It was new mousetrap day yesterday over at the federal courthouse in Marshall, where I participated in the first of the new evidentiary venue hearings that are being set for numerous pending motions to transfer venue.
In this case, Judge Payne issued an order on January 4, 2013 setting a motion to transfer for an evidentiary hearing on January 18. The order provided that "[t]he parties to the Motion shall present testimony from one or more witnesses sufficient to carry their burden with regard to the Motion. Any witness(es) shall be promptly disclosed and made available for deposition prior to the evidentiary hearing."
Pursuant to the order, the plaintiff disclosed one witness and the defendant two, and on Tuesday of these week those three fortunate souls were subjected to deposition, (one by me, two defended by my fearless cocounsel).
Then, yesterday morning, Judge Payne opened the hearing at 9:30, heard two and a half hours of testimony (no argument was presented), broke for lunch, and reconvened, at which time he read into the record his ruling, which took up two and a half pages of notes, single-spaced - at least how I take them. The ruling provided his analysis of the venue factors one by one, and his findings based on the evidence adduced at the hearing.
