro se use as well.  We know we might not be blazing any trails with this project, but we hope it’ll make the trail to trial a little easier for our young lawyer members.