Legal Question in Civil Litigation in California
I know its illegal for court staff to give legal advice to parties in the courtroom, but isn't it also illegal for court staff to act like Judges by handling the case court calendar and administering the law by handling the Case Management Conference hearings, while the Judge is absent/vacation? If a Judge is absent, usually a Temporary Judge is assigned to handle the CMC hearings, but a Clerk isn't supposed to, or are they authorized to, even though they're not wearing "the robe" and are handling the hearings from their clerk desk (on the side) and not from "the bench"?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Case management conferences often are ministerial in nature, i.e. setting new dates within the guidelines that the judge has provided. If the litigant or his/her attorney disagrees with the dates set, an ex parte may be filed to change something with which one disagrees, or the parties may stipulate to something different and seek an order ex parte based upon the stipulation.
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