News File Photo Judge Aaron Gauthier appears in this November 2019 News archive photo.

ROGERS CITY — Lunch with the judge was a regular part of the job when Aaron Gauthier was in private practice as an appellate attorney.

Now behind the bench after being appointed 53rd Circuit Court judge in January, Gauthier is resurrecting the so-called “bench bar conferences” of his past. Gauthier has invited any attorney who practices in his courtrooms in Presque Isle and Cheboygan counties to join him for quarterly gatherings over lunch to talk about big-picture ideas in local courtrooms.

Each bench bar conference will have a theme, Gauthier said. The first two such gatherings, held in Cheboygan earlier this year, focused on domestic and criminal cases. The third, planned for January, will address civil pretrial practice.

The judge uses the opportunity to inform attorneys about his personal courtroom practices and to seek attorney input on the effectiveness of court proceedings.

Conversations at Gauthier’s lunch meetings have already led to modifications to the way court is conducted.

In Cheboygan County, as in many other counties, circuit court criminal hearing days have traditionally been structured around the types of hearings being seen that day. Sentencings were grouped together, for example, as were motion hearings or docket calls.

Conversation with attorneys — some of whom come from Alpena or other distant counties — led to a restructuring of the Cheboygan County circuit court schedule. Instead of attorneys being required to wait at court for a large portion of the day if they’re assigned to multiple cases at different stages, the new schedule will move attorneys coming from out of county through the courtroom more quickly.

“We get the same number of cases done in a day,” Gauthier said. “But, if we can do it more efficiently, that saves money for people in the community who are hiring attorneys.”

Clients who hire defense attorneys from out of the area will save on hourly attorney fees with the new arrangement, with less of their money spent on time the attorney has to spend waiting in a courtroom.

In Presque Isle County, circuit court motion days are infrequent and condensed enough that a change to the day’s structure is not needed, Gauthier said. Residents of that county still benefit from the Cheboygan court change, however, as the busy attorneys who serve both counties can give more time to each client because they’re spending less time waiting.

In another streamlining step, Gauthier has coordinated with attorneys to be able to waive unnecessary hearings when a case first reaches circuit court. Instead of the attorney appearing in court, a document signed by both the prosecution and the defense can stand in the stead of the court appearance, officially entering the defendant’s plea and establishing terms agreed on by both parties.

The elimination of the simple hearing, which sometimes takes all of two or three minutes, can save a substantial drive for an attorney coming from Alpena or the west side of the state — a drive for which the defendant is paying — and move other cases through the courtroom more effectively.

James Gilbert, a public attorney who juggles cases in both Cheboygan County and Presque Isle County courts, said he is wholeheartedly in favor of the bench bar conferences and the judge’s openness to attorney input.

Most area attorneys have to practice in multiple counties, he said, noting with appreciation the new coordination in courtroom schedules that takes attorney needs and time into consideration.

“It makes our lives easier,” Gilbert said, describing the busy scheduling between multiple counties that causes him to dub his secretary his “air traffic controller.”

As a judge and a representative of the state, Gauthier said, he has an obligation to serve the taxpayers. If the government is handling a case inefficiently, increasing the expenses of a client or not making the best use of public defenders’ time, it’s almost an indirect tax, he explained.

“We’re just looking for ways to cut down on inefficiency without reducing people’s ability to get into court and have their case heard by a judge,” Gauthier said.

Julie Riddle can be reached at 989-358-5693, jriddle@thealpenanews.com or on Twitter @jriddleX.