Rule 77.1. Case Management

(a) Responsibility. Case management is the responsibility of the judge to whom the case is assigned, with the assistance of the clerk, where appropriate. Each judge shall manage assigned cases so as to provide for the prompt dispatch of business. The judge may determine motions and cases on the merits without oral argument upon written statements of reasons in support and opposition. In the absence of the judge to whom a case is assigned, the chief judge, or, in the chief judge's absence, a delegate of the chief judge, may act on behalf of the assigned judge.

(b) Scheduling. (1) All conferences, oral arguments, trials, and other appearances shall be scheduled by the judge by order filed with the clerk. In an emergency, the judge may schedule conferences with counsel for the parties by such informal directions as may be appropriate.

(2) Each judge may establish regular times and places at intervals sufficiently frequent for the prompt dispatch of business, at which motions requiring notice and hearing may be heard and disposed of; but each judge at any time or place and on such notice, if any, as any judge considers reasonable may make orders for the advancement, conduct, and hearing of actions.