Law360, New York (May 27, 2015, 5:51 PM ET) — While each judge on the U.S. Tax Court has his or her own preferences for how to conduct a trial, some common themes exist — such as not wanting their time wasted. Here, Tax Court judges provide six recommendations to attorneys to avoid raising a judge’s ire and make their cases go as smoothly as possible.
The Tax Court has a standing pretrial order for cases that are not designated as small cases involving disputes of $50,000 or less. The order sets out the rules for stipulating facts, presenting trial exhibits and witnesses and so on, to aid with the efficient disposition of all cases on the trial calendar.
Complying with that order can be helpful not only for judges but also for attorneys preparing their cases, according to Judge Juan F. Vasquez, who spoke Friday along with the other judges at the Tax Court judicial conference hosted by Duke University School of Law.
“I really believe if you do everything that’s in the pretrial standing order, you as practitioners, you as government lawyers, you will get your case settled because that pretrial standing order gets you ready to conduct your trial,” Judge Vasquez said.
Write Detailed Pretrial Memorandums
The pretrial memorandum is a good chance for an attorney to bring facts about his case to a judge’s attention, Judge Vasquez said. Judges hear the majority of their cases at calendar calls in the various cities they travel to, and there may be 100 to 150 cases scheduled for the day, he said. Since the vast majority of those cases will be settled, judges don’t have the time to read the briefs and replies in every case.
“The pretrial memorandum is your opportunity to educate the judge about your case,” Judge Vasquez said.
If the case is a complicated one that involves, say, accounting, note that in the pretrial memo, he said. If the judge knows about a complex issue beforehand, he can assign his clerks to research it so he is better prepared. Also, if the case can be appealed to a circuit court that has different rules of evidence, note that too, he said.
It’s important for attorneys to list witnesses on a pretrial memorandum, Judge Vasquez said. According to the standing pretrial order, witnesses that are not identified on the pretrial memo will not be permitted to testify at trial without a showing of good cause.
Lance Wallach Expert Witness 