“The father retained his present counsel last fall, after being represented by what I have been told was seven previous lawyers. In late September 2021, the father, through his current counsel, booked a long motion, returnable March 28, 2022. That motion was ostensibly intended to deal with parenting arrangements. I use the term “ostensibly” because the father has yet to serve a notice of motion on Ms. Thomas in the almost five months since booking the motion. That failure violates the requirements of the Central West Notice to the Profession Regarding Long Motions.
That Notice to the Profession requires a moving party who has secured a long motion hearing date from the court to “serve the Notice of Motion and motion materials forthwith on all parties with an interest in the long motion.” [Emphasis added]. The Notice to the Profession further clarifies the meaning of the term “forthwith” as being ten days. It states that “[p]roof of Service of the Notice of Motion and Motion Record must be filed within 10 days from the date the long motion date is obtained from the Trial Coordinator’s Office. Subject to an order from a judge, failure to do so will result in the long motion hearing date being vacated.” No such order has been requested or obtained.
I add that the ten-day requirement is set out in the Family Motions Information for Central West, which is posted in the SCJ website. It states that for long motions in the Milton Superior Court, the “Notice of Motion, with payment, must be filed within 10 days of booking the long motion with the Trial Coordinator’s office”.
Further, the Notice to the Profession Regarding Long Motions requires:
After the motion materials have been served on all interested parties, all counsel and the litigants must agree in writing upon a timetabling schedule for completion of all steps necessary for the long motion to proceed on the scheduled date.
Counsel and litigants must file the written timetable scheduling agreement along with their Confirmation Sheet.
This too has not occurred. The failure to obey the Notice should have led to the long motion booking being cancelled.”