-: My name is Bill Hayes,
and currently I'm a Federal District Court Judge
in the Southern District of California.
A Federal District Court Judge is an Article III Judge.
So you're nominated by the President
and confirmed by the Senate,
and you serve for life.
Federal District Court Judges do both civil cases
and criminal cases, all their cases they receive randomly.
Well, the cases are,
at Southern District of California
is a very busy Federal District Court.
So we have a large criminal practice, a lot of drug cases,
a lot of immigration cases,
and we have a variety of civil cases.
Most of us have one day where we do
what's called a calender day,
where we'll handle a lot of criminal cases,
we'll do motion hearings,
and sentencings and some civil motions.
And the other four days are usually reserved for trials.
The Southern District of California is on the border,
obviously between the United States and Mexico.
It is home to the largest land border crossing in the world.
And so as a result of that,
there are a lot of drug cases where individuals
are apprehended bringing drugs from Mexico
into the United States.
And we all have an awful lot of cases where individuals
are apprehended coming illegally into the United States.
So as a result of that it's a very busy criminal court.
In a civil case, the complaint is filed,
there is an early neutral evaluation of the case
that's done before the Magistrate Judge.
Which is in essence an attempt to settle the case.
Then there'll be motions to dismiss the complaint.
I'll rule on the motions to dismiss,
assuming that the motions to dismiss
have eventually been denied, what's left of the claim,
then we'll go into discovery.
Usually at the conclusion of the discovery process,
one or both sides files a motion for summary judgment.
Because it's a dispositive motion,
that motion has to be heard by an Article III Judge,
which is the District Court Judge.
I'll then rule on the motions for summary judgment.
If some of the claims or all of the claims survive
the motion for summary judgment,
then I'll set the case for trial
and there'll be a final pre-trial conference
where I'll discuss evidentiary issues,
length of the trial, matters such as that.
And then I'll set the case for trial.
And ultimately I'll have hearings
on the motions on limiting,
and then we'll try the civil case.
The timeline for a civil case is going to be longer
than timeline for a criminal case.
Typically, a criminal case
will be tried within months, if not sooner.
Some maybe go a little bit longer.
But generally within months.
The civil case, generally,
is not going to get to trial for at least 18 months
and that might be a little bit optimistic.