MEMORANDUM
TO: CHARLESTON COUNTY BENCH BAR COMMITTEE
FR: MARK C. JOVE
RE: Meeting of August 11, 2004
DATE: September 8, 2004
On August 17, 2004, the committee met. Present were Julie Armstrong, Don Michel, Virginia Druce, Jay Carter, Judge Markley Dennis, Jay McDonald, George Kefalos, and myself.
We discussed the issues of the current problem involving the newer edition cell phones that have cameras on them. The sheriff's office mans the inspections for entry into the court and are not allowing any cell phones with cameras to be taken into the building and are not allowing them to be left at the inspection site. People are being asked to take those cell phones back to their car. Cell phones without cameras are being allowed in. This actually came up as a problem when Chief Justice Toal came into the building and was apparently advised the same thing. This is going to be an increasing problem at the Courthouse due to the fact that just about all of the newer edition cell phones are going to have cameras on them.
If people are coming in with these "camera phones" and then being told at the entry that they have to walk back to their car to drop these off~ then we are going to have additional delays with getting people to the right location within the building. Julie Armstrong reported that this requirement was not being initiated by the Clerk's office but rather the Charleston County Sheriff's Department. It was discussed that someone ought to try to contact Sheriff Cannon about possibly allowing attorneys to be allowed to leave their cell phones with cameras at the entrance of the building at some depository there and that the Sheriff's office would not be responsible for the loss or destruction of them. The concern about the cameras in the courtrooms is a real concern but lawyers are bound by ethics rules that should govern a lawyer's conduct on use of their camera phones in the courtroom~ while a private citizen has no such rules. We certainly could institute notices in bulletins and also it was discussed putting a notice in the juror summons about people with camera phones not being allowed to bring them into the courthouse building at all. It was suggested that we make contact with Sheriff Cannon to see if some solution along those lines could be reached.
Julie Armstrong and Don Michel introduced Virginia Druce, who will serve as the docket coordinator for non-jury matters and will also serve as Don Michel's backup for any matters for which he cannot be contacted. We welcome Virginia coming on board.
Judge Dennis announced that he has retained a new law clerk, Jay Carter, who started this month. Judge Dennis' law clerk can be reached at the following email address which is always the same, M dennisLC@sc£Qurts.org.
It was announced that Judge Perry Buckner will be in the 9th Circuit for the next six (6) months. We welcome Judge Buckner to the 9th Circuit.
Julie also announced that Chief Justice Toal will be hosting the annual meeting of the conferences of Chief Justices and conferences of State Court Administrators in Charleston from July 31 to August 3,2005. This is quite an honor and we look forward to hosting that in Charleston.
We also discussed the new administration of civility oath. We suggested that this civility oath will have to be taken by all members of the South Carolina Bar before the end of the year. Since the Charleston County Bar has several seminars planned for the end of the year, it was suggested that this oath be administered by Judge Dennis as Chief AdminiStrative Judge. As a follow up to this I did learn that Lad Howell, who is chairing the CLE committee for the Charleston County Bar, has already lined up Judge Dennis to speak at two of the upcoming seminars this fall for which he is scheduled to administer this civility oath.
We then adjourned the meeting and scheduled the next meeting for Wednesday, October 13,2004 at 12 noon in Julie's conference room.
As always, everyone is invited to attend these meetings and if you would like to do so, please contact Mark Joye by telephone or email him at mark_ioxe@_ioxelawfirm.com.
