During the previous DA adminstration prior to me taking office on January 1 this year, there was an agreed discovery order entered in every case.

When I took office I asked the judge not to enter this order because I felt the order was too costly to the office in manpower and paper costs as well as to the district clerk's office.

The court recently sua sponte entered approximately 49 of these discovery orders w/o notice or hearing and when only two motions for discovery were pending in two cases. I'm familiar w/ the case law regarding this.

Anybody have any suggestions? Electeds do you think this is worth mandamusing the judge over?

I'm just a layman but I would think hard about making a stink. You and your staff gotta deal with this judge and his friends. The effectivness of your office depends in part on the relationships with probabtion, clerks, bailiffs, etc...

Maybe have a talk with the judge and explain your reasons... how you think it will improve things. More important get the judge to tell you his/her point of view and make sure to LISTEN, not just hear.

The old DA might have been friends with this judge... depending on how you came into office... you might have some work to do to get them to take a shine to you.

Most judges that I've dealt with routinely enter such orders. Some orders are more demanding than others, but most times full compliance with the order is required, as a practical matter, only in those cases that are actually going to trial.

The judges enter these orders usually because they (1) promote pleas and (2) relieve the court of hearing endless discovery motions. A defense attorney that doesn't file motions is just giving his client grounds for appeal, and I will usual provide some sort of written discovery in trial cases just to ensure I only have to try it once.

If your orders require your folks to give thorough written discovery in all cases (i.e. before plea negotiations are completed), then I can see your frustration. Perhaps fine-tuning the discovery deadline will serve both your needs and the court's.

In answer to your question, it depends on how broad the judge's discovery order is. If the judge is simply ordering the same thing that he or she could order in response to a discovery motion, then I doubt your effort would be worthwhile. If it orders the production of items that are not discoverable, then that is a separate question.

I use a reciprocal discovery agreement signed by the state and the defense which places obligations on both parties. I then give them a photocopy of the offense report and witness statements. It has worked well.

My district judges occasionally enter form discovery orders. They do it to save time and the orders pretty much follow what the case law provides anyway so I don't have a problem with it. However, one of my previous judges was a former defense lawyer and an unabashed liberal but a really nice guy and an excellent lawyer. One of our radical defense lawyers talked him into ordering us to copy witness statements and offense reports for him (we have an open file policy but we don't let them copy the file). I filed a "Motion For Reconsideration" which respectfully asked the judge to reconsider his ruling. Although I didn't threaten a mandamus, I cited all of those mandamus cases which you already know about. It was kinda like a respectful "shot across the bow." He reversed his ruling. He saved face and I didn't have to go to war. You might try something like this if your judge's order is clearly wrong.