We noted last month that there have been more assignments to visiting judges lately, including to visiting Judge Campbell Barker of the Eastern District of Texas.
Later last month, Judge Barker issued an order in 17 cases asking parties to let the Court know whether they consent to hearings or trial in the Eastern District of Texas:
Within 28 days . . . . each party shall file a notice stating whether the party consents to trial, see 28 U.S.C. § 1404(a), hearings, see Fed. R. Civ. P. 77(b), or both in the Eastern District of Texas, Tyler Division.
Yesterday was the deadline to respond for most cases. We put together some quick, rough statistics of how parties are responding.
Over half of plaintiffs who have responded consented to transfer to E.D. Tx. for trial. Plaintiffs consented to switching venue for trial in 6 cases, and affirmatively declined in 3 cases. Six plaintiffs have not yet responded. In the remaining 2 cases, the parties filed a notice that "at least one of the parties does not consent," leaving open which it may have been.
Of the 13 defendants who we found had responded, only one consented to E.D. Tx. for trial, and four of them consented to the Court holding hearings there.
Overall, we found no case where both parties consented to transfer to the Eastern District for trial, but there were (by our rough count) 3 cases where both parties consented to hearings there under Fed. R. Civ. P. 77(b).
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