TO:  EXECUTIVE JUDGES AND PRESIDING JUDGES OF THE REGIONAL TRIAL COURTS 

SUBJECT: ASSIGNMENT OF CASES FOR NEWLY ORGANIZED COURTS. 

[1]  There shall be no loading of cases to the newly organized court branches until after an inventory of the pending cases is made and submitted to the Office of the Court Administrator. The inventory must be submitted not later than February 10, 1994. 

[2] The inventory shall indicate the case number and the status of each case whether for pre-trial, trial or submitted for decision. 

[3] A separate list shall be prepared of inherited cases submitted for decision. [Inherited cases are those heard and/or submitted before judges who are retired, promoted to a higher court, or otherwise no longer in the Judiciary]. 

[4] After these inventories are prepared, the Executive Judge shall submit a plan for the distribution of the aforesaid inherited cases whether they shall be distributed exclusively to the new court branches, or only a portion allotted to the new court branches, depending on the volume of cases. 

[5] In the unloading of cases to be effected only after steps 3 and 4 are completed, no case still pending trial shall be unloaded in the re-assignment of cases to the new branches. Only newly-filed cases which have not reached pre-trial stage shall be unloaded, provided that no writs or other orders granting provisional remedies have been issued therein; otherwise, such case shall be retained by the Court where it was originally raffled and which issued the writ for provisional remedies. 

[6] The unloading or redistribution of cases shall be done by raffle and after notice to the parties. 

January 13, 1994.