One of our judges is contemplating holding dismissal dockets for criminal cases because he believes this is a normal practice in other counties. This is a new one on me, as I can find no basis for this concept within the CCP. Has anyone come across this? If this is standard procedure in some other jursidiction, I would sure love to know how that works...

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dismissal dockets for criminal cases

Never heard of it. I don't even know what that term means.

I'm with Shannon. What's a dismissal docket?

The term means something in the civil law, where cases are dismissed for want of prosecution. But, in criminal law such a docket should merely call for a trial setting, followed by motions for continuance (to eliminate charging the passage of time to one side or the other on the speedy trial clock). I would prefer to call this the "trial" docket, but I guess the court can control not only its docket, but appellations.

In at least one large county, "Dismissal Dockets" amount to a list of old, non-arrest cases that the court would like to get off the docket. The prosecutor presented with such a list will then evaluate the cases by category or individually, line out those that should not be dismissed, and present a motion to dismiss covering the remainder.