At the FCBA's 2024 Bench and Bar, some of the speakers mentioned that referrals to visiting judges referrals to should be slowing. I've noticed that that seems to be correct — it feels like there have been fewer referrals to visiting judges lately.
Some basic Docket Navigator searches seem to confirm it. I found zero new referrals to visiting judges in the last three months (not counting related-case referrals). That's the longest gap we've had this year, after batches of visiting referrals in January, February, April, July, and on August 1. But Docket Navigator also says that there were even longer gaps last year, including one from January - May and another from June - November. So this may just be a brief intermission.
Speaking as someone who frequently acts as local Delaware counsel, we all obviously appreciate the incredible effort the visiting judges put in. But it's also nice to litigate in front of our regular judges, where we know the procedures cold and are able to more accurately predict how they are likely to act. It can be tough to do that with a visiting judge who you may only have had a case or two in front of, and who may naturally tend towards their own procedures that differ from typical Delaware ones.
I don't think anyone will miss the visiting judge referrals once they are no longer necessary. If the JUDGES Act goes into law, maybe the process will be gone for good!
If you enjoyed this post, consider subscribing to receive free e-mail updates about new posts.
